Musical Review

Last year (2015-2016 school year, 7th grade for Tay) Tayler tried out for the school musical and made it into a few routines.

They did a Musical Review, performing numbers from various different Musicals.

It was incredible to watch her.  She really does have the sweetest voice, however theater and choir don't really jump out at her.  She tried out to support her friend, Ashliegh.

Below are pictures and the musical numbers that Tay performed in.

Revolting Children from Matilda (my personal favorite of the bunch, though they're all really good).

Somewhere Over the Rainbow:

Footloose:

Sean with the photobomb.  We call them our "twins".

And Tayler with Ashliegh.  Opening night was on Ash's birthday.

First Day Of School. 2014.

It begins.

I officially I have a high schooler.

I officially only have one child left in elementary school.

I officially have four kids in middle school.

I didn't take individual pics this year, mostly because it was raining, and I had just blown my hair dry, and had already stood in the rain on the front sidewalk, waiting for my kids to quit fooling around and stand still.

One picture and this mom was done.

I didn't want frizzy hair from the rainfall.

Priorities.

This year Casidee is a freshman at the high school.
Jayme is ruling middle school in 8th grade.
Brynn is in 7th grade.
Sean and Tayler are in their first year of middle school.
Cali has hit what has always been "big kid status" in my mind, 4th grade.

4th grade has always been "big kid status" for me since I was in elementary school.  We had a big kid recess, and a little kid recess.  Kindergarten did their own thing.  1st thru 3rd went to the little kid recess.  4th thru 6th went to the big recess.

I remember thinking on my first day of 4th grade, "I'm a big kid now!"

Apparently that's stuck with me because I see it in all of my kids when they hit 4th grade.

I don't have any "little" kids at my house anymore.

Things to be excited about this year?
Casidee: well, high school in general.  I mean, come on.  But also her first year of seminary.
Jayme: higher level of art class.
Brynn: dance class.
Sean: doesn't get too excited about school in general, but I think he's happy to know he has friends in his classes. And he decided to be involved in the PTSA this year.
Tayler: involvement in the PTSA as well as another season of soccer.  And art class.
Cali: she's going to try her hand at learning to play the violin in the school orchestra.  And probably choir too.  This is also the year that's gong to determine grade and citizenship wise if she can tryout for student council in 5th grade, so she's excited to prove that she can be responsible.

We have good things ahead of us this year.

Jayme Starts Middle School

This week got busy.  And so it begins, the changing of the schedules with the pending changing of the season.  Though school is starting way too early this year so I can barely say that the season is changing.  Just that the season change is pending.

Last night was back to school night.  Last year with Casidee it was a bit stressful as neither of us knew the school layout at all.  This year was better.  We'd had a round with that school under our belt, and even though there was the big switch of moving 6th grade up to middle school for the first time, at least we were a bit more familiar with the way things were going to go.

When I was in Jr. High and High School I would get my schedule and head down to the school during the summer to find my locker and locate all of my classes.  I have a fear of standing out in a crowd and I didn't want to be late to a class or get lost and draw attention to myself.

Last night was back to school night and the school has set it up specifically for that reason.  It gives the kids a chance to walk through their classes in order and meet their teachers, and find their lockers.

It might have taken Brynn a half hour to figure out how to get her locker open, but she finally got it.

West took Jayme around to her classes, I took Brynn, and Cas was on her own, which was no big deal since she'd "been there done that" already.

Today the 7th graders have their first day of school.

All by themselves with no one else in the school so they can get the hang of it without other kids bustling around them.

Today Jayme took her first crack at being in middle school.

And let me tell ya, this girl is ready.

Theater and art class?  Who wouldn't want to be a part of that?

It's a little surreal when I think that half our kids are now in middle school.

Tomorrow Brynn gets her practice run with the 6th graders and come Monday it's back to school time full blown.

A Day in the Life of a 7th Grader

There's many moments as a mother when you hope against all that you are, that you are enough.
Enough that your children will not only love you, but be good people in this world.  Maybe even despite you.

Our middle school had a "bring your parent to school day."

Cas and I talked about it a bit.