School's Out!

The last day of school!  We made it.  And I know I say this every year, but I seriously can't believe the school year is already over!!  It flew by especially fast this time around.  We had another late night last night (scout court of honor thing for Ethan) and since we've been dealing with a major cumulative sleep deprivation for the younger ones for almost a month now, I was just keeping my fingers crossed that the excitement of it being the last day of school would get everyone up and out the door this morning.  It kind of worked.  Surprisingly, Jane was the most cooperative and demure of the bunch {she also laid out her outfit the night before -- how cute is that?}, with Grace winning an honorable mention {she only had one minor freak out about NOT wanting me to come to school and take pictures of her with her teacher and her class -- only to change her mind a few minutes later and concede that YES, she wanted a picture with her teacher, but a full class picture would be too embarrassing for me to arrange}.  Sophie on the other hand -- well, let's just say that she doesn't do so well when she's REALLY tired and doesn't want to acknowledge it.  After a string of meltdowns and freak outs, she finally agreed to eat her breakfast (toast) on the condition that I let her have Oreos for dessert after.  And I caved.  Because it's the last day of school, and who cares.  Right??   Hahaha.  I figured Oreos for dessert were better than Oreos for breakfast.  Because that was her original demand. 

 {Teacher gifts lined up and ready to go the night before.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm sure -- slap some cellophane and ribbon on just about anything and it instantly looks legit.  Hahahaha. :)  }

The kids obliged me yesterday with answers to this year's questionnaire, and Scott and Ethan obliged me this morning with some parting shots of son-number-one's last day of 7th grade.  I decided that Junior High is now too far away and consists of too many teachers for me to head over and try and get pictures of Ethan with each one, so these shots below are as good as it's going to get.  :)

 {Waiting for the bus.}

Meanwhile, once the breakfast debacle was resolved for Sophie, the girls were ready to get a move on and make it to the bus extra early.  To Alex's delight, we tagged along as well to get a few more parting shots of the last day of school goodness.  :)  

 And just like that, the year is over!!!  To close, I leave you with the best and the worst of this past school year, according to my crew.

Ethan -- Last day of 7th Grade

Favorite Memory:  Dodge ball tournament and Cross Country

Best Friends:  Jonah, Collin, Carter, Aaron, Josh, Ben, Cole, Collin, Alex, Dylan, and Sam

Coolest thing he learned: "Copper chloride makes circuits"

Worst part of the year: R.A.T.S. (Essay answering rubric --> Restate, Answer, Textual evidence, Support)

What he will miss most:  Making new friends from different schools

 Grace -- Last Day of 5th Grade

Favorite Memory:  Field trips (iSpace, Nature Center, Band), Field Day, and her class -- because they were "so cheerful and amazing."

Best Friends:  Kamryn-Camryn-Sawyer (the "Snapple Squad"), Cameron, Sammi, Gerry, and Kaden

Coolest thing she learned: Algebra

Worst part of the year: Health Class

What she will miss most: Her teacher, her friends, "Our class!  Our class was AMAZING.  This year it was so cheerful!"

 Sophie -- Last Day of 3rd Grade

Favorite Memory:  Field trips (iSpace, Heritage Village), Field Day, 3rd Grade Sale and Auction, Orange Leaf with her teacher

Best Friends:  Bre, Richel, Madison, Addy, Lauren, CP, Kit, Alex, Amelia, and Lily

Coolest thing she learned: Long Division

Worst part of the year: Social Studies

What she will miss most: "Mrs. Virzi, of course," her friends, and her class

Jane -- Last Day of 1st Grade

Favorite Memory:  100th day of school, because she got to act like a grandma

Best Friends:  Katelynn, Josie, Marina, Ellie, Elly, Izzy, Abby, Samara, and Haylie

Coolest thing she learned: "That 109 Earths can fit across the sun"

Worst part of the year: When "Joey kept making weird sounds when he was acting like a grandpa"

What she will miss most: Her teacher "Well, DUH!" and her friends, "because they might not be in my class" (next year).

