A few weeks ago I was within arm's reach of being caught up but with the need to take care of kids over the summer and the busy-ness of the last month, I'm now dreadfully behind again. So if this post sounds a lot like a journal entry, it's because I mostly copied and pasted it from my journal in order to get it published...
Cat only had one final she was worried about: Concurrent Enrollment Chemistry. She’s loved the class and her teacher, Mrs. Slade, and she’s done very well all year but the final was intimidating since it was the final from UVU and would determine the grade she would get in the class, which would go on her college transcript. She also had a final in Socratic, but wasn’t worried about that one. So finals week was pretty easy for her and she spent a lot of time with her friends (which worked out great for me because I appreciated her doing extra jobs to help with cleaning). Cat had lunches with friends, dinners with friends, went to the Puppy Store with friends, went to friends’ houses, had friends over to our house, and attended multiple parties. Graduation day was particularly exciting, with a party at a sophomore friend’s house in Alpine, then attending the tailgate and graduation at Water Gardens with her soccer coach (also the HS Dean) and his KGM sons, then going to a graduation party at her friend Kylie’s house and getting home at 1:33am.
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| Cat and one of her Senior besties at graduation |
Jack had finals in about half of his classes and took them seriously enough that he actually studied. He did well (As and Bs) on everything except the translation portion of his Latin exam, which didn’t go so well. But he finished the year with As and Bs in all of his classes and just one B-, which is pretty great! He had some social time too, running into his friend Isaac after school and deciding to go to McDonald’s together. McDonald’s hasn’t opened up dining rooms yet so he and his friend walked through the drive-thru (Jack with his bike) to get their food, then sat on the curb to eat. He received an invitation to the yearbook signing (on the last day of school when finals were over), which I think was a mistake, since I only bought a yearbook for Cat, but he went anyway and then really really wanted his own yearbook, so he ran home and begged Ben to buy him one until he agreed and ran back to the school to get a yearbook so his friends could sign it. I was at Oma’s so I wasn’t there to say, “Jack doesn’t need a yearbook. It’s okay if he doesn’t have one.” He finished reading Jurassic Park too!
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| Eliza was one of the family members who helped Jack study by quizzing him from his study guide. Here, the subject was science. |
Eliza had an eventful week too. She enjoyed having friends sign her yearbook - including a boy who apparently has a crush on her. She had a lot of fun in the annual 5th-6th grade kickball tournament and was able to laugh off the fact that her class placed last. The 5th and 6th-grade swim day at the nearby pool (while the younger kids had Field Day) was another highlight. She was really excited to find some Snoopy and Coke-related gifts for her Snoopy and Coke-loving teacher, who she loves. After school on the last day I commented to her that it was funny how the year seems to drag on but looking back it feels like it went really fast. She immediately disagreed. "The year didn't drag! Every day there was something special." I shared that with her teacher as a testament to her personality and skill as a teacher.
The teacher replied with, "Thank you so much! That means the world to me! Eliza is spectacular and I'm so glad she made every day wonderful for me. Each day when she left, she thanked me and wished me a happy day. She is kind and wonderful."
When Eliza got in the car at the end of the last day of school I had my phone in her face wanting a picture and I couldn't tell from looking at the screen that she was actually crying - smiling through her tears - because a friend of hers won't be back at the school next year. (Boy, if she was having this hard a time over one friend going to a different school at the end of 5th grade, she's going to be a mess when all of her friends scatter at the end of 6th grade.)
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| Smiling through her tears... and holding on tight to her end-of-the-year gift from her teacher. |
Like Jack, Luke ended up with a yearbook I didn't think he needed, haha. I'd intentionally bought a yearbook for Eliza and not Luke, thinking one yearbook for an elementary school was enough in a house. Apparently Luke's teacher believes that every child should have a yearbook of their own so she bought one for each child whose parents didn't order one. Well, I didn't agree with that particular principle but I think I love every other thing about Luke's teacher this year. She really made this a great year for him, and outdid herself by giving each child a 3-ring binder with writing samples, drawings, and other momentos she'd held on to from the year. I was floored.
The theme in Luke's classroom was BEES - everything bees - and he wanted to give his teacher a bee-themed gift. Unfortunately, I didn't work on making that happen until it was too late to order something from Amazon and I didn't feel like I could take the time to go shopping around for something bee-related, so I did the next best thing. I found a cool-looking jar of honey at Walmart and added it to my grocery order that week. I felt like it was pretty random but funnily enough everyone in the family was disappointed when they saw it in the kitchen and realized it wasn't for us. Hopefully Luke's teacher appreciated the sentiment (in addition to her gift card).
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| Eliza and Luke were pretty happy to not have to wear uniforms to school for the last week. This is the outfit that Luke put together. Eliza was so excited about Luke's fashion choices that she told him he's the best little brother ever. He said, "Well, I'm not Jackie Robinson..." |
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| Last Day of School! |
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