We left Canada on what was to be the kids’ first day of school.

Today, almost nine months later, they celebrated their last day of school.

The ten point review of their school year:

Zero…perfect attendance awards
One…school that feels like home

Two…thousand, five hundred thirty three miles
Three…times zones
Four…addresses
Five…best friends ( and a whole gang of really, really good ones)

Six…Shakespeare performances
Seven…weeks of DI practice
Eight…teachers
Nine…hours of sleep a night
Ten…weeks until the first day of school again

It’s been a blast. My kids are now 4th and 2nd graders. Yikes.

Children? Do you know what happens if you have a crazy afro that you positively refuse to wash or allow your sweet mother to brush and put up in cute little pig-tails*? I’ll tell you what. Your darling mother will cruelly take advantage of the fact that you have an attention span rivaling that of a cheap door knob and use the moments after your bath while you are brushing your teeth (with her toothbrush) to take you from this….

to this…

Yes, children, beware the painfully cute 50’s bob.

Yes, children. Your mother hates you and wants you to be miserable.

*No, it does not count if you let your Auntie Nicole do all sorts of fabulous things to your hair. You have to throw your momma an occasional bone, too.

Happy Memorial Day to you! What were you up to? Beer? Barbecue? Public ridicule? Hooray for holidays on Monday! We spent the day with the Notorious MollyG at the Boulder Creek Arts Festival getting in touch with our hemp-wearing, pot smoking, Dead listening, unshaven sides*.

Gonna ride across the river deep and wide
Ride across the river to the other side…

I’m just a singer in a rock & roll band…

Kiss? Bunch of sissy boy Posers. Watch out world, here comes Rock Star Scare**!

(I mean, really? What holiday would be complete without a bunch of crap all over your face?)

I’m high as a kite; I just might stop and check you out….

For some reason we decided it was a good idea to tie our sweet little children to rubber bands and fling them upward. They agreed this was a fabulous idea.
(Look super close at 2of3’s and The Kid’s faces. They’re awesome.)

And so castles made of sand fall in the sea, eventually…

No witty random song-lyric caption for this one; I just think it’s lovely…

Molly and I played a game called duelling cameras. Same vantage point, same subject. Best picture wins. I think I have this one in the bag…

I have been told that I don’t have enough pictures of myself on this thing, and I intend to remedy that, right here and now.

What do you mean, that doesn’t count? FINE. Here’s a few more.

*We, in fact, did not do any of the above. Well, I can’t attest to the shaving bit. I did, but I totally forgot to do a pit check on Molly.

**If you click no other link for the rest of your life, click that one, if only to compare pictures. I got the better 3of3 pic, but Molly sooo got the better Rock Star Scare shot. For sures.

Look who got the Rocky Mtn. Optimist’s Good Citizen award today!

His teacher announced him at the awards ceremony by saying, “We chose a student who is a very good citizen, who is challenging, but a pleasure in class….”

That’s my boy.

So, I’m watching the American Idol finale. Ugh.

Honestly, I’m only watching it to keep up with him. He’s funny. But I digress.

Anyway, they get to the bit where they all start singing Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band songs, which just so happens to be my most favorite Beatles album, and as I am slowly filling with a heated, seething sort of rage, wondering how they could dare do that to that album, I remember this and how much I loved it as a child.