Ramblings: The End and the Beginning

Notice the extra bounce in his step?

The pure joy on his face?

It can only mean one thing: This was the last day he'll ever ride the bus as a second grader.

His summer (that he thinks he will waste away playing endless hours of video games, I'm sure) has officially begun.







Maddie got off the bus with an altogether different attitude.
"I DID NOT like today!" she shouted when she saw me standing with the camera.

I was shocked since today was their "Outside Play Day," complete with bubbles and water balloons, and the final day of their week of Camp Kindergarten. We were supposed to send jump ropes, balls, chalk, and anything else they could play with outside. I figured she would've had a blast.

I sent her with a brand spankin' new package of sidewalk chalk and this Crayola contraption that holds three pieces of chalk in front of a wheel and draws a 3 colored line on the ground as you walk. She and the boys have had tons of fun decorating the driveway with it .

But I guess the problem was that it was new to everyone else because she said that everyone kept bugging her the whole day asking her what it was. "I had to spend the whole time showing everybody what it was and how it works!" (Add a really whiny moan at the end of that sentence. She was totally annoyed that her fun was interrupted by her curious classmates.) Oh, the trials of a kindergartner!

Summer, here we come. Please be gentle. My sanity hangs in the balance.

*We're off to an inauspicious start--the boys have been on a rampage. They ripped my new curtain rod out of the wall that we finally hung a couple of weeks ago and finally k.o.'d the refrigerator door handle. And in the past two days, the boys have gotten into their pirate ship kiddie pool four times FULLY CLOTHED and then trekked through the house dripping wet and covered in grass. Two nights ago, they found the stack of board games that the kids had taken to school for gameday and threw those in the pool. Needless to say, they were ruined and then the boys climbed in with them FULLY CLOTHED. I gave up and started letting them just run around naked because I was exhausted and sick and tired of getting them undressed and redressed. The plus was that they didn't pee anywhere inside while naked and actually went to the toilet a few times. So maybe this will just have to be our Naked Summer. To clarify--at no point will I be running around naked in or out of the Pirate Pool. Butt dimples are only cute to the neighbors when displayed on a three year old's toushie.*