School's Out, For Real

This week we marked the official end of school. It was a little strange, to say the least. The kids both had good-bye Zoom meetings with their teachers and classes, but it was not the same as a class party! I'm sad for them to have this void overshadowing their memories of this school year, an asterisk on their report cards, and little closure to the classes they've gotten to know over the last eight months. But no complaints, as it could be so much worse! They both got into a pretty good online school routine and soldiered on every week for 9 weeks through Zoom meetings, various school apps, and random assignments. So I thought they needed to have a little award ceremony to end on a positive note. Hadley was super embarrassed, but I think they were pleasantly surprised as we played "Pomp and Circumstance" as they came down the stairs to accept their awards. I just hope their 3rd and 5th grade years will be back to normal ASAP.

To top it off, we had celebratory Taco Party Packs from Taco Bell (thanks Oma!) and pool time at the neighbors' while they were out of town (thanks neighbors!).

This holiday weekend we also broke out our Slip-n-Slide. We might have to get a pool for the backyard, if the neighborhood one doesn't open soon.

We did some additional celebrations in the neighborhood too. We joined a car parade to drive by graduating seniors' houses in the 'hood and wave signs and honk. It was fun and brought a tear to my eye when I saw how touched some of them were. Talk about a weird ending to your school life!

In fact, it was so fun that we did two birthday parades the next day for some of the kids' classmates. It's such a small gesture, but it is pretty magical to see a community come together to spread joy.

Speaking of joy, H has really been enjoying watching the Kids Baking Championship. The kid bakers on that show are amazing! Anyway, we made banana pudding, and H made the meringue pretty much by herself with a hand mixer! We had seen several meringues made on the show, and now she knows just what it is and what "stiff peaks" means. The pudding was delicious, by the way.

On another occasion, Hadley presented me with a ticket for a very exclusive puppet show. I was so impressed by her initiative and creativity, since she usually stares at the wall if she doesn't have a specific task to do, person to play with, or show to watch. I will teach her how to entertain herself by the end of this quarantine, by golly!