A (small) part of me is glad this school year has come to an end. It was, for the most part, a good year, but the past few weeks have felt like (what I imagine) the last mile of a marathon feels like: borderline impossible.
The kids need a break. I need a break. And we all need to celebrate, even if it's just our traditional last-day-of-school "surprise": summer baskets and cookie cake. (Will and Hallie are of course not at all surprised anymore, but I love this tradition and I'm keeping it alive, surprise or not.) Hallie and I will also grab Starbucks with friends after getting out of school early on the last day, because apparently during COVID we started this tradition and according to the girls it must continue until high school graduation.
We have quite a few things on the calendar for the summer: two weddings; two college visits (hold me); short field trips to Washington, IL, St. Louis, MO, and possibly Ann Arbor, MI; longer visits to see our families and friends in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois; high school workouts and club soccer practices and tournaments for Will; ballet intensives and dance classes for Hallie; working as a futsal referee for Will; and working as a dance assistant and volunteering for VBS for Hallie. We're also trying to build in plenty of run-of-the-mill summer activities, like sleeping in, night walks (a favorite of mine and Hallie's), ice cream for dinner, swimming, water balloon fights, movie marathons, reading books, and lots of time with friends.
We'll have a few rules and responsibilities, but we won't have bucket lists or activity calendars or school fun guides or chore charts or job jars. We've been there, done (all of) that, but with each passing year this organization and these "systems" have slowly faded into the background...which makes sense given my kids' ages. I still like to document our summers though, so a couple of years ago I started using an approach borrowed from Emily Ley (the founder of the Emily Ley Simplified Planner and the Simplified brand): a summer memory list.
"Do the fun thing. Write the fun thing down. Pressure off."
I hope your summer is full of fun things.
~
This kid just wrapped up 10th grade. It's truly mind-boggling to think he's halfway done with high school and only has two years left before going away to college...
 |
| End of Kinder |
 |
| End of 1st Grade |
 |
| End of 2nd Grade |
 |
| End of 3rd Grade |
 |
| End of 4th Grade |
 |
| End of 5th Grade |
 |
| End of 6th Grade |
 |
| End of 7th Grade |
 |
| End of 8th Grade |
 |
End of 9th Grade
|
 |
| End of 10th Grade |
He only agreed to be photographed if he could hold Plié. Scroll to the end of this post to see how they both really felt about our photoshoot...
~
And this (once) pipsqueak is somehow off to high school herself.
 |
| End of Kinder |
 |
| End of 1st Grade |
 |
End of 2nd Grade
|
 |
| End of 3rd Grade |
 |
| End of 4th Grade |
 |
| End of 5th Grade |
 |
| End of 6th Grade |
 |
| End of 7th Grade. |
 |
| End of 8th Grade |
It goes SO fast...
~
Note #1: I say this every year, and I'll say it again - I should have started with a bigger or less fitted cut of shirt for my girl...not sure why I went with the baby tee. 😂
Note #2: I'm not sure what it is about putting on this teeny tiny shirt - it makes her want to do tricks. So here are those she wanted me to save for posterity.
Note #3: These two don't love doing tricks. I feel like they're both looking at me with disdain...
No comments:
Post a Comment