End of 2nd grade

As usual, I'm going to be playing blog catch up.

The end of 2nd grade came on June 17th because of yet another year with way too many snow days.

The last few days included awards and a class picnic, and then we said goodbye to another year.

Fabulous Friend!

Saying goodbye to Mrs. Kozi and Ms. Darvish her teacher and class Intern

And Ms. Reed

The 2nd grade class of 2016!

Jocelyn came so far this year!  Her reading is wonderful and she loves Math!  There will be lots of changes in 3rd grade - letter grades, lots of writing, and higher expectations and responsibilities.  My baby is growing up!

Ballet Jazz Recital - Just a little late

As with everything, I'm a little late with this post.  Jocelyn's Ballet Jazz Recital was on May 21.  All year long, Jocelyn works so hard to learn routines to perform at this end of year event.  She loves Ballet and Jazz, and she did such a great job!!  It's so great for her confidence and she has a great time doing it.  Along with Girl Scouts, it looks like there will be another year of Ballet and Jazz in her future!

Ballet...

Jazz....

It was absolutely pouring rain that day, so no outside photos, but we still got a couple in anyway.  Once again, another reason to be so proud of our girl!

Brownie Girl Scouts

Jocelyn just finished her first year as a Brownie and her second year overall in Girl Scouts.  In September, I was scrambling to find her a troop.  The one she had been in as a Daisy fell apart and I was so disappointed for her.  But a friend sent me in the direction of a wonderful troop and she has had a very fun year.

Jocelyn started the year participating in a ceremony to bridge over from Daisies to Brownies.

Throughout the year the focus has been on the Wonders of Water Journey and they have done lots of fun activities related to that, like a trip to the aquarium.

Then they focused a lot on the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, and the path the water takes to get there.  They went on a stream walk and followed the water from sewage drain to the stream, and they also did a stream cleanup which, despite the miserable weather, may have been one of Jocelyn's favorite 

activities for the year!

But I think the thing that tested Jocelyn the most was this past weekend.  The Girl Scouts finished their year with a day at an adventure park with zip lines and "bridges" made from cables, logs, and wooden planks, that were all at least a full story above my head!!  I wasn't sure she was going to be daring enough to try it, but I'm proud to say she did great!

At the end of the day, the girls were presented with final badges and year end pins.  Jocelyn can't wait for next year!!  And I'm sure it's a surprise to no one that I have been elected to Co-Lead next year...

Spring Break Part 2 - Stream Cleanup

This year's focus in Brownie Girl Scouts is Wonders of Water.  The girls have visited the aquarium and local waterways, learned about conserving water, and the benefits of recycling.  And at the end of Spring break they went to a local stream to pick up trash to help keep the streams and waterways clean, right down to the Chesapeake Bay.

Jocelyn has been looking forward to doing this for months!

The night before, it rained and rained.  The morning we did this was drizzling and overcast.  But nothing dampened her excitement!

We went out in raincoats, boots, and rubber gloves.  She was excited to announce that we found 12 balls and a shoe, plus lots more!  We filled a bag of trash and a bag of recyclables just the two of us!  I'm very proud of her for how hard she worked despite the weather and the mud (lots and lots of mud)...

which even sucked off her boot!

She was like this pretty much the whole time.  She ran around looking for trash and came back to me over and over with her arms full.  Who knew picking up trash could be so much fun?!?!

We went home covered in mud.  But as a group we probably filled at least a dozen bags of trash and recycling.  The girls worked really hard.  Definitely a proud Momma moment!

Spring Break

We were certainly ready for the **break** in Spring break this year, but we would love to have a little more of the **Spring** part of the weather.  It's been mightly cold lately and last weekend we actually saw SNOW!!

But despite the weather, we managed to work in some pretty fun times during the week off.

On Thursday that week, we met some friends at the Zoo.  It was especially nice because these are MOMS Club friends we don't get to see often.

We visited the penguins, rhinos, and flamingos.

Brushed the goats, watched the Elephants in action, and smiled big with our friend the Okapi.

But a trip to the zoo with friends would not be complete without sitting on every statue, growling with the lion, riding the carousel, or sticking our heads through every hole.  What a super fun day!!

What a great way to spend the day with friends!