In Which Connor Has His Last Day of School, And Murders An Octopus

Today was Connor's last day of school.  Can you believe it?

It seems like just yesterday I was dropping him off at school for the first time.  I don't really remember it very well because it was a scant month after Jeremy got himself blown up, so I didn't have time to get all sentimental about it because I was too busy freaking out over the fact that we were going to have to buy a wheelchair van and move.  This is one of the things the blog is great for, because not only can I go back to read about what we did that day, but I can see the occasional picture too.  And wow, has Connor grown.  The kid is officially huge. 

He had his big party at school today where he got to say goodbye to all the kids who were graduating from preschool and moving on to other programs.  Connor will be in the same classroom with the same teacher and paraeducators next year, and six of the kids who were in his class this year, which is great!  The party was a lot of fun, unless you were an octopus, in which case it was a horrific massacre.  The kids all made octopi out of paper bags for the occasion, and the teachers stuffed them with paper and a few pieces of candy.  Then each child in turn got to hang his poor doomed octopus on a string suspended from the ceiling and then beat the daylights out of it with a plastic baseball bat, in a sort of individual aquatic-themed pinata bashing.  Some of the kids got really into it, too-- they had to hold a couple of them back so the teacher could get out of the way before the bat swinging started.  The poor octopi, despite attempted evasive swinging action, didn't have a chance and it was soon over; the bits of paper octopi that littered the ground afterwards testament to the carnage wreaked upon the hapless cephalopods. 

But the candy was pretty tasty, so that was okay.

We also got to watch a really well-done video and photo montage of all the kids, which contained no violence towards octopi at all but did involve some rather hilarious JibJab renderings of the children doing various silly things.  We also ate cookies and received a lot of hugs: two of my very favorite things in the whole world.  And finally it was time to go, so after one last round of hugs we took off.  So now Connor has a whole summer stretching out ahead of him. 

Who knows what mischief we'll get up to?

~Jess