Last Week of 5th Grade

1st day of 5th Grade (left) - Last day of 5th Grade (right)

The days leading up to the last week of school were chock full of parties and half-days for the boy, meetings, work & an illustration workshop in the city for me.  In my attempt to keep us on track and not overly booked, we worked hard as a family to try and keep a balance and not get too overloaded.  Let me tell you, it was not easy!

We attended the West Marin Review release party for Volume V of their journal at Toby's Feed Barn in Point Reyes to help celebrate Grady's watercolor Invisible World being featured in the magazine.  His work graced page 24 and he was mentioned in the editor's summary of this newest edition at the beginning of the journal.

I learned that this beautiful journal is put together by an all volunteer staff and it took over one year to bring it all together.  Grady's painting was one of the few selected out of 325 art submissions.  This award-winning literary and art journal is a lovely collection of poetry, prose, photography and art.  They also publicly acknowledged the young artists in attendance and thanked them for their efforts and inspiration.

We could not have been more proud of our son.

1.  A year's worth of bread ties
2.  Teacher presents
3.  My last lunch note of the year!

As we ticked off school days on the calendar, there was a certain lightness in our home.  We had been working on teacher gifts (Grady's "Home" poem) and handmade cards for the last few weeks and it all came together rather easily.  I say easily, but it was because we were prepared and had been slowly working on this project for weeks.  I've learned from the past and cramming in making and gifting in the last few days of school is nuts, so we avoided the madness and planned ahead.  It made all the difference in the world.

The big event of the week was G's first school dance.  He claimed to have little interest in attending (or dancing for that matter) and so I didn't focus on the dance too much.  He did, however, want to give a little present to his girlfriend.  Now this was all fairly new to me.  I mean, I knew this pretty little fourth grader kind of liked him and he liked her throughout the school year and sat next to her in chess club, but I had no idea they were, like, boyfriend-girlfriend.

I realized that this was my first opportunity to help guide him in how to treat a young lady.   Off we trotted to the garage and dug into my bin of presents (leftover items from when I owned a retail store, books I pick up on sale, pencils, journals, etc.).  I mentioned that girls almost always like to receive jewelry or flowers.  He quickly selected a sweet bird pendant and decided to hand-stamp a gift bag for her.  A red heart for love and a black mustache for humor.  Yes, he's most definitely 11.

Not only would Grady be finishing up his 5th grade year, but this would be his final year at his elementary school.  As much as we had prepared for this as a family, I wasn't prepared for the emotional boy that got off the bus on the last day of school.

I met him at the bottom of our lane and chatted with the other kids who were getting off at this stop.  As we slowly made our way up to our house, I noticed Grady had his headphones and sunglasses on and his cheeks were wet.  I immediately thought about the dance and the girl and the present, but he assured me that wasn't why he was crying.

As hot tears ran down his face, he told me he was going to miss his friends.  I pulled him to me and gave him a hug and assured him that we would make every effort to keep and foster those friendships.  His hot, sweaty body clung to me and sobbed.  I put my arm around him and guided him home, washed his face and settled him into bed with a few books.  His tired body gave way to sleep and I pondered this new phase we were about to enter.

Top of the List Summer Plans :: Skate Park + Libraries

That evening was an emotional one, but after a long, hot shower and a father-son fish taco making session, Grady let go of the sadness and settled back into himself.  He mourned the loss of his familiar school and circle of friends and I told him it was okay to be sad, to feel things deeply - that meant that he cared about people and that was a good thing.

Our first blueberry harvest from our one and only bush + oatmeal-blueberry-lemon glaze cookies

And just like that, he moved through it.  The next day was the first day of summer vacation and we had fun planned.  Sleeping in was top on the list, a library visit to stock up on books, a lunch date at our favorite taco joint, a trip to the art supply store and a myriad of errands in town rounded out the day.

We did a lot of hunkering down as a family over the weekend and cooking at home.  Sunday found all three of us in our Queen-sized bed reading and working on our computers.  Breakfast was slow and we had the entire day before us with nothing pressing on the calendar.  We formed a plan and went to town to catch a movie, grab lunch and buy the boy some new soccer cleats.  All very ho-hum, but really nice to have a Sunday with my husband in tow.

Airborne at Doran Beach

And so we close this chapter of our six years at the local elementary school.  I can't believe it went so fast.  People are always telling you how fast it goes, but you never believe them.  It really served us well and I feel grateful for the strong foundation is has given Grady academically and socially.

He's ready to move on and so are we.

But first, we have an awesome summer to plan.