End of School May-nia

May is always a whirlwind of activity to close out the school year. It got underway with the finale of Read Deed Run (RDR) for Hadley. RDR is a program that the kids participate in all year. The goal is to read 2,600 pages (H did this within a couple of months), run 26.2 miles (the kids do the last 1.2 miles around two KISD stadiums at this finale), and do 26 good deeds (26 hours - some are done after school together, some are on their own at home) over 26 weeks. She had to keep a log of all of her accomplishments.

These are all the schools that participated this year, gathered on the field for the ceremony. I can't recall the full number of kids that were on the field, but I think it was close to 1000! Hopefully, these kids will keep up all of these great habits as they get older. 

May is also a double-whammy for the family with Mother's Day and my birthday usually hitting close together, if not on the same day. This year, we had a day in between, so I requested two separate, delicious meals out with these goobers, fake smiles and all.

For a little trip down memory lane, I made the hour drive to my old high school for their open house before they tear it down. Mostly I went because I ordered a couple of year books (lost mine in the ranch fire), and they weren't shipping them, but it's always interesting to visit your home town and see what's changed.

Some of the high school was familiar, but I have a terrible memory. Other parts definitely showed growing pains, like the band hall that had been tacked onto the end of the school at some point after I graduated and the cafeteria that had been relocated to the auditorium while they constructed the new school where the cafeteria used to be. With this high school goes the last of the campuses I actually went to school in. Elementary, middle, and now high schools have all been torn down and rebuilt in the same location. I guess they all had asbestos, mold, or cramped floor plans. Out with the old, as they say.

In mid-May, Oma and Papa came down for a visit and got to attend Owen's last orchestra concert. We didn't get the best seats, but I did get an okay video of part of "Sword Dance." The other songs are here; Owen played #1, 2, and 9.

Owen finished the year with all A's and even got a "Top Cat" award in Math! We are proud of him and his accomplishments this year as he adjusted to more independence and responsibility at the bigger school.

Hadley also finished out the year with top grades, and her teacher gave her the Determination Award, which sounded like she persisted, but maybe also was a little unyielding..? She also got Exemplary Performance and RDR certificates. Oma and Papa were able to go to her Celebration of Learning in her classroom.

Last Day of School shots: H on her bike and O about to walk to the bus stop. They both had a great year, but are definitely ready for summer break!

On the last day of school, a bunch of parents from our neighborhood meet the kids at the neighborhood entrance across from school and spray them with water guns to celebrate the end of school! Love this pic of H and her friend trying to duck through the jet sprays. H is not a fan! 😅

Finally, we were able to spend some good quality time with Oma and Papa, doing puzzles, playing games, and breaking bread. It's always nice to get the whole family together!

Birthdays Galore

Following on the heels of Thanksgiving every year are Will and Addy's birthdays. This year, they had it at a park inside the loop. 

Our kids were the oldest ones there, but they still enjoyed checking out the park, which had a tunnel, slides, and an elevated walkway.

 

They helped out as child monitors and also found some use at powering the merry-go-round for the little ones.

After cake and breakfast burritos, we decided to make a day of it and headed to the Museum of Natural Science where we saw some familiar exhibits, as well as a few new things. Dad made the dinosaur exhibit more interesting by having the kids teach him something they learned from the signs in every "room."

One of the new things was an exhibit on jade and gold. This is very intricate gold sculpting; the skull made it one of the kids' faves.

Before we headed back to the car, we strolled around Hermann Park a little bit and enjoyed the cooler temps. Hadley felt that these columns were model-worthy, and they had so much fun rolling down Miller Hill again and again. We had flashbacks to our scavenger hunt from last year at the same time.

Unlike 2020, we felt okay with having an indoor birthday party for Owen this year. We had it early in the month to avoid holiday/activity conflicts, which worked out well. He chose an indoor trampoline park and a select group of friends (Matthew, Cole, Joseph, Jonathan, Brian, Jayden, and Timothy). The 11- and 12-year-olds had a blast playing dodgeball and hide-and-seek throughout the facility for two hours.

We went with two kinds of pizza and two kinds of cake, and strangely enough, we had a lot of leftover food! I think they were having too much fun (and getting too sweaty) to stuff themselves. Water was very popular though!

The party package is for a set minimum number of kids, and we had a couple of spots left, so Hadley was able to bring a friend of her own, Haley. They did their own thing and kept out of the boys' hair, for the most part.

Since the party was a couple of weeks early, we celebrated Owen a few times. He really wanted a cookie cake (that was explicitly forbidden by the trampoline park, for some reason!), so he got one of those on his actual birthday.

Hadley attended another birthday party for a friend, Olivia, where she got to go indoor sky diving! Right up our little daredevil's alley! The instructor said she was a natural and that she could come back in 11 years for a job.

Lastly, we took the kids to see Potted Potter, which is a 2-man live show that recaps the 7 books in the series in 70 minutes. The kids thought it was pretty funny! Yay for the return of live theater!

We made a day of this also, since it was in a different part of downtown. Our first stop was St. Arnold's, so I could get my free pint for donating blood! It was a gorgeous day!

Our second, and last, stop before the show was City Hall and the surrounding parks.