Licensed and Legal

Way back when I got my license (Logan, Utah, circa 1986), as long as you had taken driver's ed and driven for a few hours (5?) with the instructor, you could show up on your 16th birthday, take the test, and drive away fully licensed. Wooo-hoooo!

My best friend Debbie took me to a drive-thru right after she got her license. We jerkily pulled up fully perpendicular to the ordering menu at McDonald's and yelled our orders, followed by a jumpy 235-point turn to get oriented the right direction, giggling all the way. Yeah. Maybe we weren't completely ready to be on the roads solo. It was more of an on-the-road-experience proposition.

Flash forward a couple of decades and across the country. The earliest you can get your license here is at 16 1/2, after six months of supervised driving with a permit, 18 hours of instructor hours (12 driving, 6 observing), 40 hours of parent supervised driving. On busy, intense Massachusetts roads with impatient, hair-trigger-horn-honking fellow drivers. And navigating crazy free-for-alls round-a-bouts to boot! 

She's ready, skilled, licensed, and legal.*  Let freedom ring!

Next challenge: learn to drive on the OTHER side of the road in Australia. Wheeee!

. . .

*Even now that she's licensed, she can't drive non-family members under 18 without someone over 21 in the car, too, for six more months. It definitely puts a damper on dating around here but Massachusetts is serious about new driver safety, y'all. So she STILL can't pick up her best friend and go to McDonald's drive-thru for another 6 months... 

Self Evident and Unalienable

It rained last night and poured this morning so we started revising our 4th of July plans to indoors. Then, after the ward pancake breakfast, the skies cleared and the sun presided over the midday town picnic in the park. 

Humid cotton candy, oompa bands, bluegrass combos, a League of Women Voters used jewelry sale, hot dog stands, hula hoopers, Lizzie the Clown, neighbors and townfolk swathed in patriotic colors--all just a mile or so from the place where the revolution was started, culminating in these words drafted 236 years ago today:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness...and for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutally pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.*

What could be more patriotic than registering to vote for the first time?

 Uncle Sam wants YOU

Betsy Ross and the port-a-potties

Synchronized cotton candy 

God Bless America, land that I love. 

. . .

 *Listen to the entire Declaration of Independence here read beautifully by NPR reporters, commentators, and hosts.  

We also started out our day watching three of our favorite National Anthem performances: 

Whitney Houston
5 young talented girls
and the Dixie Chicks.

Dreaming in Brown

Not one to flit between interests willy nilly, Maddy wholeheartedly embraces miniature obsessions that become part of her. She had a thing for the violin and The Wizard of Oz at age 3, for Harriet Tubman and presidential politics at age 8, for World War II and Audrey Hepburn at age 12. Right now she has a thing for stripes, 20th century history, photography, orange, and Brown.

Brown University has been one of her dream schools for a long time (at least since this if not before). Knowing we were leaving the country soon, Maddy put an official Brown visit high on her New England bucket list. So we booked a tour and info session and today was the day!

It's a little early to be worrying about applications and, yes, she knows it's a very selective school (to the tune of 30,000 applications for 1500 spots) but dreams are meant to be a stretch, right? (Cue Fame scene: You got big dreams? You want fame? Well fame costs and right here is where you start paying, in sweat. Of course, we all know that getting into a selective school is not just about hard work and great scores but also about luck, timing, location, and the mysterious mixture of the entering freshman class and je ne sais quoi they're looking for. That's a post for another day, though.) This was like window shopping at Tiffany's. She knows it's a long shot but I love that she's all in, dreaming big anyway.

Delightful tour guides. They won me over, even though they said right up front they wouldn't answer questions about Emma Watson. And I was curious, since she was in their entering freshman class and is reportedly returning to finish with the class this year. Oh well.

Maddy patiently tolerated my surreptitious photo documentation. Believe me, I exercised restraint.

Look! She fits right in.
It was a dreamy day. 

Three again

Look! All three kids together again...and willing to jump out of the car by the side of the freeway to pose next to a giant cow (or, to be more precise, a giant bull).
Really though, who can pass up a photo op with a giant bull?? 
Not me, that's who. 

With Lauren home, there's more laughter & joyful noise, later bedtimes, and we go through a few more bagels. We're looking forward to a hyggli, laid back summer. Although they each have some scheduled, structured obligations (work, scout camp, etc.), we're also planning on basking in our last New England summer: hikes, bike rides, beaches, and a quest for the best ice cream cone, best hot dog, and best lobster roll in the area.

And if we can just sell our house, I can stop being OCD mom; it's a challenge with everyone home full time. I am so grateful for appliances and the trunk of our car for their cavernous ability to hold a bunch of random clutter gathered and thrown in as we sweep the house frantically before a showing. Pay no attention to the shoes and charging cords in the washer, sports equipment in the dryer, and piles of mail in the dishwasher, home buyers! Everything else is in good shape! Go ahead and make an offer!

Finally!

Adios, 8th grade! Farewell, middle school!
 

Today was the last day of school around here! We're done with the ceremonies and concerts and finals and field trips and are ready to finally summer.

Because G had to miss Sam's 8th grade graduation/awards ceremony and all of our relatives live far away, I'm going to do a bit of braggery probably only palatable for family. Sam received the science award.* Here's the transcript of the tribute by his science teacher, who wanted to make sure I passed it along to G:

The Rotary Award in Science is given each year to the student whose high level of achievement is coupled with pure enthusiasm for the study of science. The pursuit of knowledge in science requires curiosity, creativity, and commitment. Many of my students this year possess these qualities in abundance, each bringing a special and memorable energy to the class. Among them is a student who has brought all of these qualities to bear in a steady, unpretentious manner.

This student has consistently maintained an A+ average, and demonstrates an unwavering rigor in the quality of his work. He has a mapmaker's attention to detail, a watchmaker's sense of precision. Whether collecting and analyzing data, working with a fellow student on a project, or just cleaning up equipment after a lab, this student approaches every task in science with dedication, concentration, and genuine enthusiasm.

His self-imposed discipline manifests in a level of science writing and illustration that is unsurpassed. He expresses scientific ideas and organizes scientific information in ingenious minature diagrams, like panels in a very clever graphic novel making such things as gravity, energy, phase changes, and the elements come to life. Someday, I believe his original creations, such as "the elevator in the building of matter," could grace the pages of his own books about science, in the spirit of David Macaulay's book The Way Things Work. Like Macaulay, like a scientist, he has a gift for explaining in detailed and imaginative ways, how things work.

Sam, it has been my honor and privilege to have you as a student in my class this year. I am happy to present to you the 2011-2012 Rotary Award in Science.

It's true that Sam loves science, devours anything by Radio Lab/Malcolm Gladwell/Jonah Lehrer, and has been devoted to drawing those tiny weekly illustrations this year.  He's a great kid who has worked hard and I do love his enthusiasm, creativity, unpretentiousness and effort. But do you know what I also see when I look at that page? All of those wonderful purple comments from a teacher whose own enthusiasm and passion brought out more of those qualities in Sam--in every student--every single week. I can't say whether he would have bothered with it, week after week, without the kind of conversation she kept going between them. And I know she had that impact on each of her students. I think that has been more valuable, more motivational than any award can be. Hooray for exceptional teachers!

*You know, I have to admit I'm sort of against awards until one of my kids gets one and then I'm all "well, he did work really hard..." Go ahead and roll your eyes, I won't look.