Last Day of School (10 days ago)

It's my blog, and I can post any way I want to. Forwards, backwards, sideways. Right now, I'm going backwards!

I would love to be like some of my favourite bloggers, who post regularly, some daily, with photos and everything! In my ideal world, that's what I would do.

Things aren't always ideal, and posts aren't created on the day they occur. In my world.

I want to write about the last day of school. Here it is!

Our district always has the kids attend for almost 2 hours on the last day. The elementary students receive their report cards that day and do little else. The older students all receive theirs in the mail anyway. This year, Nick's first year of high school, he didn't attend the last two days on the calendar. They had exams the last week, with the last couple of days for rewrites. He wrote two exams on the Monday, and one each on Tuesday and Wednesday Those days, he was home before 10, and was able to sleep in on Thursday and Friday. So the last day of high school doesn't come with the drama that an elementary school's last day holds.

I've always tried to pick up Nick and Gaby at school on their last day and snap one last photo of them with their outgoing teacher. Some years are easier than others, depending on what else is going on at the school. If the fifth grade promotion ceremony has been rained out/delayed til that last day, there's people everyone and no one minds another parent drifting in.

But this year, the halls were pretty quiet. One of the math teachers gave me the OK to proceed to Gab's classroom. Talk about taking me back to my childhood. Those wide grins I was walking against on my way to find Gaby put an equally wide grin on my face. They were ecstatic and I recalled that same feeling of spilling out of the school one last time, all papers and books in hand, not returning for 2 months. That's 2 months, not 10 weeks. In Canada, we always went to the very end of June.

But we were lucky enough to leave with our teacher assignment for the next year, and supply list, in hand. I so wish they did that at Jarr, but in all the years that I've had kids there, it's never happened. Letters are sent out within two weeks of school starting up in September, indicating the teacher for the coming year. At least, in the past few years, the teaching teams have come up with a combined generic supply list to get us started. For people like me, who like to hit Target as soon as they're clearing out the red, white and blue of the 4th, this is great. The prices offered in July are 25% of what you'd pay any other time of year, especially if you shop the sales through the summer. Markers that are $4 any other time, can be had for less than $1 on sale.

Getting back on track and off of my little nostalgic stroll, I caught Gaby and her favourite teacher of all time, Mrs. F. I agree with Gaby, Mrs. F is one heckuva teacher. Nick didn't have her, but she's been in that school as long as he was. And she has a son Nick's age, so we'll always be parents of Class of 2019 students. I'm glad for that, because not only is she an amazing teacher, she's an all around great person too.

Got my picture!

Another last day of school tradition has been lunch at the place of their, Nick and Gab's, choice. There were a few years of McD's when Nick was in elementary school, a BK in there somewhere, and a couple of Olive Gardens I think. They also opted for Coldstone one year -- straight to dessert! This year, though Nick chose Oliver Garden, Gaby convinced him that KFC was a better choice. Well, not really. He just decided to be a nice guy and go with her choice.

Nick couldn't wait til we got home to eat his snackers.

Finger lickin' good.

It was our turn to host Gaby's book club meeting, and we ended up holding it that afternoon. The girls munched and nibbled, played outside, running through the sprinkler, blew some bubbles, and did have a brief discussion about the selection, Matilda, by Roald Dahl. They also watched a bit, but not all, of the movie version. Just ran out of time.

Wrapped up the day with smores outside.

We cheated and used the smore maker. Just light the little sterno, adjust the flame, and instant fire for roasting those marshmallows. It's great for year round smores, but we've come to use anytime we're at home and a craving for smores hits. Faster than building a fire and waiting for those coals to burn down.

Nick takes his time and slow roasts his marshmallows to warm and gooey perfection, inside and out. Gaby just plunges in and lets them flame up and char. I prefer method number one, or at least I did in the days when I would roast and eat a marshmallow.

And lastly, a few sparklers to further celebrate the beginning of summer break!