…and new babies to teach to smile:
We went to the musical instrument museum which was quite amazing I must say.
I mean, they even had instruments from my beloved Romania there which Lu and I were quite excited about.
They had one of the drums used in the Chinese olympics:
(Dave was completely in love with those things.)
Those girls up there were pretty in to the Taylor Swift stuff.
And I had to get a picture of John Denver’s guitar for my Dad. John Denver was always our music of choice on daddy/daughter road trips.
Loved being with that girl up there.
And watching the sun set on my beloved desert.
Oh man I love this place.
Elle whipped up her own graduation announcements in photoshop:
…to this:
And she was pretty proud of it.
I live by one of my college girlfriends and another one came in town so we got to hang for a big:
They baked cookies and biked them around to people they thought needed a little cheering.
Love them.
Grace and Lu had a little bonding time…
Claire’s friends had some pretty fun birthday parties.
…and Elle’s did too.
A family FHE bike ride.
We caught Elle at her part-time job babysitting:
Not sure what we’re getting into with club soccer…hope we survive!
Here’s Elle and her friend after going running one night (I think):
But we were able to salvage some…
Love that little girl so much.
Elle did some advertising for a fanny-pack company:
Church graduation party was back HERE.
That one above is going to Ghana. He’s gonna do so great over there!
I got to be in the school for a lot of things at the end of the year. One of my favorites is always Art Masterpiece. (More about our last projects in the last post HERE.)
Another one of my dear Young Women (from when I was their leader back in my last ward) got married:
I love that I get to celebrate with these girls and also their families who I adore:
These women (above) have been such mentors to me over the years.
And this guy…ok both of them…they’re the best:
Baccalaureate (back HERE).
(Back HERE.)
As we were celebrating all that hoopla, my sisters Saren and Saydi went to England to help with a baby shower for my baby sister Charity who lives there.
Oh boy I sure wish the timing wasn’t so intermixed with all the emotional things my heart was so tightly wrapped up in right at that time.
Luckily my mom and I got to be together. We sent them a few pictures to make them jealous 🙂
And also luckily they found “me” at the church there in London and took a little picture together to send back to us.
My sister just had that sweet little baby bundle last week and we are all over the moon about that newest little nephew of ours. He is perfect! I’m sure Charity will write all the details on her blog soon.
I can’t believe life is coming to WEDDINGS for our KIDS!
Love that I get to go on dates with this guy each weekend:
We utilized our pool ultra well for the month of May. Oh boy. It was filled with friends over and over and over again.
Lucy decided she needed to have a few friends over the day after the last day of school, and I’m a sucker for Lu and her friends.
It’s always so great to get to know all the great families he gets to rub shoulders as a teacher.
Lots more about that HERE.
My friend’s oldest daughter (Elle’s friend) took care of our little girls while we were all away on trek.
And then it was on to trip preparation for our big family trip. My brother above is giving us some travel tips showing us pictures from when he was there.
And the little girls and I read Heidi in preparation for Switzerland.
I must say, we all adored that book. I want to be more like Heidi and I hope my kids do too 🙂
And then, in a mad dash, we were packed up and out the door…off on a pretty exciting adventure:
15 comments
Hi! I've got a question about missions if yourself or one of your lovely readers has a minute to answer? Do girls go on missions? I see many posts about sons going on missions but not as many of daughters? My understanding was young mormans had to go on missions or is it more a family expectation to do so? Are teens who choose not to go on them looked down upon in the church or their family at all? Thanks for your time! 🙂
Not sure why surry99's comment is gone, it was great. But here are my thoughts: YES girls go on missions. I went (one of the best experiences of my life), all my sisters went, and a few of my friends went. When the mission age was changed for young women from 21 to 19 it upped the number of girls going for sure. Quite dramatically actually. Now a ton of girls go and I think it's so awesome. Young men have always been strongly encouraged to serve missions, not so much with young women. There have been a lot of posts on this blog about young men leaving because of Max and his friends, and now Elle's guy friends are starting to leave (they can leave at age 18) but I'm sure once Elle's friends who are going start leaving I'll have a lot more to say about sister missionaries. They are incredible!
