Fun, Awards, Endings, and New Beginnings

June has been an eventful month for our family already. Here are the highlights thus far:

Caleb: June 2nd, we went to NW Trek on the 2nd Grade field trip. It was a ton of fun, on a sunny day that just managed to show up in between 2 rainy ones. Boy were we glad! I chaperoned Caleb and two of his friends, Liam and Ethan.

Caleb was also honored in the Zeiger Terrific Kids assembly. His award was given for self discipline in his school work and behavior. Caleb thought out of all the things a teacher could recognize, that was a pretty important award to receive. I agree.

Caleb also visited his 3/4 split classroom for next year, spent a few minutes with his new teacher, and received his over-the-summer homework. He has to memorize all of the multiplication facts and be ready to be tested by September 2nd.

Ashley: 6th grade is over, and so ends an era for our sweet Ashley girl. She is both heartbroken and excited to move on. Change is hard for Ashley, and she will miss the friends and the teachers she has enjoyed so much at Zeiger. Yesterday was a teary day, but also a fun day as she got to attend a 6th grade party at a friend's horse corral.

Kalles Jr. High here she comes! Ashley's teacher had some very nice things to say about her and told us once again that Ashley is both capable and ready for the challenge of the PAGE program at Kalles. We thought she was really going to be alone, but there are about 4 kids from Zeiger who are heading downtown. (the rest will go to Ballou) Hopefully those friendly faces will be in some of her classes in the fall.

Soccer has already begun for Ashley, so 2 nights a week, she's getting some good exercise in. I think she's glad our weather is so cool right now. There's not a lot of good you can say about our gray, rainy days in the middle of June, but it is good soccer weather.

Sierra: Sierra is officially a high school Sophomore. Wow! I can hardly believe it! She is more than happy to leave Ballou behind. She attended the 9th grade dance with some girlfriends on Monday, and had a good time. The got all dressed up- did each other's hair, and had dinner at one of the girl's homes. We brought Caesar salad and chocolate dipped strawberries to the dinner. Doug took pictures, and off they went.

Sierra was also honored with the President's Award for Academic Achievement at the 9th grade awards ceremony. This award is given I think, based on GPA over the past 3 years as well as WASL/standardized test scores. The Administration labeled it the top honor a student can receive. Go Sierra!

Sierra has also received a summer assignment: to read Of Mice and Men, and write an essay on it. Thrilled, she is not.

Both girls are planning to head to Pocatello for a week or two at the end of the month. We will miss them while they are away!

Tyler: Tyler received the Ocular Techno Omega Award (whatever that means?!) from his photography teacher. The award states "for leadership, personal initiative, nice manners and a minimum of 180 hours of exceptional scholarship in a Gov. John R. Rogers High School Visual Arts Communications Program." Well! What a mouthful. Aside from all the other good things this award implies, I'm really glad Ty is using nice manners at school. :-)

Tyler is now officially a Senior. Can't get my mind around that. He and his wrestling teammates are running a wrestling camp for kids this week. Tyler is using this experience as part of his community service hours graduation requirement. He is also serving on the committee that is organizing and running Youth Conference for our Stake. We're heading to Ensign Ranch the last weekend of the month. (I get to go with Ty and Sierra since I'm serving in Stake YW.)

Once that's behind us, literally the next day, Ty will leave for 2 weeks at wrestling camps of his own. One week at Boise State, and another week in Spokane. That means a lot of driving for us!

Tyler's summer homework involves AP Biology. Not sure he's on board with that since he didn't sign up for the class. The teacher sought him out, gave him the summer assignment, and tried to encourage him to switch into her class. We'll see how that goes. :-)

The kids are laying around this afternoon- basking in the freedom of no schedule. I'm OK with that. I could use a little down time too! Monday real life will set in again at our house- complete with school work, family jobs, and some sort of normal sleep pattern. It's harder to make this happen with bigger kids, but I'll try. Wish me luck!