5th grade grad

Yesterday I took off work to attend the graduation ceremony of Dan's 5th grade class. I don't remember any type of celebration when I finished elementary school, we simply finished our bread and water and walked home barefoot in the snow. Today's kids have it easy! All kidding aside it was a very nice event the school went all out with the planning and execution of the day and it was heartily enjoyed by kids and parents alike. Kirsti and I are very proud of Dan's work at school, he takes his work seriously and still manages to enjoy school and seems to be popular amongst his peers. Every year since he started he struggles a bit early in the year but in the last 2 semesters he seems to pull it all together and makes the A-B Honor roll. We are both satisfied with his education thus far and praise the work of his school and teachers. They have a police program at the schools here called DARE, Drug and alcohol resistance education, The local police volunteer their time to supervise different activities durring school time to promote good citizenship with a backdrop of the evils of drug abuse and underage drinking. This program works at least for Dan and his freinds I know, they would not think of touching drugs and think very poorly of anyone that uses or sells drugs. Plus they are very respectfull to the police and are on a first name basis with the regular volunteers. While walking thru town saturday we saw our local sherriff (quite a local celebrity) he greated Dan calling him by name and engaged in some small talk that I was not included in. I didn't even get a hand shake, but I'm still voting for that guy. The DARE graduation was by far more popular with the kids, held at the local park they hosted softball and volleyball tournaments and brought in some very successfull local auto racing teams and their cars for display. They also have a DARE band which played mostly popular music among the kids. After summer vacation Dan will begin 6th grade at Randolph Macon he is looking forward to it, he did seem a little surprised to recieve his summer reading assignment from them but it didn't dampen his enthusiasm for his new school. He will also be attending Baseball camp this summer this is something run and instructed by the local A minor league team The Front Royal Cardinals.