Warning: Sap Ahead

Tomorrow is the last day of school. Tonight is kindergarten graduation. My daughter's class is putting on a program rather than doing the caps-n-gowns thing, but I suspect it will be a three-kleenex event, anyway. And I don't even tend to be that sentimental of a person... it's just been a long year, for all of us.

Amongst my various tasks for today is to ready the teacher gifts. The gifts? No problem. The cards? I'm going to have a nervous breakdown.

Dear Monkey's teaching team,

Thank you so much for another great year at The School. Monkey has had such fun and learned so much this term. I'm not overly thrilled about his new Spiderman addiction but I'm going to attribute that to the other little boy monkeys in his class rather than to you. Although he is a fairly easy-going little guy and probably would've been fine anywhere, you continued to be sensitive to his (few) needs and provide a haven for him when our family needed it most.

Oh, and thanks for remembering the food allergy protocols, always having special safe snacks on hand for him, and, you know, not poisoning him. We really appreciate that, too.

Have a great summer!

Mir and Monkey

I managed to get through that one pretty well, actually. Here is where I lost it:

Dear Chickadee's teaching team,

Thank you so much for another great year at The School. Chickadee has had such fun and learned so much this term. As you know, it was a very difficult year for her, and I cannot find the words to express my gratitude to you for your part in arriving at June with a happy, well-adjusted child.

Thank you for not giving up on her. Thank you for giving her extra attention when she needed it. Thank you for keeping the lines of communication open and never once making me feel like her problems reflected some shortcoming(s) on my part as a mother. Thank you for not killing her or even losing your patience with her when we had that little medication glitch that rendered her symptomatically ADHD for a week (eek). Thank you for giving her a safe place to spread her wings. Thank you for showing her that she is smart. Thank you for allowing her to become the benevolent class know-it-all and to discover that her peers value her smarts. Thank you for bringing in books just for her, when she'd exhausted the class library. Thank you for helping me to see that she can and will find her way.

Thank you for loving her. (And for putting up with me.)

Thank you for helping to foster her excitement over switching schools next year, even as I am agonizing inside over the sure knowledge that there simply cannot be such wonderful teachers anywhere else.

Have a wonderful summer and feel free to come visit or maybe even move in with us....

Mir and Chickadee

Do you see how hard this is?? I am going to be a complete basket case at graduation tonight.