School's Out for Summer!

OK so this is just crazy.

Today is the last day of school.
What the what?!?

I think it seems so freaking WEIRD because this is the first time EVER that the girls will be done with school BEFORE June 1.

But as it is, I packed the last lunch this morning (until August that is) and I took the requisite "last day of school photos"...

And that's that.

It's crazy how much the girls have changed since August. And now we have a summer full of fun stuff planned, including the Chaos Party of 10 Cruise to the Caribbean.

Happy summer!!

Say goodbye to Fifth Grade

Well tomorrow is THE day.

Tomorrow - June 3 - is Olivia's last day of elementary school. She's moving out of 5th grade and the safe confines of elementary school and moving into 6th grade and bigger pond of middle school.

I can't bring myself to call it "junior high" because...well, because it's 6th grade. And I refuse to believe that my oldest "baby" is old enough to be in junior high.

Because I swear THIS was just last week:

And then all of a freaking sudden my "baby" is getting ready to start middle school and the last week of elementary school was spent in "health class" talking about "human development" (yeah, boobs and periods!)

Oh. My. Freaking. God.

This was taken the first day of 5th grade last fall:

And then this was taken two weeks ago at a Mud Hens baseball game:

Shut. Up.

As it is, I am fully prepared to be a weepy mess tomorrow as my soon-to-be-sixth-grader walks out of elementary school for the last time. 

Middle school here we come. Ready or not. 

So This Is What It's Come Down To....

....a blog post a month, eh?

Yeah. Take my blogger card away right now.

OK in my defense it has been a crazy month and the fact that it is May 12 has just raised my stress level a little bit.

This weekend is dance recital weekend, also known as Dance Mom Hell. Sure it's exciting for the kids with the hair and the makeup and the costumes. But for the moms it's excruciatingly painful with the hair and the makeup and the costumes.

Last week was the end of my patience with the kids' dance studio when one of the instructors told the parents (IN FRONT OF THE KIDS) that if they didn't get a "backstage mom" the girls wouldn't be allowed to dance. At all.

So basically it was a flat-out threat that the thousands of dollars paid by parents and grandparents would be a total waste unless someone "stepped up" and volunteered as tribute for the Dance Mom Hunger Games.

The part that pissed me off most? Telling us in front of the girls. Seven and eight-year-old kids who worked so hard all year to learn this dance. Emma told me that night how mad she was when the teacher said they might not dance.

And that is just ONE of the reasons we're leaving that dance studio at the end of this week. Forever.

In other non-dance news...the kids have 16 days of school left (not counting weekends, obviously). And I'm reaching that end-of-the-school-year breaking point where I'm tempted to just throw Pop Tarts and bottled water in their lunch boxes and ignore the homework. (I said I was tempted. I'm not actually doing that.)

I'm one burned out mama. But we still have a 6th grade parent meeting this week (OMG!), Career Day next week (and I'm talking about Disney), Field Day, and the last day of school 5th grade party where I'm probably going to cry my eyes out.

And then?

Then we pack up the car and drive to the OBX and I sit on the beach for a week drinking fruity drinks and watching the waves. That's when I exhale.

Happy almost end of the school year to you!

Someone Should Take Away My Blogger Card

Honestly I suck at blogging.

This is apparent by the complete lack of posts for almost a month.

Also, I have no good excuse. I haven't been sick (well, OK...I was sick for about a week). My computer wasn't broken (oh the horror!).

I've just been really busy. (Aren't we all?). And, I didn't have anything to blog about. (GASP!)

The kids are finishing up the school year - thanks to the never-ending winter they had two extra days added to the end of the year. So instead of being done TOMORROW they have school until Friday.

Yeah. The school board added TWO EXTRA DAYS so the kids can (1) have field day on Thursday, and (2) have a "fun day" on Friday. Thankfully the kids won't be at school on Friday - they'll be in a car traveling south(east?) to the Outer Banks. So suck on that school board.

Seriously though...they added two extra days of school so the kids can PLAY. What does that prove? Wouldn't it have made more sense to do one extra week back in April of "school until 4 p.m." so they were actually DOING WORK?

Nope. Let's have field day and "clean out your desk and we're going to watch a movie" day. Yay school.

Speaking of summer vacation (I was, kind of)....I cannot wait until Saturday when we are at the beach. I need a week to decompress and relax and just exhale.

So happy end-of-the-school-year to all of you. Here's to a great summer. I promise I'll write more.

Maybe. ;)