May, End-of-School, Penny's Graduation, Etc.

Today is the last day of school. (That's two whole years of school these kids have finished since our move to Logan.)

Starling just got home. "It was your last day of kindergarten, Starling!" I exclaimed. "You're done! How did you like kindergarten, sweety?"

"I loved it with all my heart," came her reply. 

 

Unlike most years (when backpacks stayed full of papers and wrappers and glue sticks and markers until just before back-to-school night in late August), I actually made all of the elementary kids empty their backpacks yesterday. (Summer and Starling even had me wash theirs. They've been cleaned, dried in the sun, and put on a hook in the garage.)

Penny (who turned 18 just over a week ago [pics below]) graduated. (Our first non-Weber-High graduate. It felt a little strange seeing her don blue and green rather than red and black!) She spent the entire night out and just barely (at 1 pm) stumbled out of her room to tell me good morning.

This entire month felt ridiculous. It seemed I was at the school more than home. (Field trips, awards ceremonies, competitions, and Aunt Sarah told me she'd bring her cotton-candy maker into each of my kids' classes for a cotton-candy party, so of course we did that.)

Now that summer is here, I have a long list of projects I want the kids to help accomplish. (Cleaning out their closets, organizing the chaos in the garage, etc.) Only will those projects happen? It's hard to be sure. I have many intentions at the start of every summer. A good number of those intentions get swallowed up in the whirlwind of swimming lessons, camps, reunions, Bear Lake, etc. But it seems like it would be good if they did happen. I don't really know when our house will be finished. There's a six-month window between October and next March that falls within the realm of reasonably possible. Still, however soon or late, there is a move coming. And, while I tried to limit what first came to this rental, over the course of our nearly-two years here, more and more of what was supposed to remain in storage has made its way back into our midst (along with all the other things a family this size gathers in two years), so the move feels like it will be a big event and I'm feeling a press on me to ready. 

I've been thinking of the verse we are studying in Doctrine and Covenants this week where the Lord tells the saints that their time where they were was to be only "for a little season" and yet still tells them to live there "as [if] for years". Good life advice, and one I think we've managed quite well in this rental that we knew, from the start, was to be temporary. But with a house actually framed on the farm now, I'm feeling a bit less able to mentally live in this space "as [if] for years". 

In any case, photos somewhat related to all of the above:

Penny turns 18.

And graduates!

(We just brought the kids who had an early out day with us.)

(We walked through the cemetery on our way back to parking afterwards. Here Starling and I took a small break from walking in the heat while Mike looked for the graves of his kin.)

(The kids seem to like to decorate the tops of their graduation caps these days. Here was Penny's.)

Starling at her own little graduation earlier in the week. :)

Penny's guitar concert.

Summer at the Wellsville Mile. (I kept hearing people talk about it throughout the school year. "Oh, you're in 5th grade this year? You'll get to run the Wellsville Mile!" Etc.) But I had no idea what a long-standing tradition it was or how many kids would be at it! It seemed half the elementary schools in Logan were there. Along with tons of high school runners who all come to run back and forth along the mile with the little runners--cheering them on, staying with a slower kid, sprinting with an exuberant one, etc. It was a really fun event.)

Penny hadn't remembered to order a boutonnière for her final dance of high school, so I enlisted Daisy in making one. She was having such fun that she made several options. Aren't they just darling? We couldn't let them go to waste, so several of us wore them to church for Mother's Day the next day. 

A little float Mette made for the county she was assigned to report on. I should have gotten a better picture of the ferris wheel she and the insides of the aquarium.

And ... misc.

Getting a headshot for something for Daisy.

Starting to feel like summer.

This lovely photo of Daisy and Penny shopping. One appears to be slightly more helpful than the other. 

Mike the cow whisperer? We were out checking something on the fence at the rental and all of our neighbor's cows seemed incredibly drawn to Mike. I don't blame them. I'm incredibly drawn to him myself.

Speaking of. ... (This was part of Mette's Mother's Day card to me. I love what she listed as my favorite things. :)

Anders catching a fish at a Young Men's activity.

Penny Graduation Pics

There were intentions of course. 

Good ones. 

This time we would take graduation photos several months in advance. There would be no last minute, panicked rushing to get them done in time for getting cards to all the high school friends who would soon scatter themselves to the four winds.

Of course, we all know what the road to heck is paved with. ...

Ah. Well. 

With almost no time left, and by me making Penny miss Young Women's (for shame), we managed to find one semi-free night. Of course, Penny somehow ended up several miles from home and out of gas when we should have already been heading out. And we didn't even have any type of plan for where we might take pictures other than vaguely remembering an old gas station transformed into a flower shop somewhere.

But in the end, I do believe we delivered quite nicely! (And thankfully my sister Amy offered to quickly turn the pictures we'd taken into a graduation card.)

One more interesting little thing that I will add at the end here. Graduations. Who knew we would have large graduation seasons in our family??? I did not.

Last year Daisy graduated from BYU.

This year Abe graduated from BYU. And Penny graduated from high school.

Next year Daisy will graduate with her master's.

The following year Abe will graduate with his master's and Jesse will graduate high school.

The next Goldie will graduate from Utah State.

That's seven graduation ceremonies in five years. Huh.