It's bittersweet. And I'm not talking about the chocolate.

Summer vacation has started.  It's always bittersweet.  I think my friend's daughter put it best when she wrote "Last Day of School" and drew a happy face and a sad face next to it.  What a great expression of how I feel about summer break!  The last week of school was full of parties, including a swim party that ended in a hail storm and three classes taking refuge in office of the city pool.

1st grade ended up having a movie party because the weather wouldn't cooperate, and the Middle School pool party was cold and overcast, too.

On our soundtrack for the summer is plenty of Jack Johnson, especially the Curious George CD.  My faves are Lullaby and We're Going to Be Friends.  On the last day of school the kids at the elementary school put on an adorable Variety Show, and two of the the girls dressed up in sweet matching outfits and sang We're Going to Be Friends.  Great music for Mom and kids alike.  (I love Banana Pancakes, too!)

We put together some thank you gifts for the boys' teachers.  Let's just say the teachers had their work cut out for them with these two,  We took some ideas from all over, including this subway art from eighteen25.  I printed it as a 5x7, backed it with striped scrapbook paper and brown tagboard, then taped it onto a small dowel.  We bought the adorable striped pots at Michaels for just 1.99 each.  There's a bottle of water with a wrap around label (inspired by Crystal and Co.) that I made in Word that reads:

Thank you
for fostering a
“thirst”
for
knowledge!

in a pretty font and matching colors to the subway art.  We also added a bag of hugs and kisses with a cardstock folded label stapled on that says:  You deserve tons of Hugs and Kisses!

 I also covered some small notebooks (found at Office Depot for 25 cents each) with fun paper and had the boys write a note to their teacher on the front page.  I used mod podge and just slipped off the front and back covers, covered them and punched the holes back through.  We added a package of popcorn with a tag printed from Crystal & Co. and tied on with rick rack.  Inexpensive but cute and colorful teacher's gifts.  We also tucked in a Barnes and Noble gift card for some summer relaxation.

And here's what Sally and Jazz did on the first day of summer.

Guess they were a little worn out or something.

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