Schools Out...Scream and Shout

People we made it.  The end of the 2012-2013 school year descended upon us and has officially been laid to rest.  Thank the Lord.  The girl Things survived finals and papers and studying and late nights and cram sessions and all that.  So did Husband Jared and I.  There was no lack of celebration around this household at 11:45am last Friday.  The weight had been lifted and when the Things walked through the door we promptly loaded up and went for lunch at Lion's Tap where we toasted to summer and shared our high's of the year.  And guess what, this last year there was copious amounts of learning and growing that took place.  This will not be the post to address such things though.  We are talking about celebrating here! 

 

Group selfie? 

 Do you still call it that when it includes other people?

 

Per the Things request we drove around  with the windows rolled down and blared the country music loud, I mean loud enough for the entire city of Eden Prairie to hear.  Good times.  After all, we're all about making memories.  Traditions are important to these Things so our annual kick off to summer ice cream party was next on the docket.  A healthy day of eating for us, which may or may not have included donuts to jump start the Things and their friends on this morning.  We had so many kiddos with us we were forced to take two cars to our favorite donut shop, Yo-Yo!  To make the day even sweeter it was National Donut Day.  How could we have missed out on that one?  Free donuts, at least all the ones with  holes in them.  Yum! 

 

 

Ice cream celebration!

 

So many treats, so little time.  The day was full of ridding the Things' rooms of all school related paraphernalia, tossing papers and folders into the trash, taking care of a few chores and then more dancing around!  More time with friends, a graduation ceremony, loads of teenagers at our house, a little covert ops for one girl, a sleep over for another and too many late night giggles and shenanigans than I care to share here.  It has been a full weekend and summer has only just begun.

 

Another notable moment this week was Thing 4's promotion to the Upper School at ERA.  Moving from 5th grade to 6th.  Our days of elementary education are behind us and it only seemed right to document the occasion here.  Thing 4 gave a speech at the ceremony.  He stood up in front of 70 classmates and their families and shared what his first year at ERA was like for him, what he learned, how his teachers helped him and all that was accomplished in 9 short months.  Husband Jared and I are thinking we might have a politician on our hands.  And for the record I do mean that as a sincere compliment, the child can talk.  There were no "ums" or "like" used, the words flowed.  The moment was sweet.  Thing 4 then received his certificate from his teacher and the classes spent the afternoon at the park, partaking in root beer floats and running around exploring. 

 

 

And once again the blog has done this to my photos.  I have tried to download differently, rotate, save, blah, blah, blah.  To no avail.  My apologies.  I must include this photo because just look at that smile.  Come on people, what's this Mama to do? 

 

So summer kicks off today.  The Things are sleeping in.  There are cloudy, overcast skies outside and we are all hoping for a pool day soon.  Fingers crossed it will happen today.  Nonetheless, we are beyond thrilled that schools out.  We have done our fair share of screaming and shouting.  No doubt the fun will continue.