 {Hahahahahahahahaha.  How adorable is this picture I found of "Grandma Jane" from the 100th day of school????  I was cleaning out her binder last night and just happened upon this picture and knew I needed to include it since her favorite memory from the year was from this day.  :)  }

 {"When I am 100 years old, I got to go to college.  I like the phonics in first grade.  I will use a cane and knit."  Hahahahaha.  I have to admit that I guffawed when I got to the last line.  Something about picturing 100 year old Jane walking around with a cane and knitting really makes me laugh.}

 Alex -- Last Day of Pre-K

Favorite Memory: Playing on the playground

Best Friends:  Cooper, Wyatt, Chase, Dylan, and Pete

Coolest thing he learned:  "I don't know"

Worst part of the year:  "Toot"  {I don't exactly know what that means.  Hahahaha.}

What he will miss most:  Playing with Cooper and other friends

 Last day of school family picnic -- he was SOOOOO excited about getting that Kona Ice.  :)

 

And that is that!  Bring on the SUMMER!!!!  :)

The End is Here

Well folks it's here.  The end of our packed calendar, the end of the school year, and the end of my sanity.  All of it is ending in less than 24 hours!  Hahaha.  Tomorrow is the last day of school, and I'm equal parts excited and apprehensive.  Only time will tell if we end up having the best summer ever or suffer through twelve weeks of Dante's Inferno.

For tonight's post, I'm finally clearing out my phone of ALL the pictures that have been clogging it up and clamoring for screen time to represent the rest of our end-of-school-year-happenings.  Prepare yourself for an absolute photo dump...

{And by that, I mean, the rest of this post will only really matter to my kids. ;) }

District Art Show
Grace and Sophie both had "art" pieces chosen to represent at the art fair.  Ethan, meanwhile, had a cool portrait from his homeroom teacher on display -- along with the rest of his class.

{His homeroom teacher is an art teacher and decided to do a portrait study for her project at the show.}

 

Sophie's masterpiece

And Grace's

He got to take his portrait home.

Curiosity Expedition
Sophie's GEMS class had a 4th quarter research project that culminated in a district-wide expedition to display all their findings.  Sophie's topic -- STARS!

{I helped her come up with the title. ;)  }

{How big can stars get?  How hot can stars be?  How far away are the stars?  What does the brightness of a star tell us?  How many constellations are there?  How many stars are there?}

Field Day
I'm so thankful for teachers and parents who help to make Field Day happen!  Especially since it consistently ranks as the "favorite memory of the year" for almost ALL of my children.  :)  {And since I didn't make it over there this year (or any year), I'm so thankful to the moms who took pictures of my kids having fun for me.  ;)  }

Grace's tug-of-war

Sophie and some of her friends

Orange Leaf Outing
Sophie (along with 3 other classmates) won the coveted 3rd grade auction item -- a trip to Orange Leaf with her teacher!  For a mere $10,000 in 3rd grade bucks, she snagged one of the spots and still had some money leftover for a ziploc bag's worth of stuff.  :)

7th Grade Awards Ceremony
For Family Home Evening this Monday, we attempted to attend Ethan's 7th grade awards ceremony.  Unfortunately, it was HOT, crowded and a little bit longer than certain younger children could handle.  We made it about 20 minutes in (long enough to see enough win a Chinese award and a PE award), before I decided I needed to get out of there with the other kids before they caused even more of a scene.  {Late bedtimes for the younger crew have been the rule rather than the exception this month.  DOH!}

Our view from the VERY back of the gym.

{Spoiler alert -- Alex and Jane were struggling the most}

I took off with all the kids (minus Ethan, of course) and headed over to our very favorite Hawaiian shaved ice stand for the promised FHE treat.  Unfortunately, I had no way of knowing that Ethan would be righteously indignant that no one stayed to see him get his high honor roll award.  Despite his aggravation, he still managed to enjoy his "Pink Flamingo" once he and Scott joined us after the ceremony.

{He's still holding a grudge, in case you were wondering.}

Felfie time!

Pool Time
And FINALLY, the pool is open for the season!  We kicked off our summer a little early, with an after dinner swim last night that left Alex and Jane shivering and cold (when Jane got out, she kept sobbing that she had "the quiver lip") and created bedtime problems for almost all of them.  Yay for summer!!  Hahahaha.

And THAT is a wrap.  Congratulations if you've made it this far!  Stay tuned for our last day of school pictures and questionnaire tomorrow.  :)