The Lee Family: Sofia's 2nd Grade Graduation

Today Sofia "officially" graduated from 2nd grade! Sofia is getting more excited for the end of the year and start of summer, but is also sad to have to say goodbye to Mrs. Livingston and her class. CK, Olivia and I headed to the school to get a good seat for the graduation which lasts about 30 minutes. All three 2nd grade classes filed into the cafeteria and sat on the floor facing the stage, away from the parents who were all sitting in chairs behind the kids. Mrs. Allen's class went first and each child walked onto the stage, and spoke into the microphone about their "greatest accomplishment for the year" which each kid wrote down the week before so they could read it in case they were nervous. After stating their accomplishment, they hugged their teacher, walked across the stage to hug Principal Shimmick and Vice Principal Faragher before returning to their spot on the floor to watch the next student.

Mrs. Livingston's class went last and most of the kids in all the classes talked about how well they could read or how they could now do multiplication easily. Sofia got up there and talked about a recent project and also mentioned Mrs. Livingston. Once she made her way to Mrs. Livingston, Sofia said "I, Sofia Lee, feel that my greatest accomplishment this year is my animal research. I really like the way Mrs. Livingston let us do any animal we wanted and how she let other people chose the same animal as others." She hugged Mrs. Livingston and then walked over to Mrs. Faragher and Mrs. Shimmick to hug them both before returning to her seat on the floor. After the ceremony was over, we were able to visit with Sofia and take a few pictures before she headed back to her classroom. Although the kids aren't really "graduating" to 3rd grade, it is great that they have them think about what they've accomplished and what they feel proud of over the past year. I also like that they get up and speak into a microphone in front of all the parents. That said, it's shocking to think that Sofia is halfway done with elementary school!

After the ceremony, my friend Casey came over to our house with her daughter Hannah, who is six months older than Olivia and they will be in class together next year. We had decided to take the girls to the American Girl Store for lunch and they loaded into my car and we drove to Dallas. We arrived just after the store opened at 10am and walked around. Both girls hung out in the Bitty Baby section and played with the displays before we realized we had a long time before our lunch reservation at 12:30. After a while we decided to walk over to the mall and watch the ice skaters to kill some time. Once we were there, Casey remembered a little kid play area upstairs, so we headed up there and both girls had a ball playing! Finally it was time to return for our lunch appointment.

Once we arrived at the cafe, Olivia picked out an American Girl doll to borrow and her high chair for our lunch. Lunch was really quite good and I'm always surprised by how tasty the food is! Olivia woofed down her mac n cheese in about 5 minutes! After lunch, both girls enjoyed a sundae, which was actually quiet amazing! It had two scoops of vanilla and was covered in thick rich fudge and sprinkles. YUM!! Thankfully the girls have little tummies so Casey and I were able to enjoy about half of the sundaes. After, we headed home to meet our kiddos at the bus stop.

Sofia and her "greatest accomplishment for the year"