end of school hoopla

The last day of school seems like a distant dream right now because it feels so much has happened since.

But it did come and go. And we sure had fun.

Dave and I rode bikes with Grace and Claire over to the yearbook signing the night before.
We have grown so attached to this school and all the teachers and administrators and parents and students who fill it up.

The next day was Lucy’s second preschool graduation.

She still has one more preschool year to go before she starts Kindergarten so she’ll have three of these things under her belt before it’s over.

We couldn’t be more happy about that because we adore this class and these teachers:
(Lucy spent some time making some fancy cards for each of them.)

Not to get too dramatic but this preschool has changed Lucy’s life. (Which means it’s changed ours too.)She’s quite mesmerized by that diploma:

One of Lucy’s best buddies:

The next day was the last day for our big kids.

This is what we gave their teachers:(A gift card to Pei Wei with a nice note from them detailing the top three things they love about them…thanks for the idea from a smart blog reader back in the comments for this post.)

The Junior High had a special “Golden Scholar” ceremony to honor kids with good grades.
The seventh grade one was first.
We are so incredibly lucky to live in an area where our kids are surrounded by good friends like these everywhere we go.Here is part of our “first-grade moms” group that began clear back when all these girls were in first grade:
How they became seventh graders so quick is beyond me!

Lucy was my little side-kick:
…Lucky for her the iPad kept her busy while all these pictures were being taken.

Elle and a slew of friends sweet-talked some of us moms into a run to IHOP after the ceremony.
Have I mentioned how much I love that iPad?

After breakfast Lu and I raced back to the school for the 8th grade Golden Scholars:
Once again, wow, we are so thankful for good friends.

Grace’s class party was after that.
I was in charge of a game and man alive I will tell you that was no easy feat with almost thirty kids hyped up on the last-day-of-school-sugar-rush. I’m surprised I didn’t lose my voice!Claire’s party was just for the kids so all I got was a picture of her new haircut on her way out to school that morning:

After school the parties began.

I hardly saw Max and Elle because they were seriously gone from one party to the next until close to midnight.

But Grace had some friends over for a loud-music swim party after school:
(Those five fingers they’re holding up are to tell us they are now FIFTH graders.)

They were cracking me up…they all wanted to do pictures in this pose with these funny glasses on.
Claire and Lu had some friends over too.
We rented the Justin Bieber movie that none of us had seen yet (I know, get with the times, right?)I’ll just let that picture tell you how excited they were about that little fact.

Whew. Did I mention we had a fun day? 🙂