May was bittersweet month filled with all kinds of graduation hoopla that I loved and mourned at the same time.  
But let’s start out with my piano student’s excellent form:
Ah yes, she is making grand progress toward needing a real piano teacher 🙂
I got to take Max and his future BYU roommate to lunch.

 So excited for them and all that lies ahead.

Every year the leaders of the youth in our ward congregation do a big celebration night for the graduates.  They make a whiz-bang funny video interviewing them and have a dinner for them and all their families.

Here are the boys…

 …I didn’t get the girls before they scattered to chat with everyone after the presentation, but there were quite a few of them too.

So grateful for the leaders and all their hard work to honor (and a little bit roast) all these kids, and so grateful for the kids who have helped raise Max (and my other kids too) with their examples.

Elle and I spent hours and days going through all kinds of summer internship ideas from kind blog readers all over the world and emailing people and researching.  Much more on that soon…

Claire had her handbell concert.

She also did the “boosterthon” to raise money for her school….it was quite a production I tell you, and she ran her little heart out along with everyone else.

We had a “retreat” with the women in our ward congregation to get away and get to know each other better.

 Love these great ladies who inspire me.  I have a huge group picture I can’t find right now…I’ll add it soon.

Then it was Mother’s Day…

 (more about that here)

We have this awesome girl who comes to our house and gives us all haircuts.  Something struck Lu as very hilarious about it all.

Love that smile.

I had her chop my hair off.

I had been thinking about it for a while and needed a little change.  My girls were so excited they could hardly stand it, it was kind of cute.  Claire even told me I should try out for a super model 😉

Nana and Papa came over during all the hair hoopla and made Lucy’s night.

 Paul Bunyan came to town to go to a birthday lunch with these great ladies…

Oh wait, that’s me! 🙂  Sometimes I’m a little out of place with my height.  LOVED catching up with those ladies I don’t get to see as much these days.  I have gleaned so much from their wisdom over the years.
Grace had Sports Day at school:

…and carried around a “flour baby” for weeks for her health class:

 (Yes, they still do that, did you?  I guess in today’s day and age some kids disguise the flour and sew it into a baby doll.)

Max spent quite a lot of time with this cute girl:

…who we all miss so much because she moved after graduation.  Hope our paths cross again at some point.

Sometimes when I go check on Lu before heading to bed I find that she’s turned her lamp on after being tucked in bed and has fallen asleep reading.

Warms my heart.

Lucy and Claire started dive team.  

This is not easy for Lu but she’s working so hard.

I have a great friend from college days who came to town with her husband on business.  A few of my other friends (who live relatively close but I never get to see) and I went and met up with her.

I was late and missed the swimming they did, but it was so great to sit and reminisce about the old days in the perfect equilibrium air until late.

Grace had a “cullinary food war” at school in her cooking class.  I loved peeking in to see how it was going.  She and her group chose Thai food and they won the whole thing!

(I don’t know how there could be a question of who would win when Thai food is in the running but maybe that’s just me:)

Claire and her friends had a “cupcake war” one night and were cracking me up with their antics.

 They sure came up with some masterpieces!

Elle wrapped up tennis in May.  All the pics about that and the state games are back HERE.

It was a huge month for volleyball with these boys too.  

I’ll write more about their season wrap-up soon…

Lucy’s class did a unit on Asia near the end of school.  So Lucy and I went in and did a little slide show of China for the class.  This is the only picture I got:

 …which doesn’t correctly display the delight on Lucy’s face to share some details with her class.  They were so polite and inquisitive and it was one of my favorite volunteer experiences.

Her darling teacher had Lucy teach the class a few Chinese words each day when we got back from China.  I’m not sure if I’ve shared this video before or not, but it melted my heart when we were heading back in from recess one day and they showed me their counting Lucy had taught them:

Have I mentioned how much I adore her teacher and all she did to bolster Lucy’s confidence this year?  Wow I love her.

Grace set up a lunch date with these cute girls:

And I went on a birthday lunch date with these ones:

Lucy and her friend had quite the time making some painting creations.

…while Grace and her friends did a beauty routine complete with these home-made oatmeal face masks:

 …and pedicures.

Sometimes the light from my rear view mirror is too pretty not to snap a picture (not while driving).

Our friend’s daughter got married.  One of the very first of many.

It was beautiful but made Dave and I in awe that we are all getting to that stage!

Cute girls after the flips recital.

We did a lotta this…

(That pic. was right before Baccalaureate that I wrote about back here.)

Grace taught Claire her signature flatbread recipe (back here).

We had a big party for these graduates:

(back here)
These cousins can never get enough of each other.

I got to accompany Claire and her class to a pretty awesome place called “Biz Town” that they had been preparing for for months.  They each got a real job in a little “city” and kind of got a feel for how real life in the working world goes.

 Claire worked at the bank.

I worked in the newspaper agency with these cute kids.
We all learned a ton.
Elle finished up her film photography class.  She loves that and I love it vicariously through her.  (I think I’ll always have a pretty soft spot in my heart for film.)  I love that she uses my old film camera and knows how to work the dark room at school.
Love all these prints she comes home with.
Claire performed in her third “Flips” recital:
More on that back HERE.
A few days before graduation we lucked out to get all but one of Max’s best friends together at the same time to take them to lunch (while my Mom was in town too).

Oh how grateful I am that Max found these great boys and that they have had so many adventures together the last couple years!

After months of having a cracked fireplace:

(it cracked the first time we turned it on 🙁
They finally came and replaced it.

Hallelujah!

Then it was on to graduation festivities which deserve one more blog post I’m hoping to get to tomorrow…

…and then off on a senior trip…

…with all these guys:

My brother had his annual end-of-the-year party with his class in our cul-de-sac (using our neighbor’s pool).  It was so fun to meet so many of the wonderful parents and kids he’s been working with and to see and hear all kinds of stories and feel their love for him.

He is a one-in-a-million teacher.

Then we got out of town with the cousins (here).

Missed having Max with us.  One of the only things we saw from him was this picture on one of the friends’ instagram accounts:

Oh boy, gotta get that kid corresponding better before his mission!  He had a really great time though.
After that he came home for one hour and then got picked up for the super activity with the youth.  Dave is one of the leaders so they got to have a big time up near Lake Powell skiing and doing stuff like this:

Thanks Mike for the pictures!

While they were gone the girls and I took off to visit here:

 …so we could meet this guy:

Loved every minute.

More on that and volleyball wrap-up and graduation at some point but for now I’m off to dive team with Lucy!

Summer is awesome.

Similar Posts

6 Comments

  1. Ooh I love these posts so much.. I don't know how you do it all. and after the shoulder gate yesterday.. I hope people can see what a happy , loving family you are x
    ps.. can you tell us more about the RS retreat!!

  2. Just reading this post exhausted me! You are truly an amazing mother – and I'm so glad you take the time to document and share. I feel so inspired to do better at that! Thank you!!! Have a wonderful summer!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *