Leaving Discovery School

The last week of school went by quickly this year.  It's all a blur!

First, Eli had his End-of-the-Year party at a friend's house.  They brought in a petting zoo and a pony for the kids to ride on, so it was lots of fun!

Then Elina had graduation on Thursday.  (Look at these cute graduation shirts that one of the moms made for all the kids!  Amazing!)

J and I actually won the front-row seats for graduation at Benefit this year, so I didn't even have to worry about saving seats.  It was awesome!  (Although it was sad that J couldn't make it to the graduation this year...boo!)  I spent the morning taking pictures of Elina and just hanging out in her classroom.  She requested that I stay with her since it was her "last" Discovery School graduation.  Ha!

Doesn't Elina look so grown up?  *sniff sniff*

The ceremony was wonderful.  I shed a few tears, but for the most part, I enjoyed myself.

Here is Elina getting her diploma on stage--

The kids also performed 3 songs..."So Long, Farewell" from The Sound of Music--

"Think Positive"--

and the school anthem.  For the anthem, B actually accompanied them with his guitar (along with A's dad).  Nice touch!

After graduation, there was cake and punch on the patio. Here's Elina showing off her diploma--

That night Elina picked her new favorite restaurant, Sushihana, for her graduation dinner.  I didn't know if she'd still pick Luby's, but now her tastes have changed...instead of mac n cheese, she wants tempura udon.  Can you believe that?  

This year, Elina gave each of her classmates and her teachers drawings of things they like.  She spent a lot of time drawing and coloring these pictures.  Then we framed them to hand out to everyone.  All the kids know Elina as the artist, so they loved her drawings.  They all came out great and some of them are so detailed. I don't know how she does it!

The next day was Elina's End-of-the-Year party at a splashpad...actually the same splashpad we had it at last year!  It was an awesome day and the kids had tons of fun in the water.  Well, Evie screamed and cried when the water splashed her in the face, so she didn't enjoy the splashpad as much.  She really enjoyed the raspas (snocones) though!  The kids loved squirting each other with water guns, running around in the water, and playing with water balloons.  I also made cute flip flop Nutter Butters for the party...neat, right?  

It's funny because I've been anticipating the end of they year since the first day of school.  I knew I would be so sad that Elina was leaving her school and her wonderful teachers.  I knew I would just cry and cry about it...and I totally did.  But this final week of school was so busy that I didn't mind that school was ending.  I mean, I was still sad, but I also felt relieved...relieved that I don't have to drive back and forth to school every day for a few months....relieved that I won't have any school obligations for a while...relieved that we can just sit back and relax now.

We don't really have exciting plans to go anywhere this summer.  I signed the kids up for some camps, but other than that we're just going to hang out by the pool and enjoy these last few months with the 3 kids before the baby arrives and everything is CRAZY.  I have a feeling it's going to be a good summer.