What's a Boy to Do When He Graduates Kindergarten?

My son, Milesaballz, completed kindergarten this past weekend and has decided that it is about time I wrote an article that involved him. So what else can I do but indulge him.

Let's see, Friday Milesaballz had his end of the year ceremony where he gave an impromptu discussion on his frog habitat he made out of modeling clay. It was very detailed and surprising to me considering I did not even know he had prepared a speech on his own for this event. He received an award for perfect attendance and an award for being the most curious. His teacher is predicting that he will be a scientist. After the ceremony ,we attended a garden party. This took place at 0900 in the back of the school. For anyone who is imagining a stuffy affair, I assure you that it was not.

Saturday we had a nice lunch with his best friend, Lilly. Lilly is a beautiful Chinese girl. My son has even picked out two lillies at Lowes to plant in our flower garden to honor her. The last time we dined out with Lilly, she was all dressed up and her Momma said, "Lilly show them your walk." It really was quite a grand walk. Milesaballz put his hands in his pockets and nonchalantly said, "I see her walk."

Later in the day, Papa Bear and I took Milesaballz out to Folly. We had a great time, but the beach seemed to have a lot of litter, maybe it was the holiday weekend crowd or maybe it was because we went late in the day instead of early morning. What made me first take note of it was when Milesaballz picked up a large piece of folded aluminum foil. He insisted that it was a problem because the turtles might think it was jellyfish.

Sunday afternoon we took our weekly trek to Summerville to have lunch with Mammaw and Pappaw. Does anyone know how to spell Mammaw and Pappaw? This is a source of disagreement between Pappa Bear and me. It is not how either of us spell it, but it is phonetical enough that we do not argue over this version. Pappa Bear's sister was down for the weekend. That was a nice surprise.

Monday afternoon, we took the kids to Marion Square to see an art exhibit at Piccolo Spoleto. The weather was just lovely and we were serenaded by the Charleston Community band while viewing the art exhibits. Milesaballz stopped to relax at a water fountain with some Italian ice. He later told me that he was considering jumping in the water.

Here Miles is sitting in front of a painting by Floyd Gordon of Orangeburg. Papa Bear really liked this artist's work, but Milesaballz was not impressed. What child on the cusp of 6 is you ask? Well, soon after this photo was taken, my son took off toward art he did like. Did he gaze at such art in admiration? Oh, no....Several times he sought out the adult who appeared to be in charge of a particular booth and began letting the artist know exactly what he liked about their paintings and which works he liked the most. He would tell the artists that they were quite talented and inquired how long they had been painting. This happenned enough times...and sometimes before he had even checked out the paintings that I surmised that he just liked to engage in conversation and could care less about some of the paintings.

Milesaballz did like this painting and this photo. He could see how you might think he was standing in a field of sunflowers.

OK, this is a posed photo if I ever saw one. I did not pose my kids - they posed themselves.

This one of Lizzybut looks a bit animated. She, too, discussed art with one of Milesaballz's favorite artists. She took the artist to her favorite painting which was about $1200 and announced that she really loved it, but there was no way she could afford it. He told her that she would be able to one day. I patted her head and told her she needed to start saving now.