Last Day of School!

The last day of school finally arrived today!  Since we never had any snow days this school year, the kids were able to get out of school right on schedule.  Both Lia and Logan did not end up going to the last day of school which is always a half day.  Lia opted to sleep in and miss watching movies in all six of her classes, and Logan was told to skip by his own father (and principal) since the last day of school at his junior high is devoted to a 9th grade assembly that 7th and 8th graders are not allowed to attend.  So instead of spending 3.5 hours in the cafeteria, Logan stayed home with me and went to our elementary school the last hour of class to visit a few 5th and 6th grade classes that I have enjoyed subbing in this school year. 

Overall, it was another unbelievably busy, but good, school year.  The kids all learned and grew and accomplished so much, both in and out of the classroom.  In addition, I returned back to the classroom as a substitute teacher for the first time in 14 years.  For the most part, I worked two to three days a week, October through June.  Although it was a blessing to bring in some extra income, it was a difficult transition for me to figure out how to juggle working with a very busy, large family.  With the exception of some really painful headaches and overall exhaustion, I survived the year.  We are all grateful that summer is finally upon us and look forward to the break from the hustle and bustle of our busy lives to enjoy some calmer days and some quality, family time.

June 16th:

Lia's last day of 11th grade

It's so hard to believe that she is officially a senior in high school now.  Where did the time go?  Lia successfully completed another very busy year of high school juggling online seminary, school, homework, a few after school clubs, and lots and lots of theater.  She participated in five plays this year--three musicals at NWTL and one musical and the one-acts at her high school.  She also managed to maintain straight As first semester and five As and her first ever B (in Math which has always been her arch nemesis) second semester.  Needless to say, Lia was exhausted by the end of the year and is looking forward to catching up on some sleep this summer.  She didn't emerge out of her bedroom (besides eating a bowl of cereal while Logan and I were at the elementary school this morning) until 6:15 PM today!

June 16th:

Logan's last day of 7th grade

Logan made an unbelievably smooth transition to junior high school this year.  Once a boy who despised change, Logan made this big change in his life without even blinking.  I'm still trying to figure it out!  He loved all six of his classes, including his electives and got a 4.0 both semesters without barely getting any help from Ron and me all year long.  He thrived in all four of his PAGE classes which are the honors classes offered for all four core subjects to students who qualify to take them through testing.  Logan enjoyed maintaining several of his elementary friendships while making a ton of new friends, especially in his PAGE classes.  He ran XC with South Hill Running Club in the fall, and participated in wrestling and track with this school in the winter and spring.  He also ran track with his same running club in the spring.  Overall, Logan loved this year and I have loved watching his confidence and personality develop during this first year of his teens.

June 17th:

Ella's last day of 5th grade

Ella absolutely loved this school year!  She was placed in Mrs. Lindner's class who was Logan's beloved, 5th grade teacher.  She loved being in her class and became very good friends with Gracie, who was the one person from her friend group who was also assigned to this class.  She learned so much in Mrs. Lindner's class, while still having so much fun.  Ella also loved being at the same school with Emmett for the first time and loved being able to say "hi" to him in the hallways every week.  In addition, I was able to sub several times in her class which we both loved so much!  Ella also practiced 16 hours a week with her Level 4 gymnastics team all year long.  She improved so much and had a very successful meet season this winter.

June 17th:

Emmett's last day of Kindergarten

As I mentioned above, Emmett absolutely LOVED Kindergarten!  He loved his teacher, Mr. Gathany, and all of the fun and creative ways that he taught his class.  Emmett became a total leader in his class in every area from academics to behavior to athletics.  He just thrived in every area and made so many friends.  Although I never substitute taught in his class, I loved being able to hug him in the hallways, peek in on him in his classroom, and go out to recess to say "hi" whenever I had a break in my class when he was at recess.  He is such a darling boy who is enthusiastic about everything and just loves life!  It was so fun to watch him grow this year!

