Seth's percussion from my phone

Seth is so excited to be part of percussion and enjoying every minute of it.  The teacher says that he's impressed how quickly that he's catching on to everything. Evelyn, Sam, Jer and I were all there to support and cheer.  Two had to leave right after Seth performed so we didn't get a group picture though.

 

My Sethie

 

Seth has been loving 7th grade.  He's a sweet kid.  He's loving anything new.  Ceramics, volleyball, percussion, karate free friends day with Jack, 3d printing projects, etc.... He is always ready for a hug.  

Start of school

 

I knew this was coming, but we are officially out of Elementary School.  I loved ours, so it's bittersweet, but Seth is doing spectacularly in Jr High.  He's wasted no time meeting new people and learning jr high level homework skills. He's met a friend, Jace, that is in 6 of his 8 classes that turns out to be in our stake.  That was a fun connection. He's made it into the ALL english, math, science and History classes.  He also has percussion, pottery, stage craft and an exercise class.

Evelyn joined Sam in High School.  We drove up to the school and she said, "Woah, that's giant!" Sam was sweet and showed her around the school while I stood in line to pay fees.  She's not enjoying her AP Euro homework, but she loves her spanish class and has been invited to be in the special needs seminary class as one of the peer tutors. She loves orchestra and loves the school library more than anything else. 

My senior is stepping up in a big way.  He's taken over a lot of the after school shuttling for Evelyn and Seth.  He's taking the ACT again in a week to see if he can get a couple points higher.  He's taking Japanese, baking, cooking, AP music, music composition, Jazz band, Wind symphony, Seminary and an online Biology class at the college. He can't quite believe that it's his last year, but I'm proud of the man he's becoming and I'm cherishing every flute practice, every "Hey mom", every hug and knowing that he's going to be a man soon. 

Evelyn

I never posted a picture of Evelyn's honors' night.  She got on the honor roll again.  It was a joint effort, but I'm proud of her.  She is a smart cookie, just struggles with deadlines and needs to be reminded to turn stuff in.

 

Orchestra

Sam was Mr House's first 9th grader class, Evelyn was his last one now that he's moving to High School.

Evelyn did so well!  Her little 18 person orchestra sounds so great.  Her music even fell off the stand, she calmly reached down put it back up and continued.  Very professional!

Evelyn was acknowledged as one of the out going 9th graders.  (On another note, she was recognized yesterday as a member of the honor roll.)

All three orchestras combined for a beginning number.

 

Orchestra

My Evelyn had her Christmas Orchestra concert too.  They did so well.  They played with the High schoolers.  Evelyn is so excited to work with the high school teachers next year.  I loved that this year she got to play Vivaldi's Winter.  It's so fun to see my children happy!  

Celebratory ice cream

 

Fall concert and a big birthday

 

About a month ago, we were frantically getting ready for a big family trip to Japan, but I didn't want to gloss over two fun things before chronically our travels.  Evelyn performed at the High School in a combined orchestra concert.  She did great and it was fun to sit with my friends, Lara and Sabrina, while we celebrated our kids together.

Ada took a spill on her skateboard.  She's okay, but it was tender for a couple of days.

The other happening is that Ada officially turned 18.  I have an adult aged daughter!  I love her to death and I love seeing the good things she's working towards. Jer made her an angel food cake and for dinner just the three of us adults went to eat at Tucanos.

Her YW's group set up a birthday banner and decorated the van (which promptly got rained on, but it's the thought that counts right?)

I'm grateful for this wonderful woman.  I see her growing line upon line.... She's very driven in many areas of life and I appreciate all the hard work that she invests in the daily things that she does.  She loves people, loves finding fulfilling work to do, loves experiencing new activities and places.  I'll cheer from the sidelines as she grows in God and life. 

Evleyn's orchestra

Evelyn's fall concert ended up being very small.  It was scheduled for the same day that their school lost power and they had to do an online learning day.  They rescheduled it for Friday morning.  I wasn't working, so I got to go but it was not very well attended.  Evelyn's orchestra is super tiny this year, but she is loving playing the violin and I couldn't be happier seeing her progress.