Our Deflating End of the School Year

Last week was our End of School Week! Boy was it crazy with all the "lasts". We had our last art class on Wednesday. We've all enjoyed the classes so much and learned a lot!

Here is one of my favorite pictures that James did:

And I love the sheep that Rachel invented! Isn't she so cute!!!!! (Also notice Melea's humming pony next door).

We celebrated the last day of school with a trip to the place where my mom resides. It is perfect for outdoor picnics and explorations!

It's like a little hidden park inside the gates.

We spent a relaxing afternoon enjoying the outdoors and kind of just puttering about.

Grandma let Laura do some painting at her work table.

Soccer finished up last week too. The boys had so much fun this spring, mostly because they got to play on teams with some good friends of theirs.

James' team was particularly fun because several of the children have recently arrived from Ethiopia where everyone is an expert soccer player. 

We also had our piano recital with Rachel, Andrew, and James each playing.

The best part of the recital is the last song where all of the students play along with their teacher. 

Here is the "final day of school" picture (in this version they were requested to make a serious face).

And here is the deflating part of our last day. Pulling into my mom's I completely gashed the front tire and it immediately made that horrible hissing noise and went flat. UGH! 

For a minute I thought our day was ruined but then when I really thought about it, this couldn't have happened in a better place, at a better time, etc. My mom had triple A who came to change our tire and in the end we arrived home at the exact minute I had planned to all day anyway! So, although the poor tire was completely deflated, I was thankful that the day ended well and the kids and I had a good laugh about hardships that happen even to adults and not just kids.

It's exciting to have school finished for the 2012-2013 year! It is a lot of work, and I usually spend part of each day wondering how things will work out and if my kids are learning enough. But looking at the big picture, we had a great year and studied some really cool things.