Ella and Emmett getting dropped off in front of school for the last time this school today!  Ella convinced me to swing by Starbucks before school to use a gift card she had just gotten as a gift.  However, it made them one minute late to the last day of school.  Whoops!  Here they are heading into school with their teacher gifts and their overpriced, fancy drinks! 

This school year went by so fast because it was so busy!  But I am so proud of my kids and how well all of them did this school year.  They are all growing and progressing in so many wonderful ways and I have absolutely loved helping them and cheering them on along the way!

Annual NWTL Beaker Awards

The girls and I spent the evening at a Lutheran church downtown celebrating NWTL's third annual, Beaker Awards where they honor the actors and actresses from all of the plays performed in the past 12 months.  Although Ella had to take a break from theater this past school year due to her gymnastics schedule increasing from 12 hours of practice a week to 16 hours, she wanted to join Lia and me at the awards ceremony as she still loves being a part of this theater community.  Since Lia performed in three musicals this past year, she earned several ensemble awards as being a part of these casts.  And, although, she didn't earn any individual awards for performance or scholarship money like she did the previous two years, we were still grateful to attend this special evening and celebrate her accomplishments with NWTL during her junior year of high school.

Lia was called up to the stage six times during the awards ceremony.  She earned the following awards:

Outstanding in Voice for Beauty & the Beast

Outstanding in Dance for 42nd Street

Outstanding in Acting for Honk

Excellence in Dance for Beauty & the Beast and 42nd Street

Excellence in Ensemble for Honk

Ella and Lia posing on the stage after dinner and the awards ceremony was over.

My girls and me.

Although this took place a few days earlier, I wanted to include this event in the awards ceremony post.  Jen and Blair have been the co-owners and co-directors of NWTL for the entire three years that Lia has performed with this theater.  Of the two directors, Blair is the one who everyone loves!  Not only is he an unbelievably talented choreographer who performed on Broadway when he was younger, but he is the most humorous, loving, kind, and fun theater director that you could imagine for children and teenagers.  He is truly the heart and soul of NWTL.  So, it came as quite the surprise and shock when an email was sent out last Sunday night (after 42nd Street's performance weekend had just ended) announcing that he was leaving NTWL immediately to chase a dream project in NYC.  Since Lia had skipped the cast party after the third show to study for an important math test the next morning, she found out from a few friends that the party was still going on at 9:30 due to most of the kids still saying their goodbyes to Blair.  Although I was already in bed, I agreed to change out of my pajamas and drive Lia down to NWTL to say goodbye to Blair.  We arrived at 9:50 and left at 10:05 since Lia still needed to continue studying for her test.  We were able to say a quick and private goodbye to Blair after he left the group of kids in the theater room and came out to the lobby to see us.  It was a sad and tearful farewell for Lia as she has grown to love and respect Blair so much.  Although it is still so hard to believe that Blair is no longer with NWTL, my girls and I will forever be grateful for the years that he was a part of our lives.

Mamma Mia!

After Lia and Jared performed in the musical, Mamma Mia, at their high school this fall, they both fell in love with his show.  When it was announced that Mamma Mia would be coming to Seattle for a few days, Jared's parents invited Lia to go to the show with them.  So although she just finished up an unbelievably long and stressful week with 42nd Street last weekend and still has several tests and assignments due this week for school, Lia managed to slip away for a few hours to go to Seattle last night with Jared's family.  They had an amazing time watching this incredibly fun musical and made it home after 11 o'clock last night.  Lia said that the show was one giant, sing-along in the theater which must have been so fun for her!  I'm so glad that she was able to to see this beloved musical of hers on Broadway.

