Right now in Punxsutawney, PA there are people are settling in for the night hoping to get a few hours of sleep before heading to the breaking dawn festivities surrounding the antics of Phil, the groundhog, and his human handlers in top hats. Going to Punxsutawney was something that I had hoped to build into the scheme, but this trip came up instead.
Our Groundhog Day Eve celebration consisted of appreciating the dessert that the kiddos saw in a magazine and made for everybody.
Today was our last full day here in Myrtle Beach. Tomorrow the grandparents fly home and we start our two-day trip back up to the city. Despite the chilly wind, we spent a couple of hours outside breaking in the new shovel and the sifter that the grandparents went out and bought for the kids.
The kids worked together to execute Judd the Red Chicken's enormous prison compound. He was crazy-focused and even complained after of his back killing him. The Girl's contributions were robust, but she also took time to kneel in the sand and make a Pembroke Corgi, complete with the fairy saddle.
There was also a swimming session that started in the outdoor pool (come on! it's the last day! please!), that fairly quickly had to move into the indoor pool. I finished rereading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (and now need to go back to Savannah to look at things with different eyes).
And then this evening it was time to start closing shop. The kids deflated all the balloons that went up for the double birthday party.
While they watched The Adventures of Tintin with Grandma, I started the packing up process. I went through the many random pieces of paper and reflected on how things that happened fairly recently already seem so distant.
Days certainly slip by. Aside from being our last day at Myrtle Beach, and the day before Groundhog Day, today is also the first day of the last half of the scheme. Yesterday was the due date for the second quarterly report.
I take stock: we've had school pictures, tests, lessons, goals, assessments and field trips. We even had an evacuation drill yesterday. I stand at the half-way point and feel that it has been a success, and I clearly see where we need to go in this second half. I stand on the beach with my kids and we find a clear heart. At first we think it's a bubble and can't believe how perfect it is and are careful to take a picture before it pops, but then realize that it is glass or thick plastic -- something that will hold up. And whether washed up, or dropped on the shore, it is now our beachcombing treasure. It will stand as a reminder of how much we've loved our time here. It will also remind us of substance -- that even though time is passing and we snap, snap, snap our pictures before we run out of time and the scheme pops -- the brilliant thing is that we will continue being together, learning lessons, going on field trips... some materials don't pop, they are strong enough to be picked up and held and pocketed.
Phil will just have to wait until next year to meet us, and maybe we'll just have to take a day off school, and that will be okay.
We will be sad to leave the grandparents tomorrow, but we here's hoping that it's a Happy Groundhog Day. Heading back North and into winter is going to be tough, but fingers (rodent claws) crossed, we can at least look forward to an early spring.
