Last day of the first year of high school

pa-jammy
Today was the boys’ last day of 8th grade. Their last day of middle school. And their last day at the school they’ve been at since they were 3. Eleven years of French schooling, au revoir!
Last day:
(It was pouring this morning, so I couldn’t get the usual pic, and then the bus just flaked on them and never showed up this afternoon, so I went to pick them up on the condition they’d let me take a picture outside the school.)
And just for comparison, first day of 8th grade, when their voices were at least an octave higher:
It’s been a harrowing couple of weeks. The plague finally hit our house (only 40% of it) but it meant Linus and Oliver had to miss all of last week and Miles missed most of this week, and I had to cancel a work trip to New York (but I’m not bitter.)
Fair warning: tomorrow night is the 8th grade promotion ceremony, so expect another blog post and lots more pictures. Maybe even a family pic?!?
Today is the last day of seventh grade. Hard to believe we all (and by “all” I mean “the whole world”) got through this year. Let’s just hope next year looks more like, say, fifth grade. The last normal school year.
Based on their first day pic from August, I’d say they have grown a little bit.
If nothing else, their hair certainly has!
Some notable things about seventh grade:
And on to eighth!
Well that sure was a weird school year.
They were going to wear their uniforms but lost steam about halfway through. Close enough. (That yellow hoodie is definitely Linus’s quarantine uniform…)
I can’t tell if they grew much this school year but their hair definitely did! (I should have made them stand up straight for this picture. Oh well.)
First day:
Can you believe it? Today is the boys’ last day of elementary school. Sniff, sniff. Not that they’ll be changing schools or anything, but they’ll be in sixth grade, and things will change a little bit. They’ll be switching classes (though staying with the same classmates all day.) They’ll have lockers. They’ll start learning Spanish (along with continuing French, of course.) They’ll be able to join clubs! Pretty cool.
As usual, I’m gonna get all nostalgic and stuff. And I’m going to post this picture from the first day they started at their school, in August 2011.
And a picture from this morning, the last day of fifth grade:
To compare, a picture from the first day of fifth grade:
Geez, it looks like they were more excited about starting school than it ending. Hmm. Maybe I should look into summer school?
I cannot believe how fast this year went. I mean, this year really went by in a flash. Even the boys thought so. I think partially because they rode the bus and partially because third grade went at a snail’s pace because of whooping cough. But I am already predicting that fifth grade is going to go by even faster because my sabbatical starts in December, so by the time that’s done in March the year will be practically over and OMG MY BABIES ARE ALMOST IN MIDDLE SCHOOL.
First day:
Last day:
Okay, they don’t look that different, except for their hair.
At the bus stop with the girls:
Mary Catherine was excited on the first day about the bus, today was my turn to show my excitement:
Our golden steed, driven by our knight in shining armor, Mr. C…
On to fifth (!!!) grade!
This year just flew by, didn’t it? I can’t believe the boys have been at their school for five years now. Seems crazy.
First day:
Last day:
Have they grown? Not noticeably. Have they changed? Uh yeah. I love seeing the pristine shoes and backpacks from the first day. And look how tan their legs are from the summer. Oh, and we have a dog now, too.
Third grade, here we come!
Yesterday was the last day of first grade. When I went to pick up the kids, Oliver and Millie’s teacher was walking them to the car, crying with Millie. One of the hard parts about going to a school where the teachers are coming from a foreign country is that they can’t stay forever. So I wasn’t able to get a picture with the boys with each of their teachers, but it’s okay. I’ll survive without having every single aspect of their lives documented.
Last day (standing the same order in both pics):
and first day:
Want to see more last days? Here you go.
Oof. Slow down, time!
Today:
Hard to tell if they’re any bigger, since Oliver is standing funny, but they at least…have more hair?
Yesterday was the end of the year ceremony, which I decided to just watch and enjoy rather than try to photograph every moment. Just as well, since these were the only pictures I could get of the kids:
(If you look hard, you can see Oliver waving to me from the back row.)
After school today, the boys were being super cute saying bye to their friends and teachers.
Not only is today the much-anticipated FIVE AND A HALF (I swear, they’ve been asking since December 5 when they were going to turn five and a half), but it’s also the last day of school. More on that later.