The End of an Era

It's Charlotte's last day of preschool today. As another parent said to me, "It's bittersweet, isn't it? But more sweet than bitter!" Cue the maniacal laugh.

That's because for seven years we have had mandatory "volunteer" time at The Raleigh School that is now over! Not that I don't appreciate my time there, and what having parent volunteers does to improve the school, but at least now my volunteer time will be exactly that, volunteer.

I've worked in the library (shelving and checking out books, and believe me, those modern beeper computer systems are not nearly as exciting as the old-fashioned card machines I wanted so badly to be able to use when I was a kid). I've also been a Scholastic book order leader, room parent (never doing that again, even at the elementary school), chair of the carpool committee, field trip driver, toy sterilizer (the worst job in the history of the world), shelf painter, garden mulcher, organic and all-natural gluten-and peanut-free snack maker, story teller, table setter, bag stuffer, sand sweeper, heavy furniture lifter, dollhouse builder, window cleaner, homemade playdough cook, bulletin board stapler, and party planner. And that's not counting the required full-day teacher assistant time in the classroom every few weeks.

Bitter? Never! Actually, as much as we parents all roll our eyes, it's really a phenomenal experience to get to know the kids and teachers and parents in your child's class, and the ins and the outs of the school, as well as you do there. And it wouldn't happen without all of that volunteering. My kids have had a wonderful education and nuturing environment thanks to the school and the parents.

This all means, MORE POOL TIME!

As you saw from the last post, we've already logged some serious pool time and it's not even Memorial Day yet. Last weekend was our club's 50th anniversary celebration, which included a pool party. It started with the dunking booth.

Now Anson trying to dunk someone else...

And Charlotte trying the same. Note that like when Anson was sitting in the booth, they let the little kids press the button when they are done!

By the time the water balloon tossing, hula hooping, and relay race contests were underway, I was over videotaping. Or should I say videodigitalizing?

But I did catch a few shots of Anson going off the diving board and down the ginormous slide. I actually went down it once when it first opened, just to show the kids that it wasn't so high and scary, but let's just say, once was enough for me!

I seem to be determined to have the kids wave to the camera; thankfully Anson finally obliged.

Hope you have a great weekend! Unfortunately Russell has to work, but the kids and I are going to the lake and (try to) relax and be lazy. Luckily we will have great friends to share it with this time!