No Longer Elementary

Wow! May really screams by there at the end of the school year. Our dear Hadley finished up her elementary school years with a bang! First, there was a big ceremony for 5th grade awards.

It was an interesting year. H started out with a long-term sub who ended up not coming back after winter break. After a few weeks of rotating subs, they finally got Ms. B to finish out the year. Hopefully, there won't be any lasting educational effects from an inconsistency in teachers... Here's the class pic - one of only 5 classes in our small school.

Hadley really cleaned up at the awards, including awards for Presidential Education, Citizenship, and Attendance, in various accolades for her grades, STAAR test, behavior, and presence. She was one of only about 6 kids in her grade with Perfect Attendance this year! And who could forget the Basic Fishing certificate from a field trip. 

Here she is on her first day of Kindergarten and her last day of 5th grade. She has been ready to go to Junior High ever since Owen went, maybe even before then. We know she'll do well there, but we enjoyed our years at Hayes. It's a great little school (#1 in Houston if you believe Niche)!

The last time riding her bike to school for a while. She loves her independence in getting herself up, ready, and biking on her own to school. We'll see what she thinks of taking a full bus with her brother next year.

On the last day, the school made a big to-do for the 5th graders. Nothing but a big ol' party for those kids once they rolled up. They took over the gym with music, food, pictures, crafts, games, and dancing for 2 hours before early dismissal.

A friend took this for me, because some of us had to work... Glad she had a genuine smile on her face at the party!

I stole this pic from the school's post - my kids' favorite 5th grade teachers, Mrs. Tritico (she has the best in-class library, according to H) and Mrs. Reese (she's funny, according to O)!

I did make it up to the school for the 5th grade clap-out. It's a fun tradition where the 5th graders go up and down every hall in the school just before the last dismissal, and the kids in the younger grades applaud them and give them high fives as they pass by. It was so sweet; I got a little teary. (Also of note: the graduating 12th graders came back for a clap-out from Hayes in their cap and gown a week earlier.)

One of the moms made a bulletin board with Kinder/5th pictures of the 5th graders too. I sent in school pictures to make it more official.

Our neighborhood is right across the street from the school, and some parents have another tradition on the last day of school. Once the kids are in the 'hood, they get squirted with water guns and treated to popsicles. I went with our Super Soaker to surprise H on her bike with her friend. Let summer begin!

But the 5th graders weren't done partying quite yet. They rented out our neighborhood pool and had even more candy and laughs. H started out her summer with a sunburn. Woohoo!

Not to be outdone, O also got an Academic Excellence Award. It's just a little more low-key in JH. He got his at lunch one day!

The Beginning of the End (of the school year)

Ah, May. Let the craziness begin! The kids got free Dynamo tickets for reading books, so we made it out to a game finally. We were once again in the cheap seats, but we were able to meet up with Uncky Dan and Will after half time in their posh, season ticket section.

No pics with them, but we did see Will up on the big screen before the game started!

The kids even got to go down to the field for "goal kicks" after the game. Owen was probably too big for this. Can't you tell how excited they are?

To start off our busy second week of May, Owen was confirmed as a member of our church. He had gone to group meetings every Sunday evening over the school year to better understand our core beliefs and to take this next step.

Owen got to pick the place for our celebration lunch, and he chose Jimmy John's so he could get an 18-inch giant sandwich. To our partial amazement, he ate the whole thing! (He's always hungry these days, hence the "partial.")

Hadley capped off her time in Challenge with the 5th Grade Showcase where 5th grade Challenge kids from across the district presented their own research topic, gave a 3-minute summary speech, and answered questions from passersby. Hadley worked on hers all year and chose the History of Architecture as her subject matter, complete with a Lego-like replica of Big Ben composed of 3000 tiny pieces. They did a unit on Architecture last year, and she now wants to be an architect! 

There were probably 50-60 posters set up; some kids worked in teams. The range of topics was amusing - from Greek mythology, black holes, and artificial intelligence to Michael Jordan vs. Lebron James. Hadley did a great job memorizing her highlights and talking to curious onlookers. We were so proud of her for stepping out of her comfort zone!

In the middle of everything, someone had to have a birthday! (It was me.) And my family made a delicious cake for me! Yum!

