Kindergarten Graduation

Today was Bentley's Kindergarten graduation. I surprised (and embarrassed) myself by being completely emotional about the whole thing.  Seriously-- why do I cry at the dumbest stuff???  Anyway, it was really hard to get pictures.  The way the parents acted, you would have thought Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were there, too.  Some humungous guy in front of me kept leaning from side to side, forcing me to lean the opposite way in order to see my own little graduate.  And I was trying to keep Ryder happy (I finally had to break down and let him eat the cookies I'd brought for the party after-- awesome parenting tactic, I know!), which meant he kept bumping my camera.

So, yeah, all of that means that these pictures are pretty bad.  But it was the best I could do.  Enjoy!

His class was in the back row, so I had about 30 seconds where there was a clear shot of him before all the other kids filed onto the stands and all their parents jumped in front of me.

Ah, yes-- the moment where he realizes I'm trying to take his picture!

And this is why it was hard to get a good picture!  I might have rushed up to the front, too, but that would have risked Ryder wandering away (which he managed to do even while I was standing in our spots getting this photo!)

Kendra was VERY excited to celebrate her big brother's accomplishments!

And Bentley was super sweet and promptly broke his cookie in half to share with Kendra (you can just barely see it in each of their hands)!

Bentley with Ms. Gerber (l) and Mrs. Evins (r), his teacher and assistant teacher (respectively)

Bentley with his best friends, Peter and Heiri, who have been sitting on either side of him all year!

I know that finishing kindergarten is about the easiest thing in the world, but I'm still very proud of Bentley.  He's done very well, despite being one of the youngest kids and having a mother who taught him next to nothing ahead of time.  He has managed to get "green" days every single day (as opposed to yellow or red, which would have meant he'd been getting into trouble), and he's made steady progress learning all his letters, numbers, and piecing it all together into reading and math skills.  It's a lot to take in all of a sudden, and he's done wonderfully.

Something about seeing him standing up there getting so big so fast left me feeling grateful that he'd made good friends and had such wonderful teachers.  It really did get me all choked up!

Oh, parenting is bittersweet!