June - Rylee's "Graduation"

Rylee didn't have a graduation, but she did have an awards ceremony.  She ended up taking home 8 awards!  One for each subject: integrity for math, excellence for biology, she and her group won for their history fair project (a website about gun violence, the MSD shooting, and how students are fighting for better laws), and she won the ABC poem category for the literacy fair (with a poem about Grandma Sandy and her love for loons), plus excellence in Color Guard.

She also got a medal for straight As in the 4th quarter, a pin for her presidential excellence award (3.5 GPA or higher), and a plaque for the Principals Award (which they gave to 10 or so students who had straight As all through middle school).

For the Principal's Award, they read a little bio about each student from some questions they had to answer about themselves:  "Rylee wants to attend Florida State University (Go Gators!) to become a teacher or marine biologist.  She is a member of National Junior Honor, Color Guard, the Sawgrass Springs Golf team, and the crochet club.  She also plays the ukulele and guitar.  Rylee's favorite quote is: 5 seconds of fear or a lifetime of regret."

We got a kick out of her quote because it's from Coby Cotton of Dude Perfect.  She does life by this quote too - she is so brave and adventurous.  She clearly gets this from Jon and not me!

We are so proud of all she has accomplished in middle school!  

Here are some pictures from after the ceremony:

Love you Rylee!

June - Jace's "Graduation"

Jace's 5th grade graduation was the same day as Rylee's 2nd field trip to Universal in case you're wondering why she isn't pictured.  More on that later.

Looking sharp!

With Lilou (awww!)

The ceremony went well.  The kids danced into the cafe to "This is Our Year" from the Zombies movie.  They did the "griddy" (the dance of the year).  The big finish included a spin and then they threw confetti streamers out of their hand.  It was cute.

Mr. Z announced the names for our two class so I got to give Jace his certificate and I threw in a hug.  I never give myself special privileges with the kids, but I decided I deserved this one!

Jace got medals for straight As in the 4th quarter and 

the presidential award for straight As all year.  

So proud of how hard he worked!

That Saturday he went to a party with some of his friends.

Only 2 of the kids pictured will be at his school next year.

So sad to see them all get split up.

Jessica threw a great bash.  She used the decorations

from graduation and even rented the shaved ice truck.

Happy Graduation Jace!

Back to Rylee: to make a long story short, she probably would have preferred to skip her 8th grade field trip.  The got to Universal and it took forever to get going.  The first ride they picked had mechanical issues.  They tried to wait it out, but finally gave up.  I think she texted me at 12:30 and they had just finished their first ride.  All in all, they only got 5 rides in the whole day.

They had to meet back up ridiculously early so none of them got to eat dinner before getting on the bus and they weren't allowed to bring food or drinks.  Rylee texted me that they were scheduled to get back at like 10 (way earlier than expected).  Famous last words!  Their bus broke down with a flat tire.  They were stuck on the road for almost two hours waiting for it to get fixed.  They were all starving (and sick, there was something going around school, so they were all coughing and losing their voices).  The bus driver scrounged up some snacks and the asst principal passed out 2 plantain chips to everyone and a splash of water or soda!

When they finally got going, they only made it 10 minutes down the rode and then the bus driver pulled over again.  There was still something wrong with the bus.  He decided to drive as far as the rest stop and then pull over again.  They let the students off to use the restroom and get some snacks.  Then the asst principal announced that the bus was officially broke down and they were stuck!  They had to wait for the other bus to get to school, drop the kids off, and drive back to pick them up.  Luckily, Dunkin Donuts was open so they kids ordered some grilled cheese etc.  Rylee texted me a picture of her eating dinner at midnight!  

I finally picked her up at school at 2:15 am.  By the time we got home and into bed it was 3.  Rylee skipped school the next day, but I set my alarm for 6 and staggered in after being up for 23 hours and getting 3 hours of sleep!  Lol

At least she has a school field trip horror story to tell!

May Events - Jace's Dance

**First, I should give both my kids a shout out.  May is testing season and they both had lots of state tests and finals which they worked hard studying for.  Rylee even had a couple of tutoring sessions with Meg (via Zoom) to prepare for her Algebra exam.  They did great on everything too!**

Like Rylee, Jace had an end of year dance.  Unlike Rylee, he had a date!  He didn't even tell me for a few days, but then one day he says, "I forgot to tell you, but I asked Lilou to the dance."  What?!  Apparently, it went down after recess.  He asked, "Are you going to the dance?"  She said yes.  He asked, "Would you like to go to the dance with me?"  She said yes!  All the boys had been taking about asking girls to the dance, but as far as I know most of them chickened out.  I only knew of 3 boys that had dates and Jace was one of them!  Jace said he was excited, but nervous.  Aww!

**Speaking of dances, I forgot to mention that Jon was one of the chaperones for the mother son dance.  We needed the dads to step up and chaperone so the moms could actually have fun!  Lol. Also, the DJ that night was horrible.  But one of the Dad's that was chaperoning is a professional DJ and he just jumped in and took over.  Then it was a blast!  The PTA made sure to hire him for the 5th grade dance.  DJs are important.  Although Rylee loved the 8th grade dance, the DJ wasn't the best.  They all joked, "Who's quinceanera is this?"  Lol.  There was a lot of latin music and he didn't play any of the songs the dance committee had selected.  Not that it mattered in their case, they all danced anyway.**

Well anyway... the day of the dance, Jace and I stopped to buy Lilou some flowers.  Jace picked out some pretty pink carnations.  He decided to only give her one so it would be easier for her.

