Ethan is Eleven and headed to MIDDLE SCHOOL!

Ethan's birthday has come and gone(by a month......give me a break...... did I mention I have five kids?!)but I wanted to share a two birthday themed photos anyway. And then add a few thoughts on Ethan's last day of elementary school(which was yesterday).

Ethan is not typically a fan of being the center of attention.... especially in a unfamiliar setting and I do my best to respect this as much as I can. But...... on his birthday we went to Chevvy's for lunch and I could not restrain myself from taking the server aside and letting her know it was his birthday. I knew full well what was to come... but I did it anyway. And sure enough, shortly after we had finished our tasty fajitas out came half of the servers in the place, singing happy birthday (in Spanish) loud enough to draw the attention of every last person in the entire building. They promptly placed a large sombrero on Ethan's head and handed him some sort of yummy goodness topped with a cactus shaped sugar cookie.

As you can see in the above photo..... the boy was able to get over his aversion to being the focus of pointless ruckus and attention and soaked it up. The sombrero is still proudly displayed in his room right now.

And this my friends.... is my first born son on a man bike. Yes, he traded in his awesome hot rod style youth bike for this HUGE man bike(thanks Grandpa Roger!). I could not believe my eyes when he rode up on this. As you can tell by the smirk and happy glow about him, this is sure to be the start of a long and adventurous relationship with that bike.

Yesterday marked the end of one adventure and the beginning of another. Ethan's last day of 5th grade. In the fall he will be in middle school. I am not sure how it happened but it is upon us. Ethan has been in the same school since the second half of his kindergarten year when we transferred from a charter school that we(Isabella was in 3rd grade at the time) had been going to for a couple of years. The transfer was a hard one as we were leaving mostly because we had moved rather far from it and the commute had become too much. Ethan has never been a fan of change and the first days (read weeks) were full of tears and much stress. The following years held many ups and downs as we struggled to get support from the school for some of Ethan's special needs(speech therapy, reading assistance and assistance with some social issues). All through it(even if you have heard me say otherwise in moments of frustration), I knew that he was known and cared for at the school.

Ethan has had the same teacher for the last 2 years. During that time, Mrs. Klansnic has been a calming encourager to our son. She always speaks with a smile on her face and never has a shortage of positive things to say about him. She has consistently and sincerely cheered him on. Her interest and excitement for literature has rubbed off on him and in the past year we have been delighted to watch as she has inspired and facilitated him to go from being a competent reader to some one who LOVES reading. She sent home several hand written notes to me this year regarding his progress and she always made mention to his sweetness, kindness and creativity.

Mrs. Klansnic was also his biggest supporter in his adventures with ballroom dancing this year. From the very first conversation I had with her about the Mad Hot Ballroom inspired program her class was participating in, I could see her genuine excitement for her students and when I was able to watch her watch them perform, I could see in her eyes how proud she was of them. She looked over them with the same affection and pride of that of their parents.

Yesterday, when Ethan came home from his last day of school his eyes were red and puffy. He sat in my living room and described his last day with tears welling in his eyes. He had packed up all his things (the last of his graded papers and projects, his name tags, hall pass and a book and deck of playing cards his teacher had passed on to him) and made his rounds to say goodbye to all the teachers and faculty he had come to know over the last 6 years. He made a point of asking all the kids in his class whether or not they would be going to the same middle school as he is and made a mental note of who he would not be seeing next year. He listed off to me the things he would miss about his school..... the student garden, being a star-student(a hard-earned title he has held all year), galaxy pizza, his principle Mrs. Blakley and ended the list with Mrs. Klansnic. He added, "she is going to miss us too.... she looked sad today".

He then told me of a challenge that Mrs. Klansnic had made to her students right before they left. If and when they make it through high school, stay away from drugs and other bad choices and graduate they are to track her down(she will likely be retired then) and she will treat them to dinner to celebrate that achievement. While tears rolled down his cheeks, he said,"I am going to do that". I believe he will.

I put my arms around him and cried with him. Tears of sadness for him because I know he is hurting, tears of fear and anxiety over the years to come as we transition into a notoriously hard season of life, but mostly tears of deep gratitude and thankfulness. He made it through elementary school! God has poured out grace and protection over this beautiful son of mine and blessed him richly through our little neighborhood school. It has been a hard road for Ethan and the next part is sure to be filled with obstacles as well. But, today I am deeply encouraged and thankful as I reflect on the part of the journey that is behind us. And as I sit and watch my son cry over leaving his teacher, I can be nothing but thankful. I can say without an ounce of doubt, that he has spent the last two years being nurtured and taught by a woman who truly cared for and about him. What a beautiful gift. I could not have asked for anything more. He is a lucky boy.