Hello, Summer!

Today was the last day of school for our family.  Hallelujah!  I woke up super early just so I could have time to get these pictures taken, which involves scouring all my computer files to locate the little signs that I have used for the past few years.  Can you see the 2015-2016 year on them?  I tried to mark it out with a gray marker this morning because who has time for Photoshop (and also because I don’t know how to use Photoshop… Summer goal:  learn how to use Photoshop)?  Eh, close enough for the family keepsakes!  

I can’t believe Bean has just finished his second grade year and will be starting THIRD GRADE in the fall.  Holy cow!  I’m not old enough to have a kid in third grade!  Aren’t moms with kids that old supposed to have their shit together?!  Surely, third grade moms are not trying to black out the wrong year on their Pinterest-worthy school pictures, right?!  Maybe I’ll stay a second grade mom of a third grader.  That feels better to me.  Younger.

And this little miss has finished a KILLER year of kindergarten.  She has just blossomed in school this year, not only socially but academically, too.  Her standardized test scores were off the charts and Chris and I could not have been prouder (or more surprised, actually!).  She is reading chapter books, solving multi-step math problems, can tell time, and paints like an artist.  I can’t believe she is going to be in first grade next year!  Can’t we stay in kindergarten forever?  Has anyone learned to freeze time yet?  No?  Well, we need to get on that ASAP.

Like the kids, this year marked a significant ending and new beginning for me, too.  I will be teaching at a new school next year, and that is both exciting and terrifying at the same time.  I have loved where I am, but this school is in the neighborhood where I live and will be the same middle school that my own kids will attend in a few short years.  I couldn’t pass up the chance to teach my same curriculum to the same grade, but only a short walk from my house, instead of a 30 minute commute.  I’ve been packing up my classroom and saying goodbye to coworkers who have become my very closest friends.  It’s been bittersweet, as most endings and beginnings are, I am learning.

(P.S. Yes, that is a fishing pole with a Hawaiian lei on the end of it with my teaching materials. And, yes, I am taking it with me to my new school. It is a necessity.)

For now, our family is in that lovely limbo between school years called S-U-M-M-E-R, and we are all so excited.  We have Bean’s birthday tomorrow and his party this weekend, a trip to the Keys coming up in a few weeks, and two summer camps scheduled for the kids in June.  It will be busy, but with plenty of pool and beach days built in.  It’s my favorite time of year, and I am ready to soak up every minute!

So, if your family finds itself in the Land of In Between this summer, like ours, best wishes for you! I hope you are celebrating the happily ever after endings and looking forward to some great beginnings to come!