Memorial Day Weekend

Ty wrapped his first grade year Friday. As prepared as he is for second grade, he is apprehensive about the change. He had a good year; however, as he watched an old Spiderman movie this weekend, we noted the teachers let the kids run the chaotic high school depicted in that movie and Ty longingly said, "I wish I went to that school." Greg and I did not contain our laughter. We both know all too well how little tolerance our son has for chaos but a world run by kids sounds like heaven on the surface when you are seven.

Makenna completed her junior year and is also expressing some reservations about entering her final year of high school. She says adulting is gaining on her and she isn't quite ready. We are confident she is more prepared than she realizes. She had a great year both socially and academically. She had fantastic teachers and is pictured here with her all time favorite on her last day. She hopes to work a teaching assistant position into her schedule next year to spend time with Miss Smith again.

Kate finished fifth grade and is on a waiting list at a local smaller school for sixth grade in July. School days have been very relaxed these last few weeks as she was able to complete so much more than we anticipated when we set out on this journey in October.

Friday night we celebrated with a candle lit sleepover watching a movie and snacking on popcorn. It was the calm needed to decompress from a long week of final school activities because at one point Ty was running away from home because we insisted he eat dinner. He put himself to bed and slept 12 solid hours. Did I mention how much he needs order in his world?

Two neighbors shared Ty stories with me this weekend. My son has been running around telling friends his secret. This always makes me nervous because the boy has a very active imagination. Apparently he is really a superhero but lives his life as a normal kid so no one knows. As I shared this information on Facebook, I discovered there are a few classmates of his who firmly believe my son. And then another neighbor fed my son dinner and he thanked her but followed up by requesting she order pizza next time. I was mortified. She was amused. Thank God.

Makenna started a new job Saturday with Subway. Her first day was chaotic, unorganized and left her feeling very unsettled about her future there so she is still keeping her ears open to other possibilities. She knows she will need funds for both a car (car shopping is daunting by the way) and the Thespian festival if Newsies gets accepted onto the main stage this year. Given the Disney endorsement and pilot program being generated out of this endeavor, it is a safe assumption they will be invited to perform. As Makenna mentioned Friday, "adulting is hard".

Monday Makenna lounged at a friend's pool and Kate was invited to another friend's for a day of swimming followed by a sleepover. So I took Ty to the zoo, just the two of us. He loves the zoo so a day centered around what he wanted to see was perfect despite being there on a holiday weekend with half the free world. He scored a five dollar monkey he has longed for the last few trips to the zoo and in the end, we shared a frosty. It was a good way to spend some quality time together. His stories are endless, his imagination is second to none and his memory of every encounter he has ever experienced at the zoo was recalled.

We wrapped the weekend with a bike ride by a local creek where a neighbor boy taught Ty how to skip rocks. Weekends just simply don't get better than this.