Sterling Scholar

Sam applied for Sterling Scholar.  He's competing against 5 others for one spot.  It's a hard one to earn, but I'm sure glad he's trying.  Both because it's good to aim up, but also because I got to hear his sterling scholar recital.  He's getting so good!

 

October Misc

 

Sam's pastry class made bread.

Sam's monkeys were excited that he came home from school.

Sam making his Halloween costume.

Seth played prelude in Sacrament meeting.  He was so nervous but did it!  He played clearly and loud!  It was awesome.

Valynn had an extra ticket to Adamm's Family musical.  It was so fun and it was great to have one on one adult time.

Seth made a suit that he could hide in and pretend to be a box in the corner.  It started as a nerf gun war and turned into a camouflage thing.

Sam and I got to be the organist and music director today.  That was so fun!

Sam's soccer team.  We missed most of his season and definitely missed the picture day.  We missed Seth's picture day and about half of the games.  It just wasn't a priority this season.

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.

 

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. 

Bragging

 My Ada passed the National EMT test!  She's officially certified to work as an EMT!  I'm so happy that she's finding joy in learning and wants to be able to help others.  Good luck to her as she puts her certifications to use! 

Ada's high school graduation

Ada officially graduated from High School!  I'm so glad.  She's worked hard and it will be fun to see which direction she takes next.  I took her and Sam early. Sam was in the band playing for graduation.  Then Dad brought Evelyn and Seth, where we met up with Grandma, Grandpa and Nellie.  It felt a little surreal, but good.  We ran into my Great Uncle and Great Aunt (Doug and Linda).  They came to support Oscar in the choir.

Ada, Donny, Brenton

Me, my mom, Ada, Nellie, Evelyn, my dad, Sam (Jer ran Seth to a party, which he thoroughly enjoyed.)

Emma, Elise, Alexx, Ada

Ada and Mr Parker.  He's one of the two advisors that she's worked with in FBLA and she also was a TA for him this year.

 

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.

 

Seth's 6th grade graduation

 

Thursday marked a few landmarks for our family.  Seth's 6th grade and elementary school graduation.  Our last day at the school we've been at for 13 years.  Our last time carpooling after 13 years. I didn't think I'd get emotional, but I did.  I went up to take a picture of Seth while he came through the balloon arch.  I definitly teared up. They also invited their class of 2020 to come to the graduation too.  They didn't get one with the school closures from Covid.  Ada was so cute!  She got to hug some old teachers, and we cheered for them both.

Evelyn had yearbook day and Janine watched the daycare for me....Jer worked extra hours earlier in the week and we all made it work.

My cute parents.

Mrs. Noble was both Seth and Ada's 6th grade teacher.  She's an amazing teacher and centers things on hands on experiments.