Moving on, Owen was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society this year. We're so proud of him for finding his way in Junior High and excelling in his academics! There were so many inductees in his class (162) that they had to separate them into two ceremonies alphabetically. 😳 As they crossed the stage, they were supposed to pick one of the 5 pillar candles (scholarship, service, leadership, character, and citizenship) to light their candle with. Owen chose Service.

Owen's not really sure what he's getting into, but hopefully it's just the first step in a long string of accomplishments and service for him.

These boys are obviously not strangers to group pictures! They are all in athletics together, and hopefully they will keep influencing each other in positive ways, even outside of their athletic endeavors.

Hadley went to her last Midweek at our church (Youth group for 3rd-5th grades). Ms Alyssa gave a nice speech about each 5th grader, included what she appreciated about them, and gave them each a special gift. She said Hadley was "so knowledgeable," and there was a resounding "Yes!" from all of the adult helpers, as well as her willingness to help wherever needed. Hadley enjoyed going and has learned most of the books of the Bible in order, among many other things, but she is really looking forward to being with the older kids.

Owen's orchestra had their EOY concert, which was the last for his teacher, Ms. Allevato. She is apparently moving on to take care of animals at the border, at least that's the story according to O. 🤷 Owen is in red below and played cello in the Advanced Orchestra (songs #5 and 6 in the link above). Next year he'll be in the top orchestra, Camerata!

 

April Album

Happy Easter! These guys are almost getting too big for baskets, but they can't turn down any excuse for candy.

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We did some competitive egg hunts in the backyard.

Look closely. Do you see the egg hidden in this picture? Hint: it's green and hidden in the tree. 2nd hint: It's on a lower branch near the fence post.

On the left is Hadley's school spring picture, which we preferred to her fall pic. She looks so little, but in reality she's about to graduate from elementary school and never look back. On the right is when she got "egged" from a friend at school.

After four years, our tiny alumni chapter finally scraped together its first scholarship dinner. Between Covid, domination of the area by the Houston chapter, and the plethora of Aggies in our city, I've been waiting for the chapter to quietly fold after trying to get started just before Covid shut everything down. But we survived, and the planets aligned to get Longhorn legend Vince Young to be our inaugural scholarship dinner speaker! He was a great speaker, down to earth, and our dinner was a success, bringing in more than our $8k target to give lifeblood to our fledging scholarship fund. Hook 'em!

Mid-April was the day for upcoming 6th grade band students to pick out their instruments. Hadley had her heart set on the saxophone, but the ex-band director who was helping kids try out all the available instruments said that she looked like a natural trumpet player. She tried the saxophone mouthpiece, for a score of 3 stars, but got 5 stars when she tried the trumpet. She didn't want to try anything else, so here we are. Future trumpet star!

Meanwhile, the boys did a quick trip to Austin to take in the Orange & White spring game for Longhorn football. There were mixed reviews; J is optimistic that we'll repeat our 8-5 record in the fall. I asked for pictures, and this was all I got from the boy.

It was a glorious sunshine-y day for Earth Day. H and I did yoga in the park and got a free oak tree. Hello, first sunburn of the year! We treated ourselves to some gelato afterward.

Our backyard has been undergoing a slow transformation. So long playset! Per the kids' request, the swings were granted a reprieve from execution. The yard looks a lot bigger now.

We filled in for J's trivia team for the championships. Alas, we came in third from last, but we did pretty good for a small team of last-minute subs!

April saw the end of H's Read Deed Run for the school year, her second year to do RDR. Over the 8 months of school, they read 26 books, do 26 good deeds, and run 26.2 miles. Though our school is one of the smallest, it's done at many elementary schools throughout the district. They do the last 1.2 miles around the stadium.

And finally, the end of April means that the beginning of swim team is just around the corner! The kids are both participating again, so you know where we'll be until July...

 

This year they added a fun run (for 14-and under) and a crawfish boil fundraiser. The first 30 finishers got to pick a prize. Owen and his buddy showed off their track team skills for a 1-2 finish, and Hadley came in 19th, so we ended up with a fro-yo gift card and Tri-ominoes. We're ready for summer!