Road to Success

So on Thursday Mily had her end of year Kindergarten test. Turns out she is at a third grade reading level, possibly higher but they don't encourage pushing her higher since the next level is chapter books and those books might have content that they may not want a 6 year old reading. (*shrug* whatever!) This girl loves to read! Occasionally I will walk into the front room to find her reading a book, (lately it's "Hannah Montana, One of a Kind" -- a chapter book! oops, and it's not the first chapter book she has read), she will sit there reading for an hour! She loves to "play" school, she will sit beside Wes and read him a book or help him sound out the words. Every Friday I send her "Road to Success" reading minutes back to school for the week. Mily is suppose to fill in one shapes for every day she reads 20 minutes...they never have enough shapes to accurately reflect the time she actually spends reading! So I honestly think it is so fitting that...

SHE WON!

Her name was drawn for the Road to Success yearly contest, she won a $50 scholarship!

It was kind of funny. On Thursday, Mily and her teacher were busy testing and Rusty and I was over in the corner playing at the rice table. I may or may not have been bent over on the floor trying to pick up a hundred of those tiny rice grains from off the floor when an office lady walks in and stands next to Mily's teacher. The teacher asked Mily to stop reading for a moment and turned to the lady who showed her a small piece of paper and asked if 'this' individual, [pointing to the paper] was her student. The teacher smiled and said "Yes, That's Mily...in fact she is sitting right here!" The messenger thanked the teacher and then walked out of the classroom. I thought that was terribly ironic, but really thought nothing much of it! Well a few minutes later the principle was standing in the doorway of the classroom and was motioning for me to come out and talk to her. Okay!?... So I shake the rice off my two year old, pick him up and quietly sneak out of the classroom. I had no idea what the principle needed to talk to me about, I know she knows who I am...the whole office does, thanks in part to my Mother-in-Law! ☻ (my MIL is a secretary at a school and so had given them a heads up that her grand kids were going to be coming to their school and to take good care of us! Which they have!) I was worried that someone had put my name in for PTA president (I have some friends who were threatening...). I stepped into the hallway and the principle starts to tell me about the Road to Success Assembly that was scheduled the next day and that the "BIG" winners are always drawn the day before....they had just done that...and Mily's name was drawn! SWeeeeeT! The Principle said they draw the names the day before so she can invite the parents to come to the assembly. She asked me to keep it a secret so they can surprise Mily with it! How FUN!!! The only sneaky thing is that Mily had absolutely no reason to be at school at 11am on a normal day (afternoon Kindie) and especially not this week since they were out for testing. Well....I just told Mily the truth: The principle told me there was a fun Assembly and invited me to come watch it! She really had no clue. I did her hair up in braids and we even put a little lip gloss on. I was telling her how pretty she looked and suggested maybe we go outside and take a few pictures! (Have to go outside because my camera takes CRAPPY inside pictures)Wesley even got in on the fun and started to mock his sister. What are little brothers for?Then believe it or not, we came inside and guess where she went...in the front room to read a book! She had no idea how ironic that was to me and why I giggled and started taking pictures...again! This really was just as fun for mom to be apart of the surprise too!When we got to the school, they had a cute little assembly where they drew more names and had some fun announcements, like when they unveiled the total number of reading minutes for the year!
Yup, 3,732,172! The school goal was 3,000,000. Great job to all!

Then came time for the "BIG" prizes. They announced they were going to do the scholarship drawing so I switched my camera over to video, turned it on and started recording...

and caught 3 seconds of it...and then the batteries died! ARUGHHhhh! So sad! You can hear her name being called as the camera dies! Thank goodness daddy was there with his phone!

You would not believe how cute this girl looked...darn those batteries! As soon as the principle said the first winner was a kindergartner....in an afternoon class....then gave the teachers name...she knew! I think all the weird things mom was doing all day started to make sense...she looked up at me with these great big, shocked eyes and then...her name came booming across the gymnasium. I love how the principle refers to all the girls as "Ms." and then their first name! So here is "Ms. Emily" taking her victory lap up to the front of the gym. It was the cutest thing as she was passing the front row of students her older brother Josh happen to be sitting there, he screamed out her name and then held out his hand to give her a high 5 as she passed, which made a few of the other kids hold out there hands as well. She went up, grabbed the prize...stood there smiling out at the audience for a little while. (I think the principle had to nudge her a little to get moving back to her seat) On the way back to her seat the front row of second grade kids again held out their hands to give her another high 5 on the way back. I loved how excited Josh got for his little sister. Even when he got home that day he kept telling Mily how proud he was of her. So darling!. In fact it took a little time before he remembered to tell me that he got 2nd prize in his classroom for the most time read and the he got additional prizes too. He did a great job supporting Emily in the spotlight! What a great kid.

What a perfect prize for a girl who loves to read!