all good things must come to an end

I can't believe that this school year is over. I'm so happy to have the girls home all day for the summer, but I'm sad to see them move on from their current classes.Especially Alyssa expressed sadness to leave her teacher and classmates. The girls both had such great teachers this year! And they learned a lot ~ they can officially carry on a well developed conversation in German that Dave and I have next to no chance of understanding, so that's at least a compliment to the education they are receiving.

I usually like to make a special dinner and decorated brownies to celebrate graduation, but with Emma breaking her ankle, our last day of the year was very rushed.

There were no brownies.

There were no special made-to-order dinners.

Their graduation gifts are still in the "future gifts bin" in our garage.

And I feel terrible about it! The gifts are outside play toys so we'll be sure to give them to the girls after vacation when hopefully Emma's a little more up for playing. There's a little bit of a helpless feeling watching Emma struggle somewhat with things that are usually so easy for her. Sometimes, she loves being carried around and hugs onto me like a little koala, and other times I can tell she is just plain frustrated. She doesn't like having help getting in and out of the car, earlier today she had to ask me to carry some books and blanket to the backyard so she could sit and watch the rest of the kids play, and even small things like having to ask someone to throw stuff away for her seems to be a nuisance to her. This is not to even mention baths and all the help she needs with that! She wanted to wash the van with Dave this evening which was not even a remote possibility.

On a more positive note, she still has her usual cheerful, easy-going spirit about her laughing about most things that have become surprisingly difficult for her. She hasn't complained once about being in pain, which I'm taking as a good indication that she's healing well. More good news and something that Alyssa describes as being so excited about it that her stomach aches...we are going on vacation tomorrow!!!

va·ca·tion (vā kā′s̸hən, və-)

noun

1. freedom from any activity; rest; respite; intermission
2. ☆ a period of rest and freedom from work, study, etc.; time of recreation, usually a specific interval in a year

Wow, does that sound welcomed! We rarely {never!} vacation in this way. Our vacations are always jammed pack with theme parks, site seeing, early morning rising and late nights out. There's always a sense of not wanting to waste a single moment or miss anything, and while it's exhausting at times, I have grown to love it. I'm sure we'll take a little slower of a pace than usual, but there are so many cool things we are looking forward to seeing!

I thought I would share some end of the school year photos before we go...
This is Emma with her teacher on a field trip they went to in May. Dave went on this field trip with their class.


On the Thursday before school ended, I took Rebekah to cute little movie theater where they serve meals and/or ice cream sundaes during the movie. We saw the new Shrek movie. It was so nice to have a Mom and Bekah date before school got out.


We returned to school just in time to play out side with Emma and her friends...


look for bugs {Emma has a moth in her hand}...


and play tag in the park.



These are some photos Dave took on a field trip he went to with Alyssa's class last Friday~
Alyssa with her friends Stephanie and Molly.


Herr Klein's 4th grade class at Old World Wisconsin.


The kids played tug of war with these two bulls. Alyssa told me that she let go of the rope right away, not interested in being pulled through the dirt. She's in the far left corner of the pic, clearly not holding the rope. Other children weren't so deterred by the dragging and one of the bulls peed then a child was pulled through the mud that resulted. She rarely lacks effort and this is one time in which I was thankful for her lack of resolve. Great job letting go, Alyssa!


Saying the Pledge of Allegiance in the old school house.


I know all the teachers at our school are great, but our girls certainly had two of the best this past year! I've never seen teachers who challenge their kids so much in the classroom and at the same time run around the playground equipment and stage soccer games for their students at recess. It was a really fun year!