Endings and Beginnings

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\: John made that with his sleeping feet.

I can always count on two days of the year to be emotional for me, not counting birthdays and holidays: the first day of school and the last. Our day began with Clara shooing me away at school with a very punctuated "Bye Mom!" Wow - and at the beginning of the year, I thought I'd be homeschooling!

But no wonder the last day is so emotional - it's total chaos! I raced 2 kids to school, then gathered a picnic, then took June to preschool, then got John to sleep, then packed for Clara's trip (another story), then organized teacher gifts, then back to preschool, back to Will and Clara's school, make it two "celebrations" in 20 minutes, ooh and aaah sincerely at all their work, and finally sit in gravel for a picnic intended to joyously wrap up the year. All this before noon.

I do remind myself that this day isn't about me. And I also realize that everyone I see is having the same day. My role today for my kids is just to be stable and organized (a challenge on any normal day), since my kids are in all likelihood on the verge of freaking out, each in their own way.

But, we made it, happily really, and no freakouts, for the small price of no adult conversation and no pictures. But I do have a few pictures of some teacher gift art, and time outdoors, two things that ground us as we transition into Summer. I don't think it will take long.

Will wrote poems in scrapbook pages for his teachers.

These are flower arrangements for Clara's teachers with art from each of her classmates.

Can you see the hang-glider?

I think this looks like Summer.