Jack's Lost Tooth and Rayleigh's Kindergarten Graduation

The end of an era. Many moons ago, Jack fell out of his crib in an act of nap rebellion and smacked his top front tooth on his sippy cup on the way down. I wasn't home at the time; the kids were with Tanner. But ever since that incident, Jack's tooth has been dying a slow death. The kids were due for their biannual teeth cleaning and we decided to yank Jack's tooth. They took him back, gassed him, pulled the tooth, and he came back a new man. He was a little upset about it, but after a bowl of ice cream and some minecraft on the computer, he felt fine and hasn't looked back since. All of the kids did great at the dentist and I was soooo proud! (And relieved) Taking 4 kids to the dentist all by yourself is no joke. Rayleigh has a small cavity that needs to be filled but considering the fact that my kids basically never brush their teeth, I think we're doing pretty well!

The next day, Parker went to Jill's and made every one his famous homemade pizzas (he was so excited and a little nervous to go over there and make them but they turned out great!) That evening, Rayleigh had a special ceremony to graduate from Kindergarten and promote to 1st grade. It was all via ZOOM, of course, but we were so surprised and excited when we saw that Rayleigh won the award for the most encouraging in the class! She was recognized for always pumping everyone up which I thought was pretty dang accurate. I was not the biggest fan of Rayleigh's teacher and it was rough when she was physically going to school (rough for me, not Ray). But distance learning brought us together and I ended up liking her teacher just fine. She even cried during the photo montage she played for the class which made me realize maybe she DOES like teaching kindergarten. Rayleigh and Jack are so ready for school to start at their new school. We just have to wait for this dumb pandemic to end!

I measured all of the kids on the first day of school so we decided to measure everyone again on the last day of school. Parker grew 3 inches, Rayleigh grew 2 inches, Jack grew almost 3 inches, and Ella blew everyone out of the water by growing 4 whole inches!

It's a wonder to watch your kids grow, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally too. I have such great and gifted kids and I feel so lucky and blessed to be their mother!