Last Day of School!

All I have to say is GOOD RIDDANCE!  This challenging and frustrating school year is officially over as of today and I couldn't be happier to close the door on this one forever.  Although the kids and I stuck with the program and did everything the teachers asked us to do at home, we definitely all can say that homeschooling is NOT our thing and that we are all looking forward to in-person school returning five days a week in the fall.  Since Logan is still not allowed to go to school on Mondays, both he and Ella were able to go to in-person school together their last two days of school this week which was fun for both of them.  On the other hand, Lia's last day of in-person school was on Friday, June 11th, since she only goes to school two half days every week on Wednesday and Fridays.  Since a 9th grade assembly was scheduled for the last day of school and only 9th graders were allowed to attend, Lia was literally prohibited from attending school on the last day of school.  Oh well.  It's just one more reason to add to the very long list of why her 7th grade school year was such a ridiculous joke.  As a result, Lia finished school yesterday for good after her final online class ended at 10:30 in the morning.  

After days and days of rain, we woke up to beautiful sunshine today!  The weather could not have planned the beginning of our summer break any better!  After dropping both Ella and Logan off at school at 9 o'clock, I drove Lia and Emmett directly to RHS so that Lia could receive her second Covid vaccine shot.  We then drove to the grocery store to purchase food for Lia's end-of-school-year slumber party that I promised her several weeks ago that I would host for her if she stayed motivated with her online school and got straight As (which she did)!  After coming home, Lia and I spent an hour cleaning up the basement so that it would be clean and tidy for her slumber party.  After lunch, I left to pick up Logan from the bus stop since Ella had been invited to go directly to a friend's house after school to attend an end-of-the-year tea party.  After picking Ella up at 2:30 and delivering her to the neighbor's house for a second end-of-the-school-year party with Poppy and Daisy, I came home to start getting ready for Lia's party.  After the friends started arriving at 5 o'clock, we had a busy and hopping backyard for a few hours while everyone ran around playing in and out of the pool.  It made me so happy to watch all of these kids running around in their swimsuits on a beautiful, summer evening having such a good time after such a long and difficult year!

We finished off the evening with a BBQ dinner with all of the fixings in our backyard.  All of the girls (Ella included) chose to eat dinner on the grass while the boys ate on the deck with Ron and me.  After eating ice cream treats for dessert, the girls all moved inside to change into dry clothes and watch one of Lia's and my favorite movies of 2020:  Enola Holmes.  Since Ron has his huge graduation ceremony tomorrow, we decided to treat this first night of summer like a regular school night and put the three younger kids to bed by 9 p.m.  After saying goodnight to the 'big girls' in the basement, I crawled into bed and crashed since it has been a very busy and long day starting at 5 a.m. when Emmett woke me up this morning.  Such is life as a mom...

Although Lia wasn't going to school today, I asked all four kids to pose for me out on the steps for their last day of school picture.  This was Lia's last day of 7th grade, Logan's last day of 3rd grade, and Ella's last day of 1st grade.  It's all just going too fast...

  

Logan and Ella standing outside their school gate before heading off to their last day of school.

Logan running to greet me after getting off of the bus.

A close-up of my very happy, now-4th-grader heading into summer break!

Lia lounging in the pool with three of her friends who had already arrived--Mollie, Elle, and Sienna.

Lia splashing away!

Emmett and Ella played with our neighbor girls, Poppy and Daisy, until dinner time.

Logan pulled out his new, gigantic water gun to spray the big girls in the pool.  He sure is good at being the pest when Lia has her friends over. :-)

The chaos of all of the kids in the pool with the gigantic, unicorn floatie that "exploded" into a giant ball at the end of last summer.  It now is this massive floatie that the kids try to jump onto and stay on for a few seconds before falling off!

Lia and her four closest buddies from school enjoying dinner out on the lawn.

Ella perched above the girls on the playground to eat her dinner.

The five girls all ready to watch the movie in the basement.  I am so happy that we were able to provide this fun experience for these girls after such a crazy year!  Now it's on to 8th grade (gasp)!