Last Day of School 2013

Today was the last day of school! Goodbye 3rd & 1st Grade:

I love seeing how they've grown; even more than size-wise, I really can see more maturity in the faces, :-)

When I picked them up (it was early dismissal), Annelise looked at me and just burst into tears. She bawled HYSTERICALLY for over 15 minutes - inconsolable over not having Mrs. Everhard as her teacher anymore. ♥ ♥ ♥ I am soooo thankful she loves school so much...but she was about to make *me* cry!!!

Will bent over backwards to comfort her and finally made her smile with the Iron Man mask he made during free art time this morning.

She kept hugging him: "You're the BEST brother EVER!" Please, Lord, let this be a sign of what our summer will bring, and don't let them forget how this love feels...

After she had calmed down, we took Will to a football teammate's house for a sleepover, and we girls went to our friends' house. We wanted to make the 1st afternoon of summer vacay special: hair chalk turning our girls into Rainbow Brites, milkshakes, & Trader Joe's trip

(The color faded more quickly on the brunettes. This was 4 hours post-chalking: you can kind of still see on Ellie's short hair in the middle pic; Annelise, on the other hand, may still look like Rainbow Brite into next week...)