Well, that's one way to end the year.

Today was Madeline's last day of preschool! This program has been such a good fit for her. She has gone two afternoons a week and learned about each state in the United States along the way. She's just really had a great time; this week we brought home zillions of art projects to prove it. When I picked Miss Madeline up today, I couldn't help but take another picture of the girls in her classroom. They've both gotten so much bigger and more confident this year.

Our last walk home from preschool turned out to be a little more than we bargained for, though! We were supposed to get rain all day but nothing was really happening. As Violet and I headed out the door, I could hear thunder rolling and see the sky getting more ominous. It felt like the sky was about to burst and dump rain any second, so I grabbed two umbrellas and we hurried off. I wanted to get home before the storm hit, if possible, so we literally ran most of the way to the preschool.

We gathered Madeline's things, took a few pictures, and started saying good bye to her teachers, when BOOM! With one huge crack, the storm was ON and we could see (and hear) massive balls of hail slamming into the windows. It was obvious we weren't going out in the storm at that point, so we waited it out in the classroom for a bit and then went upstairs to watch the storm through the front doors. I wasn't expecting anything too dramatic, but there was a car in front of the building with all of its windows completely busted out from the hail. It belonged to a woman who had just fled back into the building with her son---they had just driven away when the storm struck and broke her windows, and her arms and chest and back were completely covered with cuts from the glass. She was a mess.

Thank heavens that I was a few minutes late to pick Madeline up, or the three of us would have been walking home in the middle of it with no protection but my wits. Really, I consider this a huge blessing and am extremely grateful we were protected.

Here's what was all over the ground:

It was unreal. I have never seen anything like it. Massive, golf-ball sized hail that blanketed the ground so thoroughly, it looked like we'd just had a huge winter storm. Everything---streets, sidewalks, yards---was also covered with leaves and branches that had been stripped from the trees. We had to wade the entire half mile home through ankle deep hail and leaves. I say "the entire half mile home," but usually it's a really quick, pleasant walk. Today, though, I was afraid the girls would slip so I carried Violet and held Madeline by the hand the whole way as we picked our way home through the devastation.

It probably sounds dramatic to call it "devastation," but it really was. I saw car after car after car that had its windows totally busted out, and almost all of the others were cracked. (We're feeling extremely blessed that our car escaped with a massively cracked windshield, broken tail lights, and huge dents all over its side. Since the windshield wasn't totally taken out, there was no interior damage.) And the trees . . . oh man. Some are almost stripped bare.

The building behind the girls is our local library. What you can't see is the six-foot wide sidewalk they are standing on or the two different roads behind them! Seriously, everything was covered with hail and leaves.

An intersection near our house. Whatever part of the road wasn't covered with debris rapidly turned into a swiftly moving stream. It was at least a foot deep and very very cold. I had to wade across with the girls one at a time. Such an interesting journey home.

This is Madeline in front of our house; once again you can't really tell there's a sidewalk or a road there!

My poor garden. I checked the peas this morning and they were really beautiful, about a foot high. Yeah. So much for that! Luckily one portion of the garden was protected by our garage, so we still have spinach and lettuce and carrots and chives. I think the beets might have survived as well. I'm also glad that I didn't plant tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers this week like I was going to!

Our actual house sustained quite a bit of damage as well---four broken windows, a smashed downspout, a broken sandbox lid, lots of broken pots and ripped things. Also some broken windows in the garage. We are feeling very very grateful that none of us were injured and that our car is in reasonably good, if not driveable, shape.

What a way to end the school year!