Olivia's First Last Day of School

Today was Olivia's last day of Kindergarten! She is officially a first grader now! I can't believe it. The year has gone by SOOO fast. Seems like just yesterday she was this shy tiny little four year old starting her new adventure! She was so brave on the first day of school, so nervous, but so excited to be a big girl. She never had any problem dealing with the transition to all day, everyday school. She was excited for it, always eager to learn. She really didn't start to get burnt out until about the last three weeks of school. It might have something to do with the fact that we were having a new baby and her scheduled routine was all messed up... and she was exhausted trying to keep up with it all mentally. But nonetheless, she's always had a huge smile on her face and was always excited to go to school each and every day.
We were blessed to have one of the best teachers on the planet for her first, very impressionable, year of school. Mrs. Bogus was simply amazing. Utterly fantastic. There are no words that could attempt to express the high, high pedestal she stood on. Some days I could barely manage my two kids, let alone 28 kids under the age of 6! Mrs. Bogus succeeded on all levels. She had those kids wrapped around her finger and marching to the beat of her drum. She ran a well oiled machine of a classroom. She took 28 sweet little babies and turned them into confident students eager each day to learn more. Olivia went into class knowing only how to write her name and each letter individually, but no real words and no reading. She left reading on a high first grade level, doing math on a first grade level and writing about anything she could! She excelled on every level too. (watch out, here comes the bragging). They give very detailed report cards at the end of the year, two full pages of assessments that take the teachers weeks to complete with each child. Well, little miss smarty pants graduated kindergarten with a gpa of 3.95. That's right, kindergartners get a gpa. I'll save that for her senior year of high school and see how she matches up;)
Well I have to admit that this afternoon when I picked her up from school I cried more than the day I dropped her off! I was running a few minutes late and she was the last one in her class to be picked up. Well, we have a special relationship with Mrs. Bogus (I attribute that to me picking her up from school each and every day, giving me a personal update from her teacher and an open relationship and friendship). Anyway, her and Mrs. Bogus were sitting there chatting about Olivia moving to Virginia and how much she was going to miss seeing her grow up. Then she gave her a gigantic hug! That's when I walked up and Mrs. Bogus was in tears and I was in tears. She's such a special person and boy am I going to miss her! She helped Olivia through a few tough times of Jeff being gone and she always gave her that little extra love! She set some high standards for future teachers that Olivia might have!!!! We are going to miss the whole Northwest Elementary family!
Congratulations Olivia, our FIRST GRADER!