End of School

 While Annaliese finished school on Tuesday, June 2, Haleigh and Lydia didn't finish until Thursday.

Lydia's class wrapped up the year with a fun end-of-year party. 

Musical Chairs

Maestra Barrientos

Final prayer of 3rd Grade

We are grateful for another wonderful year and are looking forward to the slower pace of summer! 

Our final school activity of the year came on the following Saturday, with the Farmer's Day Parade. Annaliese and the rest of the band marched in the parade. The weather forecast showed the potential for a fair amount of rain, but thankfully it held off and turned out to be a decent morning for a parade. 

Elias is on the base drum.

Eighth Grade Graduation

It's hard to believe that Annaliese is done with eighth grade and is moving on the high school! She likes to remind us that she can start driving soon. (Soon is relative...but she can start driver's ed at 15, so I guess that's not really that far away.)

To finish out middle school, the 8th graders all went to Warm Beach Camp for an overnight trip. Annaliese helped repaint a fence, while others pulled weeds and did other service opportunities around the camp. They also had plenty of time to swim, eat good food and hang out with their friends. When the buses returned to school, everyone piled off looking happy and tired! 

Tuesday night, everyone returned to school for their 8th Grade Celebration. Each student had filled out a paper with favorite memories, advice for upcoming 8th graders, or something that God has taught them throughout the year. As their homeroom teacher called them up, the teacher also read one of the things they had written. 

Annaliese's favorite memory was doing archery at 6th Grade Outdoor Ed (and eating the Costco muffins!) 

Congrats Annaliese and Leah!

Ice cream at Grandpa and Grandma's afterwards

Annaliese and Emma

Annaliese has had some amazing teachers throughout the years, and we are so blessed by each and everyone of them. We are so excited to see her continue to learn and grow and become more and more confident in who she is and who God created her to be. We're grateful for summer and looking forward to the new adventure of high school.

Everything else in May!

 Annaliese kept us busy with spring soccer. The eighth grade team either had practice or a game after school every day for 6 weeks. The girls had a great season and it was fun to watch them improve throughout the season. 

Found this among all the soccer photos!

Kyle and I had the opportunity to run a race called Hills and Valleys. It was a 4.5mile run with a few obstacles (giant hay bales, tires, a mud pit etc) that was also a fundraiser for a friend of Kyle's who has a rare illness. The girls hung out at the start/finish line, took a few pictures, and cheered us on!

What else did we fit in? 

One of the girls Spanish teachers, Senor Berroteran, finished teaching at LC this year and is returning home to Venezuela. There was a farewell get-together at Hovander and it was amazing to here so many stories of how he has impacted both students and parents during his time teaching here. 

And here are just a few random pictures.

Lydia did gymnastics once/week for the past few months.

We also fit in Family Fun Night at school. They had to set everything up in the gym because the weather didn't really cooperate. 

Finally getting our front porch repaired!

Annaliese earned extra credit for wearing a dress to school on the day that they took the Citizenship Test in History. She didn't have her own dress so she had to borrow one of mine!

Amarah keeping an eye on the snake she caught

Smokey found a shady spot to hang out!

Creative Arts Week, Field Trips, Band Concerts, and Field Day

The last weeks of school are always so fun and so, so busy!

For Creative Arts Week, the theme was 'Magnify God.' They did some incredible art work focusing on Creation and how we can see God through the things around us. 

Lydia's class, along with the rest of the third graders, went on a field trip to Marine Park. I always love going on this field trip because I learn so much! We saw lots of sea stars, chiton, and a tubeworm.

The third graders also put on their wax museum every year. Lydia chose Cleopatra and she did a great job!

Haleigh and Annaliese had their spring band concert. We never sit very close so the pictures aren't great, but the music was so good. "Always remember...from the ashes we rise" was the theme and every song fit into this theme. 

The girls also had Field Day in May. I helped with Lydia's team, but was able to run over to the middle school and caught a glimpse of Haleigh running the 100m dash. 

Haleigh is the third in from the left

No wonder things seemed so busy at the end of the year! In addition to all these extra activities, we were still busy with the regular things like gymnastics, soccer, piano, and work!