A June loon

I'm fried. The month of June has me done in. With all the end of school/ballet/soccer/gymnastics/soccer/insisting-the-teenager-study-for-finals activities of the last few weeks, this week marks the end of my June madness, and that of many other families. As my friend Carole and I picked up our daughters from their last gymnastics class of the year Tuesday night, I remarked that I'd be glad to see this week end. Her response was an empathetic, "I know, I'm exhausted."
The end of the school year is a tough time for parents, as it also includes the end of the year ballet recital, gymnastics expo, final soccer and softball games and remembering to send in money for last-day-of-school pizza parties and picking up gifts for coaches, instructors and teachers. It's a time to wrap up everything before settling into a summer routine.
For my family, the activities are going to be limited to summer job and summer camp. Weekends free until September. After this weekend, of course. While it's a bummer to see so many programs come to a close, it'll be nice not to have to rush off in four different directions on the weekends, doing the "tag-team" parenting, such as when one handles soccer while the other handles ballet.
Earlier this month we finished soccer and ballet. Last night we finished gymnastics. Tonight we have the end-of-the-year Rainbow Girls pool party (hosted by the exhausted but amazingly resilient Carole). The next several days include: a belated birthday party for my son -- we held off a week because my sisters are flying in for the Avon Grammar School 100th anniversary -- those anniversary festivities, a picnic for my daughters' softball team, the wedding of our friends Dianne and Mike, and my nephew Sean's high school graduation party. After that, the calendar is mostly clear. Sort of.
To borrow and distort a line from Green Day: Wake me up when September gets here.