I should just get used to starting every blog post with the phrase, "I'm so behind!" It's been over six weeks since my last post, (my goal is to write once a month) but that's ok!
We have officially finished our school year!
Since I wrote in April, Caleb started and ended his 7-on-7 football season. This is a little group from his main football team that practices together in the spring and competes against other schools in the area. Caleb's team did really well. In fact, I found out during one of these games, that the league had decided to bump Caleb's team up to the "A league" for this fall. There have always been A, B, and C leagues for this age group, and Caleb's team has been in the B league for the past few years. We feel like it's been good because there are a lot of small boys on his team and sometimes they get up against some massive 7th graders that look like they're 17! But apparently, we won too many games this past season, so the league officials have decided to move us up to the A league! Wish us luck this fall! It's probably going to feel tougher!
Also in April, Josh celebrated his 41st birthday with a little party at home with me and the kids. He also went fishing with Devin and some of his other boyfriends. That is always his favorite birthday activity. It has become kind of a yearly tradition that they take the boat out on its maiden voyage on Josh's birthday each year.
In other news, the clubhouse in our neighborhood is actually getting close to being finished! When we moved into our house ten years ago, they told us, "In a year or two we will build a clubhouse!" This has been the longest two years ever! Here is the progress though... ten years later. It's going to have an indoor pool, so this is Avery sitting in the pool! I am thinking it will be open this summer because they are putting up the playground and finishing up the basketball and pickleball courts right now.
The rest of April and May were just filled with warmer days and finishing up everything at school. One of my favorite things we did all year in my class was these "How-To" demonstration speeches. Way back in March, when we were meeting as an 8th grade English teacher group, the lead teacher had told us that during the third trimester the students have always been required to do some sort of oral presentation. She said in the past, they have always just memorized a poem or something and then stood up at the front of the class and recited it. I heard that idea and was thinking to myself, "Nope. That sounds ridiculously boring. We aren't doing that." lol So I decided to have my students do a demonstration speech where they have to teach the class how to do something. I told Mr. Watson the next day that I was going to do that instead, and he says, "Ooooh, I'm gonna steal that idea!" Then, Mrs. Clark found out and said, "I'm going to do that too!" Pretty soon the fourth English teacher, Mrs. Lundin, also jumped on the bandwagon. So we all had our students do these "How-to" speeches and they turned out to be the highlight of the year. On the last day of school when I was asking my students what to keep next year and what to change, everyone said, "You have to do those again next year. Those were the best!" Each student had to spend 6-10 minutes in front of the class teaching us how to do something. Here is a list of some of my favorites so I can remember:
How to... make sushi, make ice cream, make lolliwaffles, make cookies, make fancy milkshakes and smoothies (and many other various food items), care for puppies, care for bunnies, saddle a horse, train a rat, train a dog (I think those were all the animals), change the oil in a dirt bike, prep a car for a trip, play the violin, play the ukelele, play tennis, do tricks on a scooter, do tricks on a mountain bike, play spike ball, make many various types of paper airplanes and paper origami creations, make a dreamcatcher, make friendship bracelets, paint landscapes, draw certain things, make different types of campfires (that one required videos and pictures so we didn't set the school on fire) and many, many more! It was such a fun way to end the school year!
On the last week of school, it was just a giant week of parties and field trips. Avery went to Bear World and the movie theater with her class. Gabe went to Lagoon amusement park in Utah with the freshmen class. Caleb, sadly, went nowhere. haha He was the deprived child as always. On the last day of school (Friday, May 28), the junior high ended school at 10:30, and Avery ended at 11:30, so I was able to greet her as she got home. We spent the evening taking out some dead trees in our yard and replacing them with new ones, cleaning out closets, and then watching the movie "Cruella" until 1:00am. We slept in on Saturday until 10:30. I think we are off to a great start! ;) We don't have any big plans for the summer, but I'm sure it will fly by!
