High Five for SUMMER!

Here's how we spent the last day of school/Emma's birthday.

1.  Talent Show at the Middle School.  Megan and Emma sang For Good from Wicked.  Megan was SO nervous before school that she couldn't even do her own hair.  Her hands were shaking.  She couldn't sit still.  She couldn't breathe.  But everything went SO great.  They were both happy with their performance, but I think Megan felt especially fulfilled to have made her singing debut on the very last day of 8th grade!  No one even knew she could sing...well, except her family.  She has an amazing voice, but she's always chosen to be in orchestra rather than choir.  Today when the choir director hunted her down after she sang and asked her where she had been his whole life, I think she felt pretty great.  And then when she continued to receive texts and compliments all day from her friends, that sealed her confidence.  It was a great thing to watch her live that vision she's had for two whole years!

2.  Annual Last Day of School Lunch.  Last year, when Savannah and Megan both had early release days on the last day of school, I took them and about 6 of their friends to In-N-Out for lunch.  This year, we added Emma and a friend to that group of older, early release kids and met my friend, Amy, and her two daughters at In-N-Out.  I brought cupcakes and we tried to get the whole restaurant to sing to Emma, but they were too busy eating.  :(

3.  Annual Water Gun Ambush.  Last year, the older girls found the water guns Craig had bought for Scout Camp and asked if they could spray all the kids with them as they came home from the elementary school.  He thought that was a great idea so he joined them.  This year we borrowed not just water guns, but SUPER SOAKERS from Megan's friend, and everyone who walked past our house ended up SUPER soaked!  They loved it, even in the overcast drizzly weather.  

4.  Otter Pops.  I decided that since we were planning the water gun ambush, we should also have something nice to give the kids on their way home.  OTTER POPS!  Those just scream SUMMER, don't they?  Well, guess what!  They don't even make Otter Pops in Texas.  Is that crazy or what?  In fact, none of the kids even knew what an Otter Pop was, so they all looked at me like I was crazy to call them that.  I made a valiant effort today to convert the kids on our street to calling them Otter Pops.  I don't even know what they're really called here, and neither did anyone else, so they happily adopted OTTER POPS as the official name for these yummy things.  I took a bowl of about 36 fake Otter Pops outside and came in an hour later with a pair of sticky scissors and a bowl full of wrappers.  

5.  Oh, yeah...Emma's Birthday.  After In-N-Out, I dropped Emma and her friend at a pool party.  And then picked them up two hours later and drove them to the friends' house where they are having a lateover/movie night.  I haven't even seen my birthday girl, except from a distance or in a crowd, for more than an hour today.  I guess this is what birthdays look like when you're a teenager and you have to share the day with The Last Day of School.  The pictures are staying up.  And we'll have an official present-opening/birthday dinner on Sunday when everyone is home from business trips and pool parties.  

It's been such a long end to such a long week.  I'm ready to sleep in, lay around by the pool, and start on that mountainous stack of books on my nightstand.  

Happy SUMMER!  Hope you have great things planned.