Well, the guys have made it through another school year. In a way, it is nice that it is done since I won't have to roust them out of bed in the morning. However, the fact that they are home all the time now is difficult to take. Starting on Tuesday of next week we have swim team every single day from 9:30am - 11:45am. I think I might buy a large umbrella so that I don't have to sit in the flat sun all the time.

Andy has now finished 3rd grade, and he did very well on his report card -- all As and Bs, with the one exception of a C in spelling. However, that is up from the D he got last quarter, so I am happy. He really enjoyed his teacher this year and I think she liked him as well. She told me that Andy was a "natural leader" but that he wouldn't volunteer to lead. If things weren't going well, he would step up to the plate and lead the group, but if things were going fine, he would just stay in the background. I don't know who he has for next year (I have a name, but no idea what she is like), so I am relying on this year's teacher to have made a good choice for him.

Benjamin has finished with 2nd grade, and also did very well on his report card -- all S+ and Es, but one N -- in handwriting. I am not surprised. We talked about this a lot this year. Benjamin has great handwriting when he wants to have it, but if he decides that he doesn't want to do whatever it is, his handwriting is for shit. I am so glad to have this particular teacher out of the rotation. I will make sure that Elias doesn't have her for second grade either. She was a total snot. I pretty much wrote her off when I got two notes from her on Benjamin's behavior in the space of 5 days.

Elias did great things in kindergarten. He insists that he cannot read, but his teacher tells me that he can and that he is doing a terrific job on it. I have yet to see any evidence of this, but I trust his teacher. Next year, he will have the same first grade teacher as Benjamin. I thought she was great and requested her. She is a short round woman who gives the impression of being a pushover, but is far from being that. She is a tough cookie who handled everything that Benjamin threw at her and survived, so I know she can handle Elias.

James is doing well. He is done with preschool for the year, and is now on the swim team with the other guys. He hates it. He doesn't want to swim at all. I am trying to keep him with the head coach of the team for the lesson portion of swim team because he is WONDERFUL with kids, but we did have to deal with one of the new coaches recently, and it was a total disaster. This new coach shouldn't be working with small children, and for sure shouldn't be working with James. He yelled at James (had his face about 6 inches from James' face and was pointing his finger at him) about crying -- it was awful. I wanted to beat the shit out of him (the coach, not James). I had a few words with the head coach about this afterwards, and he agreed that he would give James lessons one-on-one. I was relieved. It has been mostly ok since then, and James has only cried a couple of times since that day. I am hoping that James relaxes about the swimming and learns something this summer.