Lia's Final High School Choir Concert

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.

Lia singing with Vocal Ensemble.

Lia singing the last song of her high school choir career.  Since we were sitting so close to her, I actually saw a tear drop off her face during this final song.  She shed quite a few tears after the concert was over as she has loved performing and singing so much with this high school.

Lia and the three other LDS senior girls in the Rogers choir program.

From left to right:

Kaila, Hillary, Lia, and Suzette

Lia and Hillary.  

Theses two girls met in 9th grade while running track for Rogers and become close through singing in the choral program the past three years.  They will be living in neighboring dorm buildings this coming year at BYU.

Lia and her beloved choir teacher, Mr. Wisness.

Ella's District Track Meet

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.

Ella (in the second lane from the left) taking off as the starter shoots the gun.

Ella running around the corner at the beginning of the race.

Ella trying to catch up to the girl in the green whose team stayed in first place the entire race.

Ella approaching us.

And running right past us.

A cute sibling photo I took of the three kids after Ella's race was over.  It has been fun to cheer on both Logan and Ella for two years at this district meet the past four years.  It's hard to believe that we will be back here again in four years when Emmett is in 5th grade.

Logan's Last Kalles Track Meet

 

A Chapter Closes for Ella

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.

I was able to go watch 2.5 hours of Ella's final practice last night which is something I haven't done all year long due to how busy I have been.  Although I missed her practicing on the floor, I caught all three of the other events.  Here is Ella standing on the beam next to her coach on the right hand side while watching one of her teammates do her routine.

Ella waiting in line to do the vault.

Ella warming up on the bar.

Ella jumping to the top bar.

Ever since Ella moved to competitive gymnastics, her coaches have always finished practice by recognizing the gymnasts who have excelled the most in that practice by doing a "class clap."  They ask the girls who are being recognized to step forward from the line of gymnasts while the coaches talk about them.  When they are done, the girls jump/spin in a circle while the rest of the team clasps for them.  Last night, Ella's coach recognized the five girls leaving (Ella and the four seniors who are graduating) and had them do one last "class clap."  Here is Ella on the left side of the line listening to her coach say goodbye to these girls.  After practice, we gave Ella's coach a thank you gift and I made a batch of cupcakes (with gymnastics cupcake toppers) for Ella to share with with her teammates on their way out the door.

Ella posing with Coach Madison after her last practice was over.

Ella standing with Olivia who became one of Ella's closest gym friends this past year.

Ella posing for one last picture with two more of her closest gym friends, Savannah and Quinn.

Lia's Graduation Photos

Lia's Directorial Debut at Dramafest

Every spring, Lia's high school theater program hosts Dramafest which consists of a few student-directed one-act plays.  Lia performed in a one-act play during both her 10th and 11th grade year.  After applying to be one of the directors this spring, she found out that she was chosen with two other seniors during the closing week of Freaky Friday in March.  After the musical ended, Lia and the two other senior directors hosted auditions the next week and rehearsals began the following week.  Lia chose to direct a more serious one-act play called Me, My Monsters, and I which is about a boy dealing with the grief from his sister's death in a car accident six months earlier.  Similar to the Pixar movie, Inside Out, all of the various emotions that he is feeling are played by the other actors in the play.  Lia did a great job directing this one-act play and the nine actors she casted to a great job acting.  It was a very touching and heartfelt play and I am so proud of Lia for taking on this new role at the conclusion of her high school theater experience.

Every Thursday, our district sends out a newsletter via email to all of the thousands of parents and employees of our district. A few weeks ago, this newsletter included all three spring plays that would be performing at the high schools.  Lia's name was actually included with the information being shared about Dramafest at her high school.  I thought that it was so cool to see her name in this newsletter that I screenshotted and included it above.

Lia's pictures with the other two student directors and her theater director on a wall in the lobby.

Lia's good friend, Isabelle, was one of the two other student directors.  Here are the two of them in the theater before the show began on opening night.

All of the directors got to come out on stage and introduce their one-act play before they performed.  Here is Lia introducing her play on opening night.

In addition to introducing her play, Lia was the only director who was asked to perform before each of the one-act plays.  She competed in the South Sound Thespian Competition last January and received a Superior score for both the monologue and the two-person scene (with her "Almost Maine" co-star) that she performed.  This score qualified her to compete at Nationals this summer in Indiana.  Although she is not flying out for this competition, Lia's theater director asked her to perform her monologue before all four of the Dramafest performances.  Her monologue was over 4 minutes long and she did such an amazing job!

All nine actors in Lia's play sitting on the edge of the stage during their performance.

The actors of Me, My Monsters, and I taking a bow at the end of their show.

The three student directors bowing at the end of the three shows.

On closing night, two sophomore students recognized all of the seniors involved in Dramafest--the directors, the actors, and the backstage crew members by giving each of them a rose.  Here is Lia holding her rose at the front of the stage.

Although I went alone on opening night on Thursday, all five of us went to watch the closing show on Saturday night.  Here is Lia with the five of us after her final show.

Although Lia didn't perform in a one-act this year, she had some friends come to support her to some of the shows.  Here she is with Spencer (who performed in another one-act play) with two of her NTWL friends, Max and AJ, and one of her running friends, Emma, after the closing show.

PSD Scholarship Awards Night

Last night, Ron and I attended the Puyallup School District's scholarship night for Lia's high school.  Our school district does an amazing job of providing hundreds of scholarships each year to graduating seniors from hundreds of donors and organizations.  The only catch is that students have to complete a huge online application with several, 500-word essays, depending on which scholarships one qualifies to apply for.  Lia had to write ten, 500-word essays which I helped her with.  Although it wasn't as time consuming as the BYU application, it was a massive undertaking.  So we were all thrilled last night to learn that Lia had won two scholarships--$1200 from the Tom Brown Memorial Scholarship and $500 from the Shaw Road Elementary School PTA Scholarship.  Although several students received the Tom Brown scholarship, only one student (who attended Lia's elementary school for a minimum of four years) earned the Shaw Road scholarship.  Since Lia was going up against many students to win this scholarship, it was super exciting news to find out that she had received it!  In addition, we found out last week that Lia also won a $2000 scholarship from my mom's high school's alumni association.  Receiving a total of $3700 in scholarship money to help her pay for tuition, books, and spending money for her freshman year of college is a massive blessing for Lia since she has been too busy with extra curricular activities to hold a part-time job during high school.

Lia walking up to the stage after her name was called.

Lia standing by the podium while one of her assistant principal's reads information about the Shaw Road PTA scholarship.

Lia smiling for me after receiving her scholarships.

Lia posing with her good friends, Hope and Erika, after the ceremony was over.  Both of her friends also received scholarships last night.

Proud parents standing with our soon-to-be graduate.