Jon dropped Jace off since I was chaperoning.

Jace had said that was okay as long as I didn't 

get in the way of him and Lilou!

When Lilou arrived, Jace walked right up to her and gave her the flower.

She really seemed to like it.  She basically had it in her hand the whole night!

I was worried her mom might be upset, but she loved it.

The kids even let us take photos.

They did things together and they did things apart.

They even danced with each other a couple of times!

(Her mom got these and shared with me.

I kept my promise and mostly stayed away.)

I hope Jace's taste in girls is always this good.

Lilou is so sweet!  

I would love for him to have a girlfriend like her... in the future.  Lol!

I take credit for the two of them getting together.

I sat them next to each other in my class.  :)

May Events - Rylee

Jace wasn't feeling well the night of Rylee's athletic banquet so he and Jon stayed home and I went to represent the family.

Rylee was recognized for being on the golf team.

Here she is with her golf coach Ms. McMahon.

And one of her favorite teachers, Ms. Kupka.

But she also received the county's scholar athlete award.

They only pick 1 boy and 1 girl from each school 

so that was a special honor.

She was supposed to attend a banquet/award's ceremony for the county award, but it was unfortunately the same night as the 8th grade formal.  The athletic director picked up her award and swag for her thankfully.  It would have been cool to attend though.

Speaking of the dance, Rylee had a blast.  The night before I took her to get her nails done for the first time.  Then all the 8th graders skipped school the day of the dance.  Rylee, Emily and Ariana all got ready together over FaceTime!  They did their hair and makeup and talked.  It was so cute!  Rylee looked beautiful!

Showing off her matching nails and jewelry.

With Emily before the dance.

We were lucky.  The weather was horrible the night of the dance, but we were able to get there during the break in weather.  When I was driving back, the expy was completely stopped on the other side.  If we had left any later, we probably would have been stuck in that mess.  Whew!

It was held at a nice hotel in Parkland.  The dance was an Arabian Nights theme.  They had a reserved table, because some of their friends were on the dance committee.  They ate chicken strips, fries, and cheesecake.  They danced all night.  Rylee gave it an 11 out of 10.  So happy her first big dance was a success!

Rylee and I also went to Emily's dance recital in May.  We were lucky that day too.  Two seconds after taking this picture, the strap broke on her dress!  Since we're always ready early, she had plenty of time to sew it back on before we left.  Lol!

May (Jace's Birthday)

We celebrated Gaga's birthday late and Jace's birthday early (since it was his golden birthday this year, we planned a few celebrations anyway!).  Jon made grilled pizza.  

(Funny story: when Rylee was at her Universal trip, Jon made grilled pizza for the 3 of us.  Rylee was soo pissed when she saw the leftovers in the fridge.  So when Jace and I went to Universal, Jon made the 2 of them king crab to even the score!)

My parents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this summer so Gaga bought Papa an iFly flight.  (He's always said he wanted to fly like a bird.)

We celebrated Jace's birthday again on the 11th.

We almost forgot to take a picture in front of the marquee. 

Last time for that tradition.  :(

We went with a Mario theme this year 

(since the Mario movie had just come out).

Rylee made Jace this cute mushroom from the Mario games.

Papa came over for dinner and dessert, because Gaga wasn't feeling well 

(she wouldn't know it for a couple of weeks, but her appendix ruptured!).

Jace picked an ice cream cake for his cake this year.

Yum!  

Jace wanted a big gift for his golden birthday

so we got him a gaming laptop.  He loves it!

I drove my parents to Miami that weekend so they could head back to MN.  The rest of the weekend, the 4 of us played a bunch of mini games.  They were so fun and some of them were hilarious like the oreo face wiggler challenge.  We also did games with cotton balls, ping pong balls, and dice.  Blindfolded Nerf Gun Battle was a hit too!  Though it was challenging to hit people.  Ba Dum Tsh!

Pro tip: Use golden oreos for the face wiggler game.

Otherwise you have black oreo dust all over your face!

Jon and Jace tied, but Jace won in the tie breaker (another round of the Blindfolded Nerf).

I was the biggest loser!  I didn't even win one challenge!

Jace won the star just like in Mario.

Happy Golden Birthday Jace!

Philly Trip Part 2

Saturday- was the Ovarian Cancer walk.  We got up early and headed downtown.  

And Jon was able to walk it this time!  Last time, he had just had 

knee surgery so we had to push him everywhere.  Lol

It was a beautiful morning for the walk (minus all the sneezing and runny noses 

from the allergy bloom - more like explosion!).

It's always fun to get pictures with Rocky!

Grandma Sandy, we love and miss you!

That afternoon we got to watch one of Ben's hockey games.  

Then we had dinner and relaxed with a movie at their house.

Sunday- was our last day.  Rylee, Maddie and I did a little shopping in the morning.  

Then we all went to Valley Forge for a picnic and some sight seeing.  

The boys took off early and the girls went to the bookstore and shop.

Monday - it was time to all head back to the airport.  Sigh.  What a great trip though! :)