I wish I could say the first picture was foresight, but it was accidental, really — that I put her in front of something that could then be used later to show how much she’d changed and grown. If you click to see the picture larger, it’s much easier to read and understand. It’s amazing to me how different she looks and how much taller she is compared to the beginning of this school year, and even more so since the first picture was taken. I’m so proud of my girl!

The last picture was taken today, which isn’t truly the last day – tomorrow is. I couldn’t take it tomorrow because I’ll be at work at the end of her minimum day, but I figured she’s probably not going to change too much from today to tomorrow :)

ETA: I just realized she has Crocs on in every picture. Someone (me) has a Crocs addiction… yikes! But seriously, how many kids’ shoes can you put through the dishwasher?

All week, my kids knew they got to see their friends this weekend for a playdate – these friends recently moved to the Bay Area, so we unfortunately don’t get to see them as often as we’d like to. Avery decided to draw a picture of all four of the kids together, and her drawings have gotten so good, I wanted to take some quick snapshots as she finished her drawing. Afterward, we took a picture in the same order as the drawing, just for fun :) I love how she drew the circus in her picture after finishing the kids — with these four running around and screaming all day it definitely felt like the circus!

Avery was in her first play on stage last night. It was so fun! She had a great time, even though she told me she had “shaky legs” when she had to say her part. She’s had such an awesome experience at school so far — I’m so thankful :) The play was called “Arf!” and was about a big group of dogs competing against each other to see which one was most talented. It ended with the only mutt of the group belting out dog-related Shakespearean lines – he was chosen, of course as “best in show.” Such a cute story… I did catch it on my Flip, too — but the lighting threw everything off and the center stage is too bright to make anything out. Trying to figure out if it’s salvageable… Avery looks so tiny in these pictures — mostly because the majority of the girls who played the Dalmatian parts were in second grade and are more than a year older than her :)

This felt sort of like the grand finale to her first grade year. She’s VERY excited to be a second-grader after 4 more days of school!

Avery got to do an animal report for school for extra credit. It’s amazing to me how interested in “extra credit” she already is… she’s 6 1/2! She chose a praying mantis as her creature to write about, and was very excited, because she knew I had a picture of her holding a praying mantis, and some other mantis pictures I’ve snapped over the years. She started the report over a month ago, and whattyaknow, we actually saw a praying mantis in the yard a couple of weekends ago and were able to photograph him :) She was thrilled that we actually saw one after she’d started her report!

So, just to preserve it and make sure I have a ‘copy’ somewhere, I decided to scan the whole thing and share it on my blog :)

Picture from a couple of weeks ago that she’s including :)

And the picture that she remembered from September of 2009!

On Friday she gets to get up in front of the class and present her report. I so wish I could be there to see that :) She claims she’s not nervous — but I’m nervous for her!