Ron and I went to Lia's school last night to watch her sing in her final choir concert of her high school career. After seeing her sing in so many concerts over the past several years, it was definitely bitter sweet. She sang three songs at the beginning of the concert with Vocal Ensemble and then four songs at the end with Concert Choir. In addition, her choir teacher recognized all of the seniors one at at time which is a tradition that he does every year at the June concert. Lia was able to walk up to the front of the choir to receive a rose and her choir cord (that she gets to wear at graduation) while Mr. Wisness read her college plans to the audience. After each senior was spotlighted, her choir director announced the four seniors (two boys and two girls) who had been voted by their classmates to receive the Most Inspirational and Excellence in Choir awards. We were so thrilled to learn that Lia had been chosen as the Most Inspirational female student in the choir program and her name will go on a plaque that hangs in the choir room. After receiving the Outstanding Actress award for her theater program a few days ago at the Drama Banquet, this was such wonderful news to see her being recognized a second time for her character and accomplishments in the choir program. Way to go, Lia! We are so proud of you.
For the fourth year in a row, we headed down to Sparks Stadium to cheer on one of our children at the large, district track meet that is held every June for the 5th and 6th graders who chose to participate in their school's track season. It turned out to be a gorgeous day in the high 80s which made for some very hot weather for the students to compete in. I picked up Emmett early from school at 2 p.m. and then drove straight to Logan's school where I picked him up outside the parking lot at 2:05 right after his school got out. We then drove straight to the stadium where Ron joined us a few minutes later. Unlike previous years, Ella was only allowed to compete in one event instead of two due to how many students turned out for her school's track team this year. Her coaches decided to put her in the only relay (the 4x100) as the first runner which is a compliment to her as the fastest runners are always the first and last runners in the relay. Since this track meet literally goes on for hours, we timed it to arrive about 30 minutes before her event started. Luckily, she ran in the second heat which meant we weren't standing in the hot sun for too long. After a bit of a wait, her relay began and she did a great job getting her team into second place. Unfortunately, there was one school with a really strong runner who got her team in first place where they stayed the entire race. So although Ella's team did a great job, they finished in second place. Ella was a little disappointed by this as her school has a history of winning the relay race every year, but she soon got over it as she really had a great time spending almost the entire school day hanging out with her friends in the stands and cheering on her teammates instead of being in class.
Lia attended her third and final high school drama banquet tonight. This is an event that the theater director and drama board host every year before school gets out and all of the students who have been involved (both on and off stage) with any of the three productions put on that year are invited to attend. Since Lia is the vice president of her drama board this year, she was able to be a part of the planning of the event and helping with the set up. Since she didn't have time to come home after school to get ready, Lia got all dolled up in one of her pretty dresses in the theater green room and Emmett and I delivered our food for the potluck dinner to her before the evening began. Lia had a fabulous evening eating dinner with her friends and then listening to the awards ceremony hosted by her theater director afterwards. Lia received a certificate and a light green cord for lettering in Theater and also found out that she was chosen as the recipient of the Outstanding Actress award that is handed out each year to one senior girl. Receiving this award is quite an honor as only four seniors are given awards at this banquet and their names go on one of four plaques that are on display in the glass case in the theater lobby. I just love that Lia's name will forever be in the high school theater lobby as this part of her school has been such a huge part of her life these past three years. Congratulations, Lia! We are so proud of you and all that you have accomplished on the stage during your time at Rogers!
Logan has been running five days a week with his junior high track team ever since the season started the day after spring break on April 13th. He has ran in a total of six track meets this season and Ron and I were able to be there for four of them. Logan did an excellent job running the 1600 and the 800 meters at every meet. He is in the top four long-distance runners on his team and PR'd at almost every meet this year. I love watching how hard he works and pushes himself at every meet and we were all thrilled to learn that he PR'd in both of his events at his last meet yesterday at Kalles. Logan ran the 1600 meters in 5:31 and the 800 meters in 2:32 which is just amazing to me. Well done, Logan! We are so proud of you!
For as long as Ella can remember, gymnastics has been part of her life. She took rec lessons at the Y during both or her preschool years and moved to Ascend gymnastics her Kindergarten year to participate in a better rec program. After the pandemic shut everything done, she returned back to rec classes at the beginning of 1st grade and never stopped. For the past six years, it's been her #1 sport and focus. She went from being in the advanced rec class in 1st grade to preteam in 2nd grade to competitive gymnastics from 3rd to 6th grade. I loved watching her grow and develop over the years in her confidence, her skill level, and her work ethic. Most especially, I loved the dear friendships that she has made during her years in the gym. But, yesterday, this chapter closed for good as Ella has made the decision to make the transition to competitive cheerleading. Since it has always been a dream of Ella's to be cheerleader in high school, we thought that it would be a good idea to have a year or two of competitive cheerleading experience before she tries out for her high school cheer team in the spring of 8th grade. So after doing a bunch of research and checking out three cheer gyms in our area, Ella attended three nights of tryouts at one of these gyms last week. With zero cheerleading experience, we found out last Saturday that Ella had been placed in their top level due to her tumbling skills, her athleticism, and her small build that will make her an excellent flyer. This was super exciting news for Ella and me and confirmed that we had made the right decision to move to cheerleading at this time.
So it was bitter sweet last night for Ella to attend her last gymnastics practice of her life and say goodbye to her beloved Xcel coach, Madison, and to all of the girls on her Xcel Platinum team. Although she had only been with this new team for a year, she absolutely adored her new coach and all of the girls on her team. The majority of this team consists of high school age girls, but they all treated Ella like a little sister. And, luckily, Ella hit it off with the few girls that were close in age to her and had a great time spending hours with them practicing every week. Overall, Xcel was a wonderful experience for her and I am so grateful that she was able to close her gymnastics chapter on such a positive note.
