A Day in the Life: The Last Shall Be First And The First Shall Be Last

Well, the 2011-2012 school year has come to and end and the summer of 2012 has begun!

I always feel a little nostalgic and bittersweet at these transitionary times. As the school year winds down and everyone moves from one grade to another, it becomes more apparent than ever that these kids of mine are continuing to grow up, darn it! Here's a look at some of the last events of the school year and the first days of summer.

Will's final orchestra concert. Look at little Hermione casting a spell on William with her bow!

(Incidentally, I worked as a receptionist in her grandpa's office back when I was pregnant with Kate. Can you believe Brandon and I were already cooking up our first child before he had even graduated from college? What were we thinking? She was born 3 weeks in to med school . . .)

Is it just me, or is she trying to get Will's attention?

End of season soccer game:

The play Elizabeth was working on the entire school year with a little community group. Can you see her right up in front in the pink dress? There are advantages to being short:

She's quite the little actress, to be honest. (Funny how our kids can be total opposites. There is no amount of money that could get Kate on a stage for something like this.) She delivered her few lines (just to the left of the microphone) with more gusto than just about everybody.

Again, the cute little short one on the left of the mic:

"Duh! We're vikings!" That was her favorite line:

She delivered her lines as the "Dairy Godmother" at the end-of-the-year class play with just as much enthusiasm:

One of the last early morning breakfasts before school ended:

(Elizabeth got those keychain markers she's wearing on her shorts from a friend for her birthday and wore them to school every day like they were THE BOMB!)

Is this the cutest thing EVER? Elizabeth insisted on getting her Elizabeth some breakfast this morning:

This is from Kate. Again, SO fourteen, right?

Okay, I get a little choked up over this, because these two have become such good buddies this last year. They even play together at recess sometimes, but Will is going to a different school next year for the gifted program, and because middle school is 3 years and high school is 3 years, these two will never go to school together again! (Seriously crying right now . . . ) Here they are riding their bikes to school together one of the last days of school:

The end of school year dance festival. It's quite the deal at my kids' school. This is Elizabeth's teacher:

The principal is the one in the middle with the flower pants. Isn't that awesome?

Will, however, was MORTIFIED and wanted no part in the dance festival. He thought the song from the Lorax was "dumb" and didn't like the "lame" t-shirt he had to wear. (Tell us how you really feel . . .) You can just SEE the annoyance oozing from his face:

Elizabeth on the other hand . . .

We can't leave Rachael out. Here she is with her cute teacher on the last day of her first year of pre-school:

(I know, no pictures of Kate. What can I say? She pretty much skipped the entire last week of school--after getting her 3.9--and avoids anything that involves being in the spotlight. But I know I have pictures of her harp recital somewhere!)

ON TO SUMMER!

The last day of school was only an hour and a half, so a ton of moms and their kids went to a nearby park and splash pad with picnic lunches. It was PERFECT weather and an all around great kick off for the summer:

You know we had to get a frozen yummy something afterward, and we chose Hawaiian Ice:

You can't tell it from this picture, but Kate was beside herself with giddiness the entire day. I think she actually even squealed a few times. School really stresses her out, so she was a happy girl this day:

We brought Rachael's little buddy along with us for the day:

Always the ham:

Today was even more of a quintessential American summer day. Everyone had a friend over, and everyone was running around the neighborhood like everyone else, playing in the blow up pool in the neighbor's backyard . . .

. . . and on the slip-n-slide across the street. They also rode their bikes, had a big water balloon fight, and ate Otter Pops. It just doesn't get much better than that when you're a kid: