Tomorrow marks the first day of June, a month which is typically full of all sorts of fun and frolic for our family.
We have Peter’s and Brad’s birthdays – both of which fall before the last day of school this year for the first time ever. Peter is ecstatic. His birthday is finally NOT a summer birthday.
Then we have all the end of school festivities. Then school ends (WOOHOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), but I’m not excited or anything.
Then we have parties. And more parties. And trips. And then comes Samuel’s birthday. And more parties.
Then we wake up and it’s August and school starts tomorrow.
Just kidding. Sort of.
Actually, today really kicked off our last week of school with the Celebration of Learning at the kids’ elementary school. They do this at the end of each semester. But this one was extra special because after 10 years, our principal is leaving to take a job as a district-level administrator. So the teachers spent the last few weeks putting together this really awesome mob dance routine, teaching it to all the kids, putting the word out to the parents – all while keeping it a big secret from our principal. Matthew has been so excited about this dance, working hard every day to learn the moves, until last night, he felt it was good enough for me to film:
Samuel practiced it too, but let’s just say that his video didn’t turn out. That’s probably the best way to overlook the disaster explain it.
So then, this afternoon’s Celebration of Learning theme was the Wizard of Oz, and the kids wore green while the teachers put on a 3 part skit. They had done all 3 parts and were just at the end when I got an inkling we were getting close to starting the dance. When the video starts, you can see Dorothy and her friends doing a dance to “Ease On Down The Road”. Mrs. Koenig played the Wizard. Then suddenly, the music stops and – well, it’s probably better to just show it to you:
I especially love the part where I zoomed in and caught Mrs. Koenig wiping tears away. After she got over the shock of it all, she said that she had been griping at her teachers all week for not working on their “Ease On Down The Road” dance. I think she thought they were going to have to wing it! (By the way, the Cowardly Lion is Matthew’s Sp.Ed. teacher.) My video isn’t the best since I took it from the back of the room but it was so well done. The kids were obviously well-coached and just did a beautiful job.
Now we’re down to just 5 more days of school!!!!!!! But who’s counting?