Saying Goodbye.....

...or more accurately, "See you later." So the kids and I start the first leg of our move to the West Coast on Saturday morning. We are only go as far as our Lake House in New York though. While there Cassidy will attend wonderful "Camp Chateaugay" and KK and Brogan will play on the beach with me. Brian will still be at SPS wrapping up the summer program. On August 1st I will come back long enough to collect him, load up the car, and depart. We will spend one week at the lake house and then, on August 9th, we will officially leave the East Coast. But, we are only leaving for a year. So it has made saying, "Good bye" rather interesting. 'Cause it isn't good bye....for the most part....it's just "see you next year". But some of our friends will move while we are gone, which means that we really are saying, "Good bye". This week, rather then keep the week free of appointments and spend the time focused on packing, I filled the evenings with final play dates and visits with friends. Cassidy will be turning 8 just after arriving in WA. She won't know anyone there so a birthday party with friends might not work out. We had a surprise party for her here in NH. I decided to do it about 48 hours before the actual event. (In my defense, I was sort of preoccupied with packing tape, bubble wrap and other such distractions.) I was able to invite 4 of her sweet friends from school who she will miss quite sincerely. She was completely surprised. I am so grateful that she has such good, kind girls as peers (it helps that I adore their mother's too!). I wasn't quick enough to invite Teagan to the party, so instead Cass and I met up with Teagan, her mother, and her younger sister for mini-golf at "chucksters" . It was a riot....and the perfect way for these 2 to say, "Bye...for now." We are looking forward to keeping in touch with everyone via email, post card, and a good old fashioned letter. Bring on the pen pals!