The Lee Family: Last Day of School! Hello Summer!!

Today was FINALLY the last day of school for the girls! It was particularly difficult to get up and out of the house the past three days and we all agreed that the last day of school should have been the Friday before Memorial Day. Instead, the girls got that day off for a "bad weather day" that we never used during the school year, so they had a four day weekend instead of three. Then, on Tuesday morning we had to all drag ourselves out of bed for three more useless days of school. Really, once STAAR testing is over the kids hardly do anything in the classroom and most of their days are full of fun events: Splash Day, Fun Day, Field Trips, Celebrations, etc. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but we somehow got through our short week.

I woke up on Thursday morning, the last day of the school year, realizing that I had all the teacher's gifts but never had the girls put them together and write their thank you notes! I ended up getting a gift card to TJ MAXX for both Mrs. Grant and Ms. Murray along with a cute note pad that said "Teachers make the world go around." For Mrs. Schultz, I got a Starbucks gift card since she drinks their iced green tea every day. Our class, thanks to the hard work of Hilary, pulled together a photo album of the year that we gave to Mrs. Schultz. I also got a gift card for Ihop for Mr. Robert. He does so much around the school and constantly cleans up after all the kids and probably rarely gets a "thank you." Plus, since he isn't a teacher, I don't think many think to thank him during "appreciation week" or Christmas. I asked Sofia to write the "thank you" notes to both of her teachers and to Mr. Robert. Olivia wrote her thank you note to Mrs. Schultz and I was busy packing their last lunches and making pancakes that I really am not sure what exactly she wrote. She did ask how to spell "best" and "awesome" and I'm sure it was very sweet. She adores Mrs. Schultz which is easy to do since she is the sweetest teacher we've had at CES. Sofia really loves Mrs. Grant and Ms. Murray and we are so thankful that Mrs. Grant has energized Sofia in her math skills. Both teachers are sweet and good at encouraging kids, but Mrs. Grant really has Sofia's admiration this year.

We finally finished pancakes and got all of their things together for the last day of school - an extra reusable grocery bag for Sofia to bring all of her school work home in and Olivia's empty backpack, and headed out the door. I wanted to take pictures of them on their "official" last day, so I got a few pictures before we loaded up in the car. By then, we were running later than we have all year! We got to the small parking lot and there were probably 10 cars waiting to park! I remembered that we should have left a lot sooner than normal. We finally got in and parked just as the bell rang, so they were late on their last day of school, but I was able to get a few more pictures of them!

As we drove to school, I asked if they wanted to ride the bus home or be picked up from school. Sofia was adamant that I pick them up so she could "say goodbye" to everyone. Since she will be going to Aspire Academy next year, she won't see these kids in school until middle or high school! Plus, I knew she really wanted to say goodbye to her sweet teachers. I ended up playing tennis and then met Casey for a "final pedicure" before we picked up the kids. I got to the school and it was an absolute zoo, so I parked in the church parking lot and walked over, which wasn't what I'd planned since I was still sweaty and stinky. I arrived at the crush of kids and couldn't find Sofia anywhere. Olivia saw me and ran over to give me a hug. In doing so, she stepped on my foot and messed up my brand new pedicure! Oh well! Finally, after no sign of Sofia, we figured she forgot and caught the bus. Olivia was able to give Mrs. Schultz one final hug and give her buddy Poppy a hug goodbye. It was bittersweet as we walked to the car, and thankfully Olivia was excited for summer to be here finally!

We drove home and picked up Sofia and headed to Luna Grill for lunch. The girls were so excited to be able to sleep in and have very little scheduled the next few months before school starts up again. I'm glad we don't have to rush out the door at 7:20am every morning, although my goal is to continue to wake up at 6am to have a little quiet time to myself since the girls wake up naturally at 7:30am. Can't wait for some fun an relaxing summer days ahead!

One quick picture on their final day of school