Look how he's grown

 This was my son (on the right) at the end of last year...

and this is him (again on the right) at the end of this year.  He's grown quite a bit (and not just his hair!)  That's his best friend Kyle, who probably grew too.

His school had a 6th grade promotion this year.  None of my other kids had that.  It was just school as usual for the last week for them.  Of course you were expected to move on to the next grade, just like at the end of 3rd or 5th, but for some reason my youngest's school decided that getting out of 6th was a big deal.  They had the ceremony at 10 in the morning, when normal people have to work, so of course, I missed it, and some parents really made a big deal out of it.  Kids got flowers and candy and balloons.  In our house, our kids are expected to graduate from college, so getting out of 6th grade is not really something to celebrate.  It's just another day of school around here.

We never even threw a high school graduation party.  I know some people who spend thousands of dollars on those when I'm thinking, high school graduation is just one more step towards independence.

Yesterday at graduation, one of the board members gets up and says that now the kids get to make all of their own decisions.  Really?  Um, are they paying all of their own bills?  My oldest at age 26 finally started paying her phone bill, car insurance and car loan.  Yeah, I've been helping her make some decisions 8 years after high school graduation.  Perhaps this is why kids don't think they have to listen to me when I tell them to do their homework or put their name on their paper or turn something in on time.  They are all grown up and can do whatever they want because they graduated kindergarten.