Camille's 5th Grade Promotion Ceremony

A week later we got to head over the Mountain View Elementary School (probably for the last time???) for Camille's 5th Grade Promotion Ceremony!!!  I have to say-- I have had children attending elementary school for fifteen years now.  So while it was a bittersweet moment, it also felt like it was time to close out this chapter of my life.  It's been lovely, but I'm ready to move on with my kiddos!

Because things always have to be complicated, this morning was no different.  Trying to get a seat at these events is cutthroat, so I was already planning on getting there right as the doors opened.  But then Donna really needed some insulin, so Craig dashed out to OLOP to get her some, and Ryder needed a ride to school.  So we ended up having Kendra take Tom and Donna with her while she dropped off Ryder, I arrived early to save seats, and Craig managed to rush back and get there on time, insulin on hand.  Phew!  We even had a few minutes to give Donna her injection before the ceremony started!  

It began with several kids-- including Camille!-- playing "Pomp & Circumstance" on recorders and xylophones!  And they actually sounded quite good!

I actually really liked the principal's speech, where he talked about how trees grow better when they experience diversity and how this class began kindergarten during the pandemic but were thriving in spite of that.  It was quite lovely.

Getting to shake hands with Ms. Short, and her other teacher, Ms. Paxton (Theo and Quinn's mom!) is on the far right

This one is blurry, but you can see her great smile!

After they all got their certificates, they sang "Because I Knew You" from Wicked

And then we had to take pictures of course!

Ms. Isaacs was Camille's 3rd grade teacher, who moved to Colorado after that school year and promised to come see her kids "graduate" from 5th grade-- and she actually came!!!  

Ms. Short

And Ms. Paxton!

Trying to be taller than BFF Mara

Almost as tall as Grandma, too!

Once we'd gotten our fill of pictures, we got breakfast at Tip Top Diner-- it was a very fun and happy day!  Next stop for this cute little girl: middle school!!!

Grad Party!

We had five seniors graduating from our ward this year, so the parents all decided to throw a joint party for the kids.  I had every intention of helping out a lot, but then on the actual day, I had to be at the condo while they delivered a new washing machine (yup, the old tenants had apparently broken the one that was there!  Thanks, guys!), and it was ALSO the same day that the movers finished moving everything out of Tom and Donna's *house.  This meant that they brought a few items that had been forgotten to Tom and Donna's new place, and they brought us some stuff that was going to be thrown away otherwise but we wanted.  And then everything else, they decided to either toss, donate, or sell.  

So I was home all day waiting for the movers to come.  Naturally, they didn't show up until 5:30, when the party was at 6!  (And also, it started pouring rain when they arrived.  Of course.)  So it was a weird day where I sat around stressing all day, but not actually doing anything or helping with the decorations, and then being late to my daughter's party!  I had at least made and/or bought a lot of food (which Craig and the kids brought on time), so I wasn't completely worthless.  But I would have liked to have done more.  Sorry, everyone!!!

But we did get these cute pictures out of it!

Megan and I didn't plan to match, but look how cute we are!  We're either in mourning about our kids leaving for college, or we're about to start a coven.  (It's probably the coven, honestly...)

*I forgot to mention, but this final clean out had also necessitated one last trip to the house for Craig and I, which we did after church on Sunday.  (Because that's what we had time for during this crazy month!)  We went through the house room by room looking to see if there was anything that had gotten left behind on accident, and we found quite a few treasures: my wedding dress; Donna's wedding dress; Donna's wedding album; a few sweaters and sweatshirts that we were pretty sure Tom and Donna still wear and hadn't meant to throw away; I took all the CorningWare and Tupperware because I just couldn't bear the idea of it being tossed out...  Stuff like that.  We ended up filling the van, and I was glad we'd gone, but also sad at how much was still being thrown out that we just didn't have room for in either our house or Tom and Donna's new place!  Stuff like this is so hard!

Kendra's Graduation! 🎓

And then suddenly it was the really big day-- graduation!!!

We had a few friends join us-- Amy and Sawyer Gaskin, Adam, Wendy & McKinley Sorensen, plus Tom and Donna, of course!  I'm impressed with anyone who would sit through something boring like that of their own free will.  We have such great friends!  Craig rushed in and saved us good seats, and then the rest of our family could meander in more slowly.  Everything went very smoothly, and I did NOT almost get in a fight in the parking lot!  A win all around!  And, just like with Bentley's graduation, we finished the evening off with Five Guys!

Kendra's cheering section!

There's Ryder playing "Pomp & Circumstance" with the band!

Our first glimpse of Kendra!

And now she's up on the big screen!

Actually this picture is cuter

Here you get a better idea of the space and how many people were there!

I appreciate her ability to smile for the camera, even from a distance

Monticello High School holds their graduation ceremony at UVA's basketball arena, John Paul Jones Arena.  After hearing stories of other families with only two tickets to their kids' graduations, I really appreciate that they give us plenty of room for EVERYONE who wants to attend!

And finally getting her diploma!

Stopping to wave to all her band friends (much more cheering ensued)

And then a little "fox" wave to Malik and Joel as she passed by

So cute!

And then we got to find her outside and take a billion more pictures!!!  (Thanks, as always, to Adam for taking all the best shots here!!!)

I got first dibs!

McKinley

I like how Sawyer is practically one of the family!

Amy and Wendy

Adam

Malik

I liked how she decorated her cap!  (For those concerned about the book she destroyed to create this effect, never fear-- it was a copy of Twilight that she found at a thrift store!)

One last hug for mom

Sisters 💕

Maycember 2026!

From the band concert on out, it seemed like every week we had some Major Thing, usually trying to make me cry.  It was a lot.  Maycember was in FULL FORCE.

First up: Kendra's LAST DAY OF PUBLIC EDUCATION!!!

She wasn't excited at all.  Barely even noticed.

Next up, Ryder's awards banquet for his Latin class!  Ryder did well on the standardized test and got this nifty certificate!

(That's Kendra's friend Esa--short for Theresa-- giving him his certificate)

Also, we got this amazing page in the yearbook:

We've got TWO RYDERS!!!  So what happened was-- Ryder took his track team picture wearing a shirt under his jersey, but then his coach got after him for that and told him to take it off, so they took his picture again.  And someone on the yearbook staff did NOT notice that!  Ryder's goal is to get three pictures of himself in next year's yearbook.

And then we had Kendra's Indoor Drumline Banquet!  Malik, her main coach, teaches culinary arts at Albemarle High School, so he had his students cater the entire thing!  In the past, Kendra has told us to not come (I think Craig did go last year, but I couldn't for some reason?), but this year she actually wanted us there.  Unfortunately, it was also the father-son campout, so we ended up asking the Gaskins to take Ryder and Colton to the Snow's, and then Craig joined them there after the banquet.  Luckily for us, Camille was invited to go to Jump with our neighbors and then stayed at their house to watch a movie (she was very excited to finally get to see Project Hail Mary), so we managed to do All The Things that night.  It was a lot to coordinate, though!

Camille with Beth and a couple other friends I don't know

All the seniors with their posters

Malik with his seniors

During all this time, we'd been designing and ordering graduation announcements for Kendra.  (Do you remember this?  I already mentioned it in an earlier post!)  Here are all three versions:

The one on the right was the first to arrive, the one in the middle is almost identical, and then finally the one on the left was our third try.  How did this manage to be so complicated???

But we finally got them sent out!  And by "we" I mean "Kendra"--  I was done dealing with them!