Bon Voyage

I shouldn't even be posting on my blog because I have seriously tried to be in denial but it is hard to pretend she isn't leaving when Emma is packing for three months.

We had a farewell dinner at La Dolce Vita which is my favorite Italian restaurant on the planet (I haven't been to that many, but it is awesome.)

Mark doesn't cry but I think he did a little this morning when he said good-bye to his girl.

After our dinner, Emma went over to her friends' house, Rose and Fiona.  They were two of "my" girls on our France trip.  They also are theater people so they know how to create a scene/use props:

We will miss her but we are also excited for her and I'm super proud of her.  She applied her steely determination to make this dream a reality and I love that.

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In other news, I'm going to talk to my kids at school about September 11.  I'm going to try not to cry.  I was going to take the picture book I used to read to my kids every year on September 11 (and I would always cry) but the pictures are too...real (photos from the NYTimes) and after all these years, I still feel it.

One of the other teachers found a very innocuous thing we can read to them.

Innocuous is the order of the day.  I can't think about anything too much.

Not today.