Wedding

Camille and Audra went with me to a wedding. It was a beautiful wedding for Sierrah and Josh, and my girls looked beautiful, too.

 

Softball

 That's our Camille- playing some softball! She is doing some softball camps to keep busy this summer and is as cute as can be out there! This is her batting. I think she got an RBI on this one, where she hit the ball but it went as far as a bunt and she made it to first the runner came home, so it worked out well.

Last Day of School

I didn't get a last day of school picture of Camille...oops! Needless to say, though, she looked very cute and was very excited. Her year started out rough as she didn't like middle school at first, but Camille turned it around and ended up happy and incredibly successful.

Claire had a fantastic year. By exactly one point in two classes, but much higher percentages in the other classes, she got straight A's again this year. She maybe needs to work on not procrastinating so much with her homework (she often waits until 8 PM to start, and then somehow gets mad at us that she is so stressed out), but she really wants to excel. She has a brilliant group of friends who are all a very good influence on her.

Both Ben and me are kind-of surprised at how self motivated all of our girls are. We have never said they need to get straight A's. We have always valued education and tried to instill in them a love of learning, but they have each decided on their own that they want to have good grades, and they are willing to work hard to make it happen. It's pretty impressive- we will see if it continues into the future!

And, I finished my third year at TBE, 8th year of teaching overall. This year I really feel like I found my groove. I'm confident in my abilities now, and I feel like I am actually really good at my job. Which is why it is a bummer that my position is going back down to .5. UGH! I fought going full-time so hard, but then it turned out it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It didn't really take away from our family, and Ben was able to pick up my slack when needed (mostly in helping with rides for away games). My principal wanted to keep me happy and said she would give me more hours doing something different if I wanted. I thought about it and decided that being .8 would be a dream- getting off an hour early every day, and then having 1/2 a day off on Friday. And, my principal made it happen. I'll be a .5 GT Facilitator, and a .3 Literary Specialist. It sounds like I get to make up what that .3 looks like, which I think will be modeling and coaching with Depth and Complexity. I think it will be really cool, and I'm excited for it. One thing is for sure- this job is always something new! It keeps me on my toes.

And just for fun, on my walk to work today (I LOVE walking to work!), there was a wild turkey running around. Sort of feels like my life right now.

Another ADULT in the House!

 And, we had Audra's Birthday (and seminary graduation tonight, too). Could this week get any crazier?!?

                                                            

                      

Seminary graduation was also tonight, and we were EXHAUSTED from all of the other festivities, so we kept Audra's Birthday very low key. But, we did have some store bought cake and tried our best to celebrate as best we could.

Here is Audra at 18:

-She's got all kinds of boys interested in her. Austin wants to get back together, she's dating Nicholas, Nathan from HXP, and who came down from prom, keeps texting her (but he lives too far away) and Jackson from Macy's also texts her. It's pretty funny

-She is TERRIFIED of heading to BYU. I mean, really terrified. So she just doesn't think about it. I'm hopeful that once she is there and settled she will fall in love with college life.

-She is still working at the day care/pre-school, and will work full-time all summer to try and raise as much money as she can for college

-Right now, she wants to be a kindergarten teacher with the intent to then get her Master's in counseling to become an elementary school counselor or social worker

-Nicholas is teaching her to play guitar, so she bought a guitar and is slowly learning

-She has lots of anxiety, and is now taking some meds that seem to help. She gets overwhelmed very easily, so college may be a challenge at first as she works through all of college life.

-She loves KitKats and chocolate, though she also has problems with dairy, so she has had to really cut back on all dairy

-She loves playing piano, except in front of people. She never wants to play in front of people

Here's her answers for a spotlight the RS did for her:

Hi!  My favorite sweet treat is anything with chocolate, my favorite savory treat is Ritz crackers, and my hobbies include band, piano, and reading.

I am a morning person

My favorite season is fall because the leaves are so pretty and the weather is perfect

My biggest pet peeve is the incorrect use of your or  you're

I hate eating seaweed

If I could go anywhere in the world, I would go to Venice because I want to ride in a gondola

My favorite color to wear is blue

Something unique about myself is that I like to roll a coin across my knuckles when I'm bored

My favorite pastime is playing piano

My favorite scripture is Ether 12:27, because I have a lot of weaknesses and it's encouraging to know that they can become strengths

My favorite family tradition is making a creepy bunny cake for Easter (it isn't supposed to be creepy, but it always is)

Audra is pretty incredible- she's still the kindest, most empathetic person you will ever meet, and we honestly can't believe she's ours. We are going to miss her so much when she leaves for college!

Graduation Party!

For Audra's graduation party, we combined with other members of our ward graduating. It ended up getting bigger and bigger and including kids from 3 different wards and 2 high schools. We were expecting 250 people. There were 10 kids total. Two girls branched off and did their own party, which was fine, but I am glad we stuck with the main group.

With so many kids involved, that meant each mom only had to do a little bit of work. I was in charge of drinks- which meant buying a whole bunch of soda, water, and ice. I could handle that!

We had the party at the Roper's house. We were worried about terrible weather, but thankfully the weather turned out wonderful. The party turned out wonderful. It was simply perfect.

One other thing we had to do was 100 "favorite cookie" bags. Audra (and each of the kids) was turned into a cartoon. Each kid chose their favorite cookie to hand out to guests. Now, I didn't really let Audra choose. I needed something easy. Did you notice we had 2 Birthdays in addition to this insanely crazy week?!? It was a lot. So, we did mint brownies, and then cut them up into really small bites so we could get 100. It was perfect.

Isn't she so cute as a cartoon?

Her part of the table set up

It was awesome! I really thought of this party as a celebration of all of the wonderful people who have helped us raise Audra. What an incredible community we have- we are so blessed!

Graduation!

Everything led up to this moment, and still it was unreal to be happening. 

As I was getting ready today, I had the thought: In 1st grade, Audra came home from school and said, "mom, I'm stupid. I'm in the lowest reading group." And tonight, she walked across the stage a Valedictorian.

We have been through a lot between 1st and 12th grade. It took a long time for Audra's confidence in school to come out, and I attribute the turnaround to homeschooling, but she worked incredibly hard, got lots of tutoring when needed, worked with Ben literally for hours every night with math, and graduated with a 4.3-ish GPA. She's pretty incredible.

It was a glorious day- minus getting in and out of DU. But, I am very glad they hold it at DU, no matter how hard it was to park and to leave at the end. But, outdoor graduations in Colorado are stupid because you never know how bad the weather can be. Sometimes it can be great, but mostly the weather will be rough. So I'm glad it was indoors.

Anyway, they did a great job. The graduation was beautiful. It was less than two hours, with just a couple of speakers who spoke for less than 5 minutes. The longest part was the presentation of the diplomas, which one would expect to take awhile.

My principal was sitting on the stage and took this picture. Isn't it awesome?

                                   

Graduation started at 6 PM, but Claire and Audra needed to be there at 4 for band/orchestra. Our last time watching our girls play together. It made for a weird eating schedule, but we went to a late lunch at Piccino's at 2 PM before heading to DU.

 

It was a great day to celebrate our favorite Audra! (even if I did tell my other girls to just drop out of school now so we never have to go through all of this again! It's A LOT!)

Photo Dump of Our Graduate!

Evan, Adaley, Emily, Audra, Dallin

Josie, Audra, Dallin, Evan, Emily, Adaley