verbatim: Almost Done

Spring is the time of year when parents of school-age kids are ready to tear their hair out. In addition to sports, music lessons, Hebrew school, and whatever else, there are suddenly all of these end-of-year events, like dress rehearsals and recitals and concerts and presentations. The good news is that every week, something has its final meeting, and one by one the afternoons and evenings free up. We are among the least over-scheduled families I know, and even we are feeling the pinch.

Hebrew school ended a few weeks ago, which freed up Wednesday evenings for Pete and Julie, and Sunday mornings for Julie. This is the last week of soccer for both of them, which will free up Monday and Thursday evenings for Pete and Friday evenings for Julie, and Saturday afternoons for both of them. Pete had his last drum lesson last week and his last sax lesson today (both on Tuesday). Julie has her last piano lesson this Thursday. She has two more weeks of dance (also Tuesday).

We've already had Steph's chorus concert and Pete's sax recital. The AIDS Walk was Sunday (it was great!). Julie's New England animals presentation is this Friday. Her recorder concert is Monday morning, and Pete's band concert is Monday evening. Julie's dance recital is a week from Saturday. Phew!

During the winter the school had a fundraiser for which the teachers all donated gifts of their time. Someone could enter to be principal for a day, or to do a special project with the art teacher, or even to go to a teacher's home to watch a movie and have popcorn. Julie entered to win a mini-golf outing with her teacher, and she won! Today was the day. She invited three pals, and I drove them to meet her teacher out at Monster Mini Golf, which is a way cool place! (We were going to do an outdoor course, but it was very hot out and the kids had already spent all morning outside for the school's Color Day.) We had a blast. Then we went to Friendly's for ice cream sundaes. It was quite a treat to hang with a beloved teacher outside of school.

Oh, and there's only 11 more days of school, but who's counting?