Today was Olia's last day of fourth grade.  She told me that she was sad because she would really miss her classroom teacher and her math teacher.  Today the teacher hugged all the kids goodbye!  Olia said the teacher almost started to cry.  She wrote Olia a note and told her how much she enjoyed having her in the class and how proud she was of how well Olia did in fourth grade.  Olia said all of the kids clapped for her when the teacher gave her her first end of year American report card and promotion to fifth grade. Olia has a summer math packet to complete and a summer reading book.  I have to look at the book and see if Olia will be able to read it herself. She also has an ELL(English language learner) packet to work on.

   I picked Olia up after school and we went out to lunch to celebrate the end of school.  I had planned to go for pizza, but Olia saw a Chinese restaurant and wanted to go there. SHe said it would be easier to eat chinese food because her teeth still hurt a bit from the braces.  We both had wonton soup and egg rolls so it was a rather cheap lunch.  Then we went shopping to buy Renee a birthday present. We bought Renee a beach cover-up for her bathing suit and some perfume.  I had already bought her a cake pan at a clearance sale.  Renee likes to bake and wants things she'll be able to use in her apartment. She will be 20 years old tomorrow. Olia had to try on high heels again while we were at the store.  She also wanted to pick out everything that was very expensive.  My favorite shopping signs are "clearance, marked down, discount, red tag, and last one."  We baked an angel food cake for Renee when we got home.  Then we decorated the kitchen for Renee's birthday.

      Olia and her friend Katelyn swam all afternoon.  They LOVED the slide we put in the pool area. It is a slide that is inflated by an air pump.  When I was buying the slide last weekend, Olia kept telling me that she didn't think she would like it and probably wouldn't go on it.  So I told her that I was going to put a sign on it that said "everyone but Olia can slide on the slide." Today was the first time she was going to use the slide. The first time she went down the slide, she yelled "this is so much fun!"  Then I told her that I was going to go in and get a marker to make my sign and she said..."OK, OK, OK, you were right, it's really fun!" 

    Last night we went to my niece Bianca's high school graduation ceremony and then we all went out to dinner at their country club. Olia dressed in her new fancy dress and wedge heeled shoes.  She looked so pretty! She was so excited to show her wedge heels to her older cousin Erica.  Erica LOVES shoes, usually wears high heels,  and made a big deal out of Olia's fancy shoes.  Olia loves to eat out!  The waitresses brought Bianca's ice cream dessert with a lit sparkler.  Olia was SO excited when she saw the sparkler.  We all clapped for Bianca.  Olia asked the waitress for a sparkler for her dessert so the waitress went and got a sparkler for Olia.  She said she felt like it was Olia DAY!  Olia finds so much joy in the simple things in life that we take for granted.