School's Out!

It seems another school year has come to a close – it swear it was just yesterday that Big Brother and Big Sister were buying school supplies and seeing which school clothes still fit. Although we're usually all looking forward to the end of the school year come June (for entirely different reasons), this year the last day of school was a little bittersweet. Big Sister graduated from eighth grade, with very respectable marks and a nice essay award. Next year she's off to high school (*gulp*). Big Brother finished off fifth grade (also with a good report card) and will be entering the junior high grades this fall. But, he'll be switching schools and returning to the school where he attended kindergarten (and where Max is attending preschool), so both kids will be heading off to new schools next year.

The big kids' end of school program was last Thursday – every year they do a program with songs, skits, dances, etc. The big kids look forward to it less and less every year, but it's always cute to see the program. Unfortunately, the downside is that the program starts at 7 p.m., which is M&M's usual bedtime, and lasts about an hour and a half ... which is about half an hour more than the little kids can happily sit still. We came armed with lots of Teddy Grahams bribes (or "telly grahams," as Max calls them), which helped encourage some good (and mostly quiet) behavior. The only downside to the snacking and the water guzzling was a couple ill-timed burps (followed by a chirpy little three-year-old "escuse me!"). Both Max and Molly enjoyed the music – I laughed when Max identified one of the violin songs as "Little Einsteins" music (he even correctly identified the episode it appeared in). Molly really liked all the singing – she sat in her chair, clapped her hands, and bopped to the beat throughout the whole show. Unfortunately, although we have a bit of video from the program, there aren't any pictures because M&M wouldn't cooperate. :P

It is nice to have a break from the school trips and the sports practices and the last-minute "oh-my-goodness-I-just-remembered-this-is-due-tomorrow" homework assignments. I'm hoping we can schedule in some fun little outings and day trips this summer – I have a few things I think everyone would enjoy. We're not planning any big vacation this year – the little ones are too young to make any big trips enjoyable for Dad and myself, so we're going to stick close to home. We're planning to take everyone on a long weekend up north – it would be nice to visit Grandma and Grandpa and I haven't made my yearly pilgrimage to the lake since before Max was born (!). Watch out summer, here we come!