Our Terrific Kid

On Friday, Gray was recognized as a "Terrific Kid," which is a student recognition program developed by our local Kiwanis Club.

Earlier in the week we received a letter from the school counselor telling us that Gray had been nominated by his pre-K teacher and that he was going to be recognized at a special breakfast and school assembly this week.

Michael asked the teacher more about how Gray was selected and she said, "This month the award focuses on the characteristic of friendliness, and who better to receive that than Grayson?"

Of course, that made my heart melt, meanwhile Michael was relieved it wasn't some default award that every kid gets, kind of like getting a participation trophy for playing a sport. Apparently he has a point of view on these things that I was not aware of until this parental milestone arose (note to self, don't get him started on his soap box when it comes to participation awards and how he feels it sends children the wrong message).

Anyway, fast forward to Friday and we joined kids from other grades and their proud parents as they ate donuts and posed for a picture for our local newspaper.

Here's a group shot of the students from each grade level who received an award. Can you spot Gray? He's on the second row on the left.

Grandmama even woke up before sunrise to make the trip down to attend the assembly.

When they called Gray's name in the assembly to come up and receive his certificate as the pre-K honoree, I think he was more excited about running through a tunnel of 5th graders holding their arms up like an archway. I captured a quick video with my phone so I hope you can see the skinny red blur running through the human tunnel.

When it was all over we gushed to him about how proud we were and all he could ask was if he could run through the tunnel again. Guess that means he's not expecting me to frame his certificate.