Official Last day of summer.

It's official, once we wake up tomorrow, our school year will begin, and we will finally say good-bye to summer.  We celebrated our "Back to school night" party tonight in our living room, complete with surprises like a new outfit for tomorrow (one that seriously makes my baby look like a teenager- my goodness!)  and a new book about going to school.  


The biggest surprise of all (although she knew about it for a week) was that we got to watch E.T.  If any of you have not watched E.T. since you were a kid, i advise you to go out right now ( i don't care if it's midnight, DO IT) and rent it or buy it!  And then watch it.  Gather the family around and watch the entire movie from start to finish.  It wasn't that it was as good as i remembered it, it was a thousand times better.  Because this time, i was watching the magic through my daughter's eyes.  When the bikes lifted up into the sky, her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates and her smile as wide as a serving platter!  It was absolutely the most priceless face i could ever have seen!  I cried happy tears at her reactions; i cried sad tears at my own.  i had to leave the room on a few occasions to compose myself (it is still as sad as ever in parts).  When the film was over, there was not a dry eye in this room.  My dear sweet girl cried nearly to the point of hyperventilating, just as i had when i walked out of the theater in Cape May, NJ nearly 30 years ago (yikes!)  I held her and rocked her and completely understood how she felt.  


I put her to bed (only an hour and half behind schedule) and even set her alarm clock for the first time (at her request.  She was so excited that we had to listen to it go off five times!)  Tomorrow morning she will wake up only a day older, but another year wiser.  She will begin her "Four-year-old" class and be reunited with friends that she has talked about throughout the summer.  It will be a similar feeling to last years' drop off, because i know my heart will be heavy to see her go off on her own for the day, but at least this year i know how much she'll love it, and that she will actually survive the four hours without me (even if i don't do nearly as well as she.)  


And so tonight we say Good-Bye to summer.  And tomorrow, Hello to a whole new year!