Aiden and Brady had their last days of preschool over a week ago. We’ve been waiting for Logan’s last day and it’s finally here. He got out at 11:55 today. We did the whole morning walk routine we’ve been doing all year….same pick-up routine as well. Logan suggested that I take an end-of-the-year picture since I took one on the first day of school so I snapped a bunch all along the way….after school too.

Ok…prepare to be amazed at the incredible maturing boy! Here is the first day of school: Logan – 6 & 1/2

And here was this morning: Logan – 7 years and 3 months

Logan and his buddy Sam

This is our daily walk to school: down the street and meet at Sam’s house, gather the troops and continue on

This is the path that runs between some of the houses at the South end of our street. We cut through, turn left and curve around to the entrance of the school (if we cut through our yards, it takes 3 minutes…this walk takes like 10)

The moms all stop near the end of the drive and the kids head on in

Here comes Logan after school! He’s bringing me a super fun little “something” from his teacher – a thanks for helping with classroom stuff this year

These are parents, teachers and administrators all lined up to say good-bye on the last day. This is not our usual route (this is the direction of the “walk through people’s yards we don’t know” route), but that’s where everyone lined up so that’s where we went!

Logan and his teacher!! So long 1st grade! :(

Before he walked in to school today, Logan wanted to know if I was going to have a “surprise” waiting for him on his last day. Some families go out for lunch or dinner or ice cream after the last day of school. Clearly this day was “the bar” against which all other “last days” will be measured. So…..I went with Lunchables (which the boys love and rarely get) WITH the drink and treat PLUS a sour candy thing for each. I asked them all if this was an acceptable “end of school / beginning of summer” celebration and they all shouted “YES!” Sweet. Done! Bar set very, very low ;)

So I was all sad and lamenting to a friend on the way back from school about how fast our kids grow up. Coincidentally, Brady decided to play one of his favorite games this afternoon: baby

Once in a while, your kids give you just what you need. For instance, I realized that the best thing about this “baby” is that he put together his own pack-n-play, has been potty trained for like 2 years, dresses himself, sleeps through the night, is pretty much swimming without a vest (thank you – I can finally sit on the side and watch!) and has HILARIOUS conversations with me. Ok fine….big kids are awesome too.

Daddy is out of town tonight, but we decided to have our first outside family meal of the year. Here are the boys yelling “yeah summer!” while munching on tacos. They played in water and got wet this afternoon so they are all in PJs….seemed like the thing to do at 4:30 when they changed out of bathing suits. I am a full supporter of PJs whenever possible…sometimes even when it’s not appropriate. We also have cool outdoor rock speakers now so Logan put on some tunes for our meals – Yeah summer!

In other news: last week I finally decided to do something about a section of landscaping that has been driving me nuts. This is a Serviceberry tree in our back yard on the side of our patio. The landscaping plan calls for some small weigela and clumps of blue oat grass. We planted both, per the plan, several years ago. The grasses died and the weigela never took off (it remained tiny, but kept coming back…just not growing). I decided I wanted caramel heuchera and some fun grasses. I saw just what I was looking for the other day and snatched them up. This is my new (still in the baby phase, but better than it was) landscaped area:

The grasses I got are fountain grasses called Fireworks. I knew Aiden would love just the name, but they are also super-cool looking. They will get 2-4 feet tall.

Aiden drew a picture of the fireworks grass. His actually shoot off fireworks (clearly labeled in the drawing below with the words “pow!”)

While we’re at it, here are pictures of my front-door planters. I am horrible at keeping these things watered so I suspect they will wither and die within the month, but here they are for now – pretty and brimming with hope (maybe I’ll set an alarm on my phone to remind me to water them…much like I have to remind myself to feed the tiny water frogs that live in my kitchen! <—those belong to Aiden)

HAPPY SUMMER EVERYONE!!!!!!! I’m so happy I don’t have to get out of bed at 7 tomorrow ;)