Not the godawful heat, of course. The threat of hurricanes will continue for months, as will the huge thunderstorms. The electric bill will remain an obscenity. That part of summer goes on forever in Florida. But tomorrow Delaney starts second grade.
We sort of stumbled into a family tradition in the last couple of years. My daughter and son-in-law work for two different nearby school systems, and they have to be at their schools when Delaney’s school does “Meet the Teacher,” which is inexplicably scheduled for a weekday morning, so parents have to take off work. Because they work for schools, however, it’s difficult for them to take off. My daughter thought she could make it this year, then a meeting/training that had been scheduled for the afternoon was switched to morning, so…Grandma to the rescue. I took Friday off; Delaney talked me into a sleepover on Thursday, and we spent all of Friday together.
It had been quite a while since she’d slept over; between dance, more dance, still more dance, sleepovers with friends, and endless rounds of birthday parties, she’s the busiest 7 year old on earth. The last time she slept over she was a little girl, now she’s most definitely a tween.
After we met her new teacher (I think she’s going to have a good year) we went to the mall. I’d offered a trip to Bath and Body Works, her new favorite store, and lunch in the food court. She got some lovely smelly stuff (buy 2, get 1 free) and had bourbon chicken for the first time (loved it). Then we stopped at Target, where she talked me into a Frappuccino at Starbucks, and got a shower poof to use with her new body wash. Then it was home to watch The Avengers – don’t ask me which one; she talked through the entire movie and I’ll have to watch it again in peace.
And tomorrow school starts again.
Our Disney passes were blocked out for much of summer; the blockout ended on Friday, and I need a Disney Fix, BAD. I need to stay for the fireworks at Magic Kingdom; I haven’t done that in far too long.
It says something (something awful) that I had to go way back into my photos to find a picture of the castle. No filters – the setting sun did the lighting effects.