Not a Baby Anymore...

Well, Jess graduated from middle school yesterday. Sigh.

It is a little surreal, to say the least, to have your oldest child starting high school when you couldn't possibly HAVE a child that old, but here we are. So with my feet still firmly planted in ultimate-denial soil, yesterday the whole family attended the school's very nice continuation ceremony. The eighth graders all looked extremely grown up in their formal attire, the program moved along nicely, and the speeches were actually very interesting. Except for Eryn, who slept through the whole thing, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the surprisingly-entertaining-and-less-painful-than-expected ceremony. Afterward we went to the reception in "the Red Room" (all of the rooms in the mansion are named by color) for lemonade, fruit, and maternal-requisite pictures. Then the families were cordially invited to leave so that the graduates could celebrate for several hours with pizza, non-dancing, and much crying over all of the people who are moving this summer.

Two things were significant to Jess about the day: 1) she didn't feel any differently after graduating than before, and 2) she was surprised at how close she's become to her classmates in only six months. I assured her that graduating never makes you feel any different but that the journey was the significant event and the graduation just marks a passing into another stage and that you always feel things deeply when you're 14 going on 15 but that we could certainly send her to a less-nice school if she'd prefer. And, yes, I did get a very nice eye roll out of both comments--tee hee.

Seriously, though, I'm still in awe of the experiences our children are having. The school has been remarkable for all of them in so many ways, and I'm incredibly grateful that they've been given this opportunity. What an interesting experience!