under the magnolia tree

The day started out normal and our goodbyes were just the same except with a little excitement in the air knowing this was the last day of school.

Magnolia with Madeline and Magnolia with Eva.

Magnolia, Eva, and William

When I came to pick her up and all of the kids started filing out of school Magnolia's head was hanging low and I could tell she was crying.  Really crying.  Her teacher was great and gave her a little pep talk and lots of hugs.  I took her and held her for a while.  When she felt that she could go say goodbye one more time, we did.  Here she is with the assistant teacher, Mrs. Stephan.

Here she is with her beloved kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Bond.

She wasn't in much of a mood to play afterwards with her friends but I did get this shot of her with Anna.

And Maggie.

And a big hug from Eva.

I had planned a little celebration at home.  Here she is seeing it and not feeling very excited about it.

She was so, so sad.

When I brought out lunch she ran inside to get her class picture and put it under her plate so she could see her teacher while she ate.

Even the gem pops weren't cheering her up.

Then I set up the tripod and turned the self timer on the camera.  We started to act silly and she finally came around.

The silly string also cheered things up a bit.

Then we headed to the library to sign up for the summer reading program.  We took our books to the park and read them together.   She missed her teacher a lot for about two weeks after that and even wrote her a letter and mailed it to her all on her own.  Eventually she was able to crawl out of the comfort her Kindergarten year gave her as we tried everything to get into the swing of summer.  She really loved her teacher, it was a good year for her.  In some ways I believe there is something so deep inside of her that remembers loss and believe that this too was a tremendous loss for her.  She knows she'll see her in the halls next year and is comforted by that!