School's out for summer

Today is the last day of kindergarten. We are grieving pretty hard around here. Lily couldn't wait for summer until she realized going back to school would mean new teacher, new classmates, new room and (God forbid) new work stations. The very mention of life without Ms. Henderson draws up the most authentic crocodile tears I have seen on her yet.

It felt like a tall order, leaving our firstborn with strangers; and hope they, at the very least, "get her." It didn't occur to us that they may even enjoy her...and dare I say; love her.

There aren't gifts cosmic enough to thank the woman who taught my daughter how to read, make graphs, draw parallelograms, and identify Dolly Parton's voice in any song. I hope Lily's memory is strong enough to hold this year. I think it will put a smile on her face whenever she recalls it. If kindergarten is the foundation of her school career, she couldn't be any stronger.