Hello…Goodbye…(catch-up post #2)

So with the much welcomed arrival of Summer comes the last day of school. This day is always emotionally fraught. For me far more so then the kids I think. This one was particularly so. It was the last day of Elementary school for my first-born, and my baby’s last day of Kindergarten. Here they are..(they are holding teacher gifts rather then heading to the beach, I’m not sure what Finny’s reproachful gaze is all about. Please note that sentimental Gracie is once again wearing her first-day of school dress. This time we had to add some bike shorts..)

Finny has been going to half-day kindergarten and we have enjoyed our special mornings and walking to school together. He would always hold my hand and squeeze it and look up at me adoringly even when his friends were in sight….aaaahhhh sob..sniffsniffsniff………my baaaayyyybeeeeeee……gulp…so when I commented that this was our last walk to kindergarten together he said, “I know. Sad! But now it is Summer and we will have lots of time to cuddle in the mornings and lie in your bed and talk..” that kid always knows the right thing to say. The burden of the baby…always having to at’reassure the aging mother that she is still loved and needed and that he will always live next-door. …erhem. That’s ok. There are many perks to being the baby.

AAAHHHHHHHH my BAY-BEEEEEE. On his last afternoon walk to school. In the Fall he will be going in the mornings with his sibs. All the live long day. Excuse me while I set up my therapy schedule…

When we got to school I was hanging around for the infamous last-day lip synch (read on for more about that) and so I got to hear his kindergarten teacher say over-brightly, “ok boys and girls! Let’s take our last walk to your classroom as kindergarteners”. Aahhhhhhhhhhh. What a horribly insensitive thing to say! What a cruel woman. I cried. I did. I am that mother. I am crying again just thinking back on it. Yes I am. So I went to the bathroom to get mopped up and as I came out, Benjamin’s 6th grade teacher intercepted me and told me how much the note Benj and I had written to her had meant to her and how much she’d miss him and there goes the waterworks again. What is wrong with these teachers?? Don’t they get any sensitivity training at all? Where are our tax dollars going anyway?

So for the much anticipated Lip-Synch. After much encouragement/pushiness my friend Jill and I talked our children into participating this year. Then we played our part of stage-moms most convincingly and made them rehearse in our living rooms. We deprived them of food until they got it right. Just kidding. But just about the food part. We totally made them rehearse when they didn’t really feel like it.

They performed the Beatles song, “Hello Goodbye”-(the Glee version-but of course).They did such a great job.

You say yes…I say…No (do you like my signs? I stayed up late…say Yes)

(This next picture illustrates my not so steady hand. I was nervous for them. Lipsync has a high potential for lameness but happily…they were awesome and not dorky at all. Nobody wants their poor kid to be a dork onstage. Am I right?)

You say STOP I say Go! Go! Go!

You say Why?

I say I.Don’t.Know

Jessi the rockstar

The perfectly timed very complicated leap-frog move. (All that practicing paid off).

Guitar heroes…

A poignant moment-Jessi and Benj say “Goodbye”…

The shot I missed was Gabe’s sign saying “Hello! We’re still here!” followed by Chase saying:

And here we see the difference between 6 grade boys (Benj in the yellow in case you can’t tell him apart from his blonde posse) and 4th grade boys….which boy looks more happy to see his camera wielding mother?

My sweet girl finishes up 2nd grade with a smile

Four wonderful teachers… we loved them all-thank you!

‘

And that’s all I have to say about that. Because I am out of tissues.

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