Today was Jay's last day of school. About time! It seems like the entire country always gets out of school for summer break long before us Washingtonians, but it is here at long last. Yay! This morning Jay and Rose were deep in discussion about all of their plans for the first day of summer break. Their plans included jumping with the hose on the trampoline, playing a few specific games in the basement, jumping off the stairs into blankets, swimming, inviting friends over, and throwing water balloons. Before we left for school this morning, I took the traditional last day of school pictures:
Favorite: Rose's adoring look shows how she feels about her big brother, Jay's cloaked grin shows his mischievous mirth as he tries to figure out a way to make the photo shoot more amusing, and Amber's glazed gaze is just happy to be a part of what the big kids are doing, even if it is a boring ole picture.
First day/last day of school comparison. These kids are growing UP!
Jay was still so little back in September! I can't get over how much older he looks now. These pictures were only taken 9 months apart!
Can we say growth spurt?
The school dropoff--Jay usually turns back and waves at me one last time, and it's pretty sweet.
Then he disappears into the throngs of kids on the playground.
The end of this school year not only marks the end of first grade for Jay, but it also is the end of an era: of Rose, Amber, and me being home together during the day. In the fall, Rose will be joining Jay at school and I will be down to one child at home! I get lonely just thinking about it. I also thrill to all of the possibilities that will open up, and although any activities Amber and I can do together won't really fill the void left by Jay and Rose, it will be fun to try on a new stage of life! On Tuesday this week the girls and I went on our last Tri Cities errands trip of the school year: Goodwill, Winco, and Costco. It felt so final--the end of an era. No more lugging two children around to all the stores.
I let Rose sit in the front of the double seated Costco cart one last time--she's really too big--just for old times' sake. After the errands, we went on a walk around the temple to round out the day. I brought the good camera to the temple to honor the occasion. It was after 1pm by then, so Amber was much more in the mood for a nap than for a 98 degree panini-pavement walk around the temple. Thankfully she didn't melt down (figuratively, not literally in spite of the heat) until we had circumnavigated the entire temple.
These girls love beautiful flowers. Rose said: "my favorite part of the temple was the beautiful flowers. I wouldn't be as happy at the temple without the beautiful flowers."
Is there anything better than two sweet sisters holding hands (unprompted) at the temple??
Rose: "I'm being Angel Moroni!"
Pretty sure she's contemplating a swim in the temple's fountain here.
I felt bad for sitting their tender little thighs on that hot stone planter in the hot sun, but...the picture!
Sisters forever. Heart.
Ok, back to Jay. He is done with first grade. I created and printed off another school book page this year. We filled out the back side of it today (we fill out the front at the beginning of the school year and the back at the end of school). I thought it turned out rather nice, for a Microsoft Word document:
Here are some gems that I salvaged from Jay's end-of-year stack of school papers. I LOVE reading what Jay writes. He is a very businesslike, get-it-done type of writer and artist, so he usually does the minimum. I couldn't pick just one to save in his binder, so I saved all of my favorites.
Inspired by George and Harold in Captain Underpants, Jay and Rose created their own comic last month, called "the Advencres of super Jay and super Rose" (words by Joseph White Pikcshers by Rose White).
The other page says "The Best time ever. I was so hapy to play whith my cusis..."oh no sum budy is being midcuchj" sade Stevi. "oh no thats bad." He wrote four more pages about this game that he played when we visited the cousins in Missouri. I adore the title: The Best time ever.
And this is a fitting finale to an end-of-school year post: "Last night I stayed up till 9 pm reading I even stole some crackers. I was snecky last night." HAH! Jeff and I usually retreat to the basement after the kids are in bed, so Jay apparently snuck out of his room and ate some crackers and stayed up an hour too late reading. That's my son.
Of course Jay isn't the only one who's out for the summer--Jeff is too! He completed his FIFTH YEAR of teaching French at Sunnyside High School today. He said he's feeling great about it; he's totally got a teaching groove going. Yay! Now on to the most fun time of our year: when we're all together ALL SUMMER!
I love this life.
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