My Birthday and End of School

I had the BEST birthday gift this year.  It was the last day of school!!  I yearned to have all of my children home with me again all year.  I'm so glad we can homeschool again now!!

Annie performed in her school's talent show during the last week of school.  We fixed her hair extra cute.

She also had a 5th grade graduation that day.

This was Annie's class. 

Her teacher was Mrs. Magee.

With her friend, Chloie.

We had pizza for dinner on the last day of school/ my birthday.  Brig was stealing pepperonis and I didn't realize it until I took this picture!  Ha ha!

We celebrated our first day of summer with by having ice cream and brownies for breakfast!  Just looking at this picture makes me cry because I am so incredibly happy to have all of my kids home again.  We felt so incomplete all school year without Annie and Abby.

There really were a lot of good things about their year in public school.  Annie learned to manage her time better, she gained confidence in her abilities, and she had some neat opportunities.  The teachers and staff at the school were excellent, and both girls made new friends.  I was able to give my boys a lot of one on one attention that they needed throughout the year.  I was able to have the space and time to re-evaluate what we're doing in our homeschool routine and see what I need to change now that our needs have changed.  Being able to experience having kids in both public school and homeschool also renewed my confidence in homeschooling.  I really think I needed this experience to see that what we're doing at home is working.

There were also a lot of things we didn't like about our year in public school (the schedule, the slow academic pace, the social garbage that the girls brought home, so much less family time, grumpy girls, etc.).  Both girls really want to homeschool again, and so do I.  Ultimately, though, our decision to homeschool again came from the Lord and it wasn't an easy decision this time.  There is a big part of me that worries about my abilities, and a big part that would like to hand this responsibility off to someone else.  At the same time, I have a hundred reasons why I want to homeschool my children.  I know it's where the Lord is guiding us right now, though, and I am grateful.

Yay for family being all together!!