End of First Grade field trip party

The day before the last day of school, Tylers class walked to a park nearby. Matthew, Alyssa, and I joined them and it was a fun day. I brought along my little camera to get pictures of the event. When the walk started out, Matthew wanted to be up with Tyler and his friends. Tyler was guiding the way, and I just adored walking behind them and seeing Tyler protectively hold Matthew's hand (they never do this). It was a great Mommy moment for me:)
At the park with his friends: Jacob Daniel Brady and Tyler

The girls in his class whose mom's happen to be my friends: other room moms

Tyler, Brooke, Molly, Grace (Brooke's mom told me that Brooke said she was going to marry Tyler and I enjoyed Grace chasing Tyler around the park--he seemed to enjoy it, too).

With Kush

Since I kicked Matthew out of the boy picture (above) to just get Tyler and his friends, Matthew wanted me to take a picture of hime with Daniel (in the red). Tyler wrote a story during the year about how Daniel is his friend and does nice things for him.

Beginning of the water balloon fight

Here I am with Tyler...upclose and unedited

I really enjoy being involved in Tyler's school day. I tried to go up to the school at least once a week throughout the year, either to lunch or something in the classroom. It didn't happen every week, but it was my goal. One week a few months ago I went for lunch and Tyler asked me to stay for recess. We did and then he got sad when I said we were going home because he wanted to go too. It frustrated me because I told him he wasn't coming home and to not even ask. He actually cried and it broke my heart. At that point, I decided to not go for a little while. As I relayed the story to Michael he said, "you need to cut the aprong strings" to which I got quite hurt. He didn't mean it to be hurtful, but suggested I not go up to the school as much anymore. I really thought about it, and it really isn't just about me wanting to be there because I miss him. The importance I find in seeing Tyler in his school environment, knowing his classmates by name and knowing their personalities, hearing stories from his classmates about Tyler, or just about whats going on because Tyler doesn't seem to divulge much. I probably learn more from his classmates than I do from Tyler...which is a spring board to having more conversations with Tyler, now that I'm informed about things. I think it also feels special to him to have us come, it makes him happy. So, I took a break, and then when I went back, he was fine. After I explained all of this to Michael, he got the bigger picture and said that he appreciated that I did take the time to go. He had a great year and loved his teacher. He said he wanted her to be his teacher every year.