Lia Performs in 42nd Street

After a crazy 10 weeks of rehearsing for 42nd Street while juggling school, homework, online seminary, and the one-act plays at her high school, Lia performed in a marathon weekend over the past few days.  She had nightly rehearsals all last week, a 5 hour dress rehearsal on Friday night, a 13 hour performance day on Saturday, and an 8 hour performance day on Sunday, all while trying to take tests and finish projects and assignments at the end of her junior year.  Needless to say, it was a grueling week for her.  In addition, 42nd Street was the most intense, advanced, and elaborate production that NWTL has ever taken on.  Instead of putting on a Junior version of this show, they performed the teen version that lasted 2.5 hours with a 20 minute intermission in the middle.  The majority of the ensemble dance scenes were tap dance numbers which meant that Lia had to learn how to tap dance for this show.  In addition, Lia also had 12 costumes and 15 costume changes throughout this play.  Overall, this was the biggest show that Lia has ever been a part of and to be able to juggle tech week and the performance weekend during her second to last week of school was a major accomplishment. 

I was able to attend the Saturday matinee show alone and the Sunday matinee show with my mom and Ella, while Ron and the boys went to her Saturday evening show.  We were able to get seats for the front row and be up close and personal for this amazing production full of stunning, vintage costumes, classic songs, and incredible, ensemble dance numbers.  It was simply amazing to see this cast of twenty some teenagers pull off such an advanced and complicated show.  All of us thoroughly enjoyed watching Lia perform in this show and are so proud of her for pulling this off at such a busy time of year.  Well done, Lia!

 

Since 42nd Street is a play withing a play, it bounced back and forth between the two plays the entire 2.5 hours.  Here is Lia and a few other girls talking at the back of the stage after they had finished auditions for "Pretty Lady."

A close-up of Lia while she sang, "Shadow Waltz," at the front of the stage.

Lia and her lovely legs while singing "Shadow Waltz."  I cant believe how much she looks like a 1930s, pin-up girl in this picture.

Lia and Carson dancing while singing the song, "Getting to be a Habit with Me."

Lia singing "Dames" with Irene and Norah at her side.

Lia wearing a stunning, beaded gown while still singing the song, "Dames."

Lia speaking to Abner Dillon, the producer of the show during the party scene.

Lia's boyfriend, Jared, during the party scene.  This is one of the few times that the two of them were placed together during the show.

Lia walking onto the stage at the beginning of the song, "We're Into Money," while carrying a giant coin.

After placing the coins down on the stage, all of the girls tap danced on them for the duration of the song.  It was so fun to watch!

Lia tapping and dancing on top of her coin.  "We're Into Money" was by far my favorite scene of the entire musical.

Lia singing "Sunny Side to Every Situation."

Lia tap dancing during "Lullaby of Broadway."

Lia finishing off the final scene of the play while singing, "42nd Street."

Lia and Jared.

Lia with her brothers after the Saturday, evening show.

Lia with Ella and me after her third and final show on Sunday.

Ella's End of Season Gymnastics Party

For the third year in a row, Ella and I headed to the Rainier's Baseball game at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma after Lia's matinee show of 42nd Street to celebrate the conclusion of her third season of competitive gymnastics with Ascend.  Just like the previous two years, Ella had a great time running wild with her friends for several hours.  After eating a catered dinner, Ella enjoyed getting her face painted and posing in the photo booth several times before finishing off the evening playing on the awesome playground with some of her closest gymnastics buddies.  We left during the 7th inning as I wanted to beat the rush out of the stadium and get to bed at a decent hour with another long day of Lia performing in 42nd Street tomorrow.

Ella sitting patiently while she had some beautiful, purple flowers painted on her face.

Ella and her dear friend, Ella, sitting on top of the bars in the playground.

Ella and several of her gymnast buddies hanging out on the massive spiderweb.

The End of an Era for Ella

Every May, Ella's gym sends out the much anticipated email announcing which gymnasts will move up a level, and which gymnasts will have to repeat their current level.  It is an email that all gym moms and their daughters wait for with bated breath as it can bring very exciting news or very heartbreaking news.  We have been lucky to learn every year that Ella has been approved to move to the next level.  This has been such a blessing since it has allowed Ella to continue to grow and progress in her next level's gymnastics skills and also has prevented us from paying thousands of dollars for Ella to fine-tune skills that we already feel like she has mastered.  

