Could it really be true? An entire school year is over already? Weren't we just walking in for the first day of school? Wasn't Meredith just a little 5-year-old with a mouth full of baby teeth ready to start "real school?" Look at us now, nine short months later. She's a graduate!
What a year. I mean, really. As much as I anticipated this year and all that would happen, I don't think I could have hoped for anything better. She had an amazing teacher who loved her and whom she loved. She had a class full of wonderful kids who (for the most part) all have wonderful parents. She lost 4 teeth, cut 11 inches off her hair, grew a dozen (give or take) inches, found her future husband (Jackson), learned to read, held a mouse, became a Daisy Scout, joined a T-ball team, ate lunch in the school cafeteria (but there wasn't any singing or choreography, a la High School Musical), took the obligatory field trip to Kaleidoscope, oh - and got to ride a school bus, ate green eggs (and ham), made some amazing masterpieces in art class, learned to play the xylophone (whatever that means, really), hibernated and migrated, made all kinds of treasures at the Creation Station, learned all the days and months and on and on and on.
It is a little bittersweet, really. I'm so sad to see the year go. Sad to think that our great little group of kids will possibly be split up and she won't have her bestest friends and her future husband in her classroom every day. Sad to know that she'll be in school 4 extra hours next year. Sad to know that this is just the beginning...this IS real school. Sad to see just how big she's getting. Though that leads me to the happy side. She is an even more amazing kid than she was just nine months ago. She has learned so much, and taught us even more. She can make friends without even blinking. She took this year head on and came out on top. (I knew she would.)
So here's to Meredith, aka Cindersmella. My first-grader! I'm as proud as could be and I can't wait to see what happens next. Thanks for letting us share the ride...
