The end of another school year...

The first and last day of school pictures are some of my favorite milestone pictures. Sometimes you can tell how much they've grown physically in the past school year and sometimes you can't. But it serves as a nice reminder to me that they have grown emotionally and mentally even if their physical appearance hasn't altered much. These girls began their year excited, ready to learn and happy to be at a school they love with friends they adore and teachers they respect.

I was on the fence sending my children to a Catholic school when Sofia was still in pre-k4, I heard a lot of pros and cons from family and close friends. A few family members went so far as to say they would never send their kids to a catholic school preferring to send to public because of a variety of reasons. A few friends knew from the moment they became parents that Catholic school was the only way for them. Since it was ultimately our decisions as their parents, Anthony and I sat down and weighed our own pros and cons. We walked into the orientation for new families and hanging on the wall in a glass enclosed framing was a family quilt. And there at the top, right in the middle was our last name from when Anthony was a student there for his entire Kindergarten through eighth grade schooling. Sofia was the first to point out our name and even though we had said that was where Daddy went to school too, her expression and excitement at seeing that sent me over the edge and I knew where our 5 year old would go to Kindergarten that Fall. The feeling of contributing to our own family tradition became a big pro in my books and thankfully everything else I was concerned about, is working out for our best. So far, so good so to speak.

Being excited about school and being interested in learning starts at home. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter so much where our kids go to learn, just that they do and that they like it enough to have the want and need to learn more. Seeing their smiling faces as they leave the house on that first day, ready to take on a new year gives me such hope for them. I hope for all they will learn that year and how what they learn may change them. Likewise, seeing their smiling faces on the last day of school reminds me of that first day and how much has happened in between. My happiness on that last day comes from knowing they made it another year, are another year wiser, another year in the books that they accomplished something great and did great things. It makes me very proud of them.