School's Out

                      

Today is the last day of school for my little ones. I let them sleep a little bit later than usual, which I know they appreciated. I played Alice Cooper's "School's Out" while they got dressed and I jumped around and head banged. They rolled their eyes at me. Yes, today is the day they graduate to the 2nd and 4th grade.

I have been good about this school year ending until yesterday. I picked them up from after-school and their book bags weighed about 100 pounds because they had cleaned out their desks. When we got home they went to play with their friends outside and I collapsed on the couch and began to empty out their book bags. There were old text books, math sheets, art, erasers, loose crayons. They both had writing journals and I sat and read them and laughed and laughed. Here are some of my favorites.

From my 6 year old:

Translation: I help my mom clean up around the house. I be nice to my sister. I help cook for my mom. I not allowed to watch TV on school nights. I ask for this.

This one is sweet because I am holding a cross ornament. The day after my grandfather died I went to this Christmas store at the beach town where he owned a house and purchased this celtic cross ornament that has an irish blessing on it. Every year when I unwrap it I get teary eyes because it reminds me of him. I didn't realize that she paid that much attention.

This is what she wants to have when she grows up. Ha! Ha! She is so cute and funny.

My eight year old did some amazing artwork:

This story made me laugh out loud. Mornings are hard.

So I sat and I sifted and I read and I laughed. I came across a DVD in 8 year old's book bag and it was addressed to her parents. I went upstairs and popped it into the DVD player. Her teacher made this DVD slideshow for us. There were pictures of all of the things they did this year, the trips they took, the science experiments they performed. It was set to sentimental music of course. I saw pictures of my little girl with her friends, curled up in the corner reading, sitting at her desk smiling. Then this Darius Rucker song "It Won't Be Like This for Long" came on. Oh man. Her teacher had taken pictures of the kids at the start of the year and the end of the year. It was so neat to see the kids little and then how much they changed. Then she took pictures of the kids with a sign showing what they wanted to be when they grow up. Some wanted to be in the military, others teachers and doctors. Then it flashed to my little girl. She had a half smile and held a sign that read "Artist". Of course. As the music faded out, a picture of the entire class came on the screen and underneath it said "Class of 2022." I pretty much lost it. I was a bucket of tears. I sat at that desk and sobbed for a good five minutes. My daughter came in and laughed, "Whats wrong? Did you watch the thing?" I hugged her and asked, "Why do you think I'm crying?" She knew. "Because I am growing up so fast?" I nodded. "It's okay," she said and ran back outside to join her friends.

I have beautiful, smart, funny, talented children. There is nothing better than that. Not millions of dollars, not anything in the entire world. We are so lucky and blessed. I couldn't ask for more, except for maybe time to slow down a little bit.