However, this year, we were not so lucky.  When the email came out, we learned that Ella was being asked to repeat Level 4 again.  This was very disappointing for Ella since her closest friends had all been told that they were ready to move up to Level 5.  In addition, we were being asked to pay a ton of money for Ella to repeat a level that she had already mastered and also being asked to lock away the Level 5 skills (like the back tuck that she had worked so hard to learn in the last two months) for the next 10 months until the State meet was over.  None of this sat well with Ella, Ron, and me.  So, after two weeks of talking, thinking, and praying about it, Ella attended an Xcel practice three days ago to see if she was ready to transfer to the Platinum program that works on Level 4, 5, and 6 skills.  After the trial practice, we learned from the coach that Ella was ready to transfer to this level is we chose.  

On the way home from this trial practice, Ella enthusiastically told me that this was the most fun that she has had at a practice in a year and the most fun that she has had on beam in over a year due to finally being free of her head coach (who is also her beam coach) who has been so negative, rude, and unsupportive of Ella for the past three years.  This coach has been slowly crushing Ella's gymnastics spirit over the past three years, and it was so liberating to be free of her.  So, as hard as it was going to be to say goodbye to Ella's gym and team of the last three years, we made the difficult decision that she would attend two more practices this week before saying goodbye for good.

After I texted the head coach and the mothers of Ella's closest gymnast friends, Ella wrote cards for every single one of them and included a picture of her doing gymnastics on the beach in Bahamas that I had printed out for her.  It was definitely a bitter sweet goodbye.  Ella has absolutely loved going to gymnastics at the Auburn gym and has made so many wonderful memories.  This gym became her home away from home and several of her gymnast friends became like sisters.  In addition, I also became really close with several of the gymnasts' mom.  We were both not planning on leaving this gym and team this early, and so it was really hard to say goodbye to everyone tonight.  But we both know that this decision was for the best and hope and pray that this change to the Sumner gym and the Xcel program will bring about many wonderful opportunities for growth and development for Ella this coming year! 

May 30th:

Ella's final practice with her beloved Level 4 team.  They all decided to wear their competition leos to match for this final practice together.  Of this group, six were allowed to move up to Level 5 and six were told that they needed to repeat Level 4; however, a few chose to transfer to the middle of the day practice and the oldest decided to move to Xcel, like Ella.  As sad as it was to see this tight knit group of girls split up, it made it easier for Ella to leave knowing that they would not be together again.

A picture of Ella and her dear friend, Ava, walking out of the gym after their last practice together in Level 4.

June 5th:

I managed to take a picture of a few of Ella's friends after her final practice tonight.  She was in good spirits as we left the gym, while I was the one fighting back tears.

From left to right:

Avery, Shy, Ava M, Ava H, and Ella

Primary Pinewood Derby

Tonight, Ron and I took Ella and Emmett to the church to participate in our annual, primary Pinewood Derby activity.  Emmett had been looking so forward to this activity for weeks.  After Ron finished up their cars this past weekend, both of the kids were so excited to head out the door tonight.  Both Ella's and Emmett's cars raced in several heats and did really well.  After several rounds, Emmett's car came in third place and Ella's car came in fifth place out of a total of 20 cars.  It was a fun night of racing, cheering, and eating good food and both kids were happy with their car's outcome when we headed home tonight.

Ella and Emmett holding their cars before the race began.

All of the primary kids posing behind the "parking lot" of cars before the race.

Emmett eating treats with his friends, Evie and Isaac, by the side of the race track.

Ella doing the same with Etta and Madelyn.

Since I'm still serving in the primary presidency, I was the one who handed out the awards.  Here is Emmett receiving the third place trophy.

Ella won one of the certificates that we handed out for "Most Basic" design.