There are certainly youth who choose not to go, or who come home because of health reasons or other things and for some it's tough emotionally because it's such a cultural thing. I think it's just human nature to worry about stuff like that (kids who come home or who don't go, or church members who want the best for them) but hopefully everyone knows that everyone else's choices are personal and what works for them may not work for someone else.
Josh is my nephew- and you're right! He's going to do awesome in Ghana!! He's one of six from our families that will be out in the next few months. We are going to have some major letter writing Sunday's around here.
Oh so fun you are related to Josh. He's the best and is going to be amazing out there! 😉
I love the family selfie at the end!! I can't wait to hear about the big trip. 🙂
I LOVE the idea of graduate announcements! I am from a small city in Canada and I've never heard of them. Maybe it's an American tradition? It is such a great way to announce next steps because it's hard to keep track when people are going off in a million directions. I also remember, Shawni, that you are so great at Christmas announcements. I have friends who are members of the LDS church here in Canada and they always send us Christmas greetings. I'm really going to have to start adopting some of your traditions! Looks like an amazing May full of memories!
Quite suprised a mom would be excited about Senior Pranks.
Are you ever happy about anything??
I'm with you, kms. That senior prank idea is incredibly ridiculous and it wouldn't fly in the area where I live. Kids involved would not be allowed to walk at graduation and parents supporting might be wiser helping these teenagers ease into adult responsibilities in a more productive way (and I live in Utah). And seriously people don't get so butt-hurt when someone doesn't agree with everything you do. A little outside criticism can help gain better perspective and a view outside a narrow mormon window. But hey, that's just me. I guess I was lucky having one parent who was mormon and one that was not (still married after 46 years, btw). I just don't understand why everyone gets so offended at kms…..can't she have a valid opinion without everyone having their tender feelings damaged or think she must be so miserable because she doesn't clap at everything you do…..sheesh!
Nope. Not Mormon. Never have been and never will be. I'm not even American. Have never met Shawni and probably never will. I'm just amazed how someone can seem so miserable and down about every possible little thing. There are enough heavy things in this world and riding scooters in a high school is hardly one of them. Lighten up and enjoy life a little!
The first attempted prank that went bad was the water balloons. In other states there would be seniors not allowed to participate in graduation ceremonies and other activities like the Utah mom mentioned. Hard consequences. In Arizona they go back and think of alternative pranks? I'm sure the students who were complaining about how the school closed off that part of the school where the water balloon prank was attempted and were forced to be outside in the heat and take longer to get to their classes through the remaining hallways that were open were NOT having fun. This is likely the senior prank that went wrong angering students and parents incident that made the "off beat" news in the States. In fact the reason that it made the news were the students were inconvienenced. I certainly didn't expect a mom to publicly post a picture of the seniors participating in the second attempt, but since school is over I guess there can not be any consequences anyway. She still has kids young enough to attend the school someday.
Oh I am sorry it's taken me forever to get back to this…I just remembered I meant to come back (I was out of internet service when it first came in). I have to clarify that I sometimes write these posts so quick that I get things out of order. This biking/transportation prank was first, and was totally great with everyone involved including the administration. When I said I wasn't sure how it all panned out in the school I didn't mean with the administration, I just wasn't sure if they took stuff to classes? Up stairs? I just know that the administration didn't have a problem with it and neither did I.
After that I think some kids just wanted to take it to the next level and came up with the water balloon idea, which I don't know all the details about, but the administration wasn't happy. Some kids were not allowed to walk graduation and it was taken seriously.
I'm sorry it came out in the wrong order as I typed fast here to try to get through all these happenings and I can understand your confusion. I agree with you that students should be respectful but I think it's great when they can mix the respect with having fun as they wrap up their high school career.
Wow, my life is quite simple and uneventful in comparison…qq where does Elle get her outfits – she has beautiful taste and if she shops at chains I would love to head their with my daughter as she prepares for her senior portrait.
She doesn't have anywhere she loves in particular. She just grabs stuff here and there…probably most of her clothes are from Forever21, Target, and Old Navy.
I love those pix of Grace reading to Lucy, they really touched me.
I love their special bond & how much they Lucy looks like Grace.