Dernière journée d'école (Last day of school)

July 3rd. Looking forward to summer…la dernière journée d'école brings: the last day of leaving the house by 8am, the last day of walking through the big green school gate, the last day of passing the ASVP street guards, the last day of eating canteen, the last day of CE2, CM2 & 4eme for Clara, Olivia & Spencer, the last time of having a school day in a French classroom, the last day at Leonardo Da Vinci International School & the hardest of all the last time to say “au revoir” to many new and loved friends. Funny how sad we all feel now. The sadness is because we are ending a life changing experience. As everyone was shedding a tear or two because school was over I thought about all of those mornings not so long ago that there were tears because they didn’t want to go to school…it was hard, a new beginning and a real challenge. They overcame the challenge, learned, grew & have realized how satisfying it is to reach a worthwhile goal. We had to have just “one last party” to celebrate. About 20 friends & several parents came to our house after school for a grand fete. It was total chaos, noise and fun. A couple of moms were nice enough to spend an hour filling water balloons for a fight that lasted all of 25 seconds. Afterwards we walked to the park in our village and the kids played. We were completely taken off guard when a gigantic rain storm hit and everyone was soaked to the bone…had we known we wouldn’t have wasted our energy on the water balloons! It was a riot. The kids were thrilled for a natural shower. We had a feast of French dip sandwiches (this is truly American because my French friends have never heard of it!:), salads and fruit. Olivia made a DVD slideshow of the school year. Everyone gathered around the computer to watch. It brought several tears and laughs. So many good memories, so many good times, so many good friends. We feel like the luckiest family in France!