Another year – poof!

Yesterday was Harper’s last day of preschool! Today she has indulged me big time by sleeping until 9:30 on the first day of summer. Keep it up lady! Yeah, never going to happen. But it was glorious! The sun isn’t out, which is really confusing her, as though since it’s the first day of summer vacation it should just be sunny and hot at once. Welcome to a PNW childhood sweetheart. Get used to the disappointment.

So yesterday! It was hard for me to accept it was time to once again bust out the camera and a blank piece of paper to make our now yearly first day/last day photos. When I posted this last year I had no idea how it would blow up, considering I found the idea to take the first day photo on Pinterest. Something about putting the two next to each other though- I’ve had people recognize Harper from the photos on Pinterest. There is a copy of it on a Tumblr with over 250 THOUSAND notes and reblogs. Yikes!

So yesterday we took the pictures and while she was at school I put the two together and once again, it blew my mind. You see your kids everyday so it’s hard to see how much they’ve grown over the course of 9 months. How long their stubby legs have gotten, how long their hair has grown and just how much more like a KID and further from a toddler they really look. Then you do this little project and bam – like a ton of bricks to your heartparts.

The legs kill me. She still wears those gray jeans from the first day, but they don’t need to be rolled twice let alone at all and they are snug on the legs like jeggings. The hair is crazy, too. Our old house had a cover over the front door so I’m not sure if it looks so much lighter now because it was bright outside or if it’s really lightening that much. All I do know is I want to continue to keep doing these as long as she’ll let me. And just to really compare, because so many of you have been here through it all, here is the one from last year:

SIGH.

The evening brought her schools “graduation” ceremony, where she wasn’t actually graduating because she’ll go on to Pre-K next year but many of her friends are off to kindergarten. They performed songs and dances and holy crap it was precious. I couldn’t help my pregnant hormonal tears from falling (who am I kidding I’d be crying not pregnant, it’s just what I do at these types of things). Watching kids do these type of things is just the best. Seeing their different personalities and quirks about being on stage in front of people and whatnot. My kid is on one end doing a grand curtsey and at the other end is a little girl near tears who refuses to participate (she was my favorite and so cute it hurt).

So bring on summer vacay! And hopefully the sun. But not too much sun, because pregnant and swollen. Just a nice 75 would be perfect. Now begins REALLY preparing for brother, swim lessons, soccer (Harper’s choice) and plenty of lounging in the kiddie pool should said sun show up. Pass me the virgin bloody mary.