Family Bloom Days

It's that time of year again - the end of the school year, the beginning of summer, and a whole mess of mixed emotions that come along with this time of transition. Brennen is finishing up Grade 6 and will be heading to Grade 7 in September. He will be leaving the teachers who have cared for him since he started kindergarten, leaving the nurturing environment they have created for him, and going to a new and unfamiliar junior high school. This is not what we feel is best for Brennen, for many reasons, and we have made those reasons known to the Department of Education. The past couple of months have been filled with meetings, appeals, letters and medical documentation. I won't get into it all here, but suffice it to say that they are not making it easy. (By 'they' I mean the higher ups at the department who have never met my son, but yet still feel they know what is in his best interest.) It's been particularly emotional for me, and the frustration of it all has felt like an ocean I am drowning in. It just doesn't sit well with me at all, so while we are going through the motions and will attend Brennen's 'school leaving ceremony' next week, I am not entirely sure what the next school year will look like for him.

To help ease some of the frustration, we have been planning our summer adventures, and thinking of ways to pack as much fun as possible into the next couple of months. The weather hasn't been great here lately - we've been having our usual Newfoundland spring, with lots of rain, drizzle and 'freezing fog' (yes, that's a thing we have now!). We were excited to finally see some warmer temperatures this week, just in time for the first days of Summer! We celebrated this weekend by enjoying the sunshine and spending as much time as we could outdoors.

On Saturday, we attended one of the Family Bloom Days at the MUN Botanical Garden! There were flower crafts, a scavenger hunt, lots of fun activities for kids, and a petal parade. There were also some real live fairies and woodland creatures scattered throughout the Garden! It was a beautiful day, and as always, a wonderful way to spend time together as a family! It's days like these that remind me that even when things get tough and almost too much to bare, there is a whole world of little pleasures out there just waiting to make us happy!

Here are some photos from our day at the Garden:

Happy Summer, everyone!