My first little baby, my sweet Shae, has graduated from junior high and will be heading off to a big huge high school in September. Sniff, sniff. Jess and I, along with my mother and his, attended her graduation ceremony last week. Shae has always done very well at school and her hard work was evident at her grad: in addition to her graduation certificate, she received an award for excellence in Photography, Drama, and an award for graduating Honours with Distinction (which means her average was over 90%). We are so proud of her!
She was asked to present the Toast to the Teachers and Parents at the ceremony and did a great job.
Here she is receiving the Photography Award:
And this is the Drama Award:
And here she is receiving her Honours with Distinction Award:
At the beginning of June, Mary-Rose came to visit for a couple of days so she could attend Shae's Grade 9 Grad. Maira and Hudson especially loved spending time with her and soaking up lots of attention. She did lots of fun things with them, including story time.
Jess helped Hudson realize his vision of becoming a cereal box robot.
Maira was invited to her cousin Amelia's house for an Anne of Green Gables themed birthday party. So we dug out a pinafore from the dress up chest and put it on top of a dress. She was SO excited for the party and had a great time.
Connor learned about tying flies at Cubs one week and loved it. He loved it so much that he decided to use the money he'd been saving up for a video game to buy a tool kit for tying flies instead. He's made a bunch already. Now he just needs to test them out!
Maira learned how to ride her bike without training wheels. This was an exciting accomplishment for her and it was exciting for me that it only took 20 minutes for her to get the hang of it. I used a much less frustrating technique this time around than I used with Connor and Shae. Instead of running behind her, holding onto her seat, until she figures out how to balance, I took her to a gently sloped grassy hill and had her coast down the hill over and over until she figured out how to coast all the way down and then it wasn't long before she was pedalling away from me! It was awesome. And also I hate it when my babies grow up like that.
Finally, here are a couple movies from story time with Grammy, from the night Shae was getting ready for her Grad.
It's been over 3 years now since we adopted our schnoodle Howie. He still is just as naughty as ever if we leave food on the table - he helps himself as soon as we leave the room. And then usually throws up in a corner somewhere because he has such a sensitive stomach. But, he's also very docile and sweet natured and super soft and cuddly so we love having him around.
He loves to eat grass when he's out on walks. Maybe he's half cow.
Maira and Hudson both really wanted to play outdoor soccer this season. Luckily, their teams practise and play on the same field, which is just down the street from us, at the same time right next to each other. It's perfect!
I forced the kids (except Shae as she was at a sleepover) to come with us on a 5k walk through the river valley a couple of weeks ago. There was much groaning and complaining but they were all proud of themselves when they finished the walk (especially Connor since he got no turns in the stroller!)
The kids got treats for completing the walk: Ring pops.
