Proud Mama Moments

Here we are creeping up on [actually more like bounding toward] the end of the school year, and before we leave it all behind I want to make mention of a few notable items. April and May have been particularly busy and eventful.

Caleb: Starting in December, Caleb participated in the winter drumline. This was new to me, so if you're also wondering what that is, let me briefly explain. It's basically like a marching band field show minus all the wind instruments -- percussion only here -- and is performed indoors. They practiced many hours during the week and on Saturdays, which practice ultimately payed off. They took 2nd place in the state competition for their show titled "Dante's Inferno." If you want a sampling of what they looked like, here's part of it. This is early in the season, so they still had some work to do. Caleb is the lanky hooded figure in the front row on the left side.

Marissa: The last few months for Marissa were filled with basketball and track. She has been practicing with the high school basketball teams and participating in some tournaments with them. Her time to shine, however, was at the regional track meet. She competed in the shot put and 4 x 100 relay. Her relay team came in 4th place. But best of all, she won the shot put for the 8th grade girls with a distance of 32' 11"! And ... even with her busy schedule she has stayed on the honor roll and looks like she'll get a 4.0 this term.

Aiden: It's a good thing we like to watch basketball, cause that's what we do. Aiden finished up the regular season well, winning the championship game for 5th graders, and has since been focused on his traveling team. They had some polishing to do since they hadn't really been practicing together, but after a rough start they picked it up and started playing more like a team. In their most recent tournament, they finished in 1st place for their bracket. For school, he had to give an ancestor report in Spanish [that means using mostly past tense!] and got an A+.

Morgan: It may not seem like a big deal to some, but Morgan overcame some anxiety and trepidation to perform two songs in her piano recital. I tried to convince her to perform an original composition she titled "Follow Your Destiny," but she decided it was too personal to share with an audience. She did a wonderful job and was very poised in spite of her butterflies. She also mastered 214 out of 217 spelling words for the 2nd grade and has lovely cursive penmanship which she practices in very sweet letters to all the members of our family.

So there you have it. Sometimes a mom just has to brag. Better than all this, though, is that they are just genuinely good kids. They help me and are kind to each other. We laugh a lot together. I'm not sure how I got to be so lucky!