Unsentimental

Graduation outfits at the ready.

Pre-school graduation: What a silly little event.

Mind you, I prepared. Lila and I searched the Internet far and wide for the perfect dress ('far and wide' meaning 'Gap Kids and Old Navy'). AJ was fine with a bow tie or tie, no matter ~ so long as Red Sox colors were involved. I charged my new camera, Hubs and I took a shower and a few hours off, and we drove a mile down the street. Not a huge deal.

See, I never did the preschool thing. And for me and my Upstate NY ilk, even Kindergarten graduation celebrations were unheard of, unless one considered walking back on the last day of school and jumping into the errant neighbor's pool as an 'event'. Preschool graduation is foreign to me.

I've never been overly sentimental. I just feel like it only serves the person who is outwardly displaying their emotions. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not a stone. I will ugly-cry with the best, dammit. "One Tree Hill" found me crying in reverie and into a beer at a U2 show a few years back. Sinead breaks me. The end of the movie "Once"? Stop it right now. This...) But five-year-olds 'graduating' from a voluntary school (albeit with the best teachers I've ever come across)? Come on...

You'd think it was a police lineup... except for Joseph.

Singing a 'goodbye' song...

The four girls, in a class of 18...

Yep. Only pic I've got of both, and not in focus, to boot...

I'm excited for Lila and AJ to start Kindergarten. This is a great moment. Time to move on, and move on up, I say...

Came back from Chipotle Grill (after several meltdowns from said graduates and an odd twinge in my neck... a strange sadness that angered me, as well) and the kiddos happily jumped into our bed with Ang for a movie. I stayed in the living room and looked through a photo album from one of our treasured Martha's Vineyard trips:

Well. Thank God I'm not sentimental.

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams...

~ Kahlil Gibran