We’ve hit the end of another school year, and once again I’m swirled about with conflicting emotions. Sadness over the passing of another fleeting milestone, complete and utter panic at the prospect of the approaching summer.
(The image on the left is the last day of the 2015-16 school year, on the right is the first day. Look how much Jeff grew!)
Truth be told, I’m not nearly as panicky as I used to be before I had kids old enough to babysit. (BABYSIT! Let the praises of such be sung from the rooftops.)
And Jeff has grown out of his past summer habits, such as spraying bottles of sunscreen on inappropriate surfaces, such as the sunroom windows or the entire interior of the minivan. (He was eight years old at the time. When I moaned, “why why why??” he merely replied, “It was an accident.”)
But I digress. Here’s what’s important to know:
Katie has finished preschool. This is the last preschool pickup I will ever have to do for my own children knock on wood knock on wood. I’ve been shuttling kids to preschool for ten years.
Katie is a bit happy-sad about it, and I am too. This week the song “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt came on the radio, and while she didn’t understand the sad-about-the-breakup lyrics, the bittersweet melody made her grow very still. “This song makes me think about my preschool class,” she said quietly. Aww, my sweet little one.
However, things are looking up in Katie-land because I signed her up for a five-week pre-ballet class. This is a VERY big deal to her, especially since she gets to wear the sparkly leotard Eleanor and I gave her as a preschool graduation present.
Her hair is juuuuuust long enough to put into a bun. Thank heavens for snoods to cover up all those wispy loose ends.
Meanwhile, Eleanor is quite glum about the end of her dance classes for the year. The director of her dance school died of breast cancer a year ago, and has now shut down. She’ll be attending classes in a new studio next year, but she couldn’t help but be sad that the little Ballet Academy of Performing Arts is no more (and will likely be torn down by a developer, darn it all.)
Therefore we took extra care to have fun with stage makeup for her final performance with BAPA. I googled a bunch of tutorials about how to do ballet stage makeup, and whooooa is it over the top. I think I got her eyes looking great, but I’m really not the best when it comes to putting lipstick on kids.
The piano year also finished up with Eleanor & William performing very well at the Edmonds Musicianship Festival. That same day they also performed along with Jeff at the season-end performance of the Seattle Children’s Chorus. Both Jeff and William got choir promotions, so next year William will sing in the upper-elementary choir with Eleanor, and Jeff will get to sing with the middle/high school treble choir. (Although Brian is betting that Jeff will only last a few months before his voice changes and he gets kicked into the men’s training choir.)
I, on the other hand, am relishing a summer with a significant decrease in carpooling . . .except for the summer piano lessons and skating and day camps and . . . and. . . and . . .
Did I mention the older kid babysitting thing?
Casa Camisas 