It's the middle of May, and that means many things for American moms of school-age kids. The first word that comes to mind is hectic. That might be why I am taking a minute or two today to stop, take a deep breath and gird my loins for what is ahead in the next couple of weeks. Prom is this coming Friday night followed by high school graduation one week later. Even though we don't have a child graduating this year, we have been receiving lots of invitations for graduation parties. Graduation is followed by final exams, with multiple awards ceremonies, picnics and end-of-year celebrations all falling in the same four days following Memorial Day. Then there are those teachers that are still assigning projects. What are they thinking? Oh wait, I happen to be one of them. What was I thinking? I guess I will be grading projects in-between parties and hoping that parents forgive me some day, ideally before the summer is over.
Before all of that craziness hits, here is a look back at the last couple of months.
On March 6, our third child turned thirteen, making us the parents of three teens. It's not the frightening thing that I anticipated when they were all little, however. In fact I have discovered that I much prefer the teen years to the toddler years.
In March we mourned the loss of my grandmother. My brother took this photo of the lake of front of her house the morning after the funeral:
April in our household was dominated by all things Little Mermaid. We had three of our four children performing in the same event, which was quite exciting. The eldest played the flute in the orchestra, the second starred as King Triton, and the third as a jellyfish. Our youngest got in on the action when his older brother visited his school to give a preview of the upcoming musical. He also attended four of the five productions.
April also brought the beginning of another baseball season for our youngest, followed by his first ever band concert in May.
I mentioned prom at the beginning of the post. The next picture shows our eldest just after she was asked to prom. We thought her date was pretty clever in his attempt to include both Australia and Canada in his "promposal." For a fascinating exploration of the American phenomenon of prom, I recommend listening to episode 186 of the podcast "This American Life."
My parents and (Canadian) aunt and uncle visited us in early May. It was great to see them again.
Next up is a photo of a middle school class trip to Washington D.C. that our seventh grader took at the beginning of May. I include it because it is symbolic of our gradual progress in filling in the gaps of our kids' knowledge of American history and institutions. The older two at least had some U.S. history before we moved to Melbourne, but the younger two have been learning it all for the first time. Every once in a while we discover that one of them doesn't know something that we take for granted they must know (the dates of the Civil War, for example, or who Martin Luther King Jr. was, or the fact that Iowa is located in the middle of the country). Fortunately we have another year or so to make up for lost time before they begin leaving us to go off to college.
Last, I have a photo taken on Mother's Day. I include it because everyone looks happy, and this has not always happened on Mother's Day in our family. In fact I think this year was the first time that we made it through breakfast and lunch with no fighting. Hooray for small victories, and a happy-even-if-it's-hectic May to all of my readers.
Wonderful update, Christie. What a complete different year than when the kids first returned to Pittsburgh! I'm so glad to hear how well they have adjusted and are thriving. Congratulations!!
Posted by: Teresa Blum | 05/18/2016 at 06:40 AM
Thanks Teresa! This year has truly been easier than last year, and we are so very grateful.
Posted by: Christie | 05/18/2016 at 11:02 AM
Thank you very much it really helped me.
Posted by: Denny | 07/06/2017 at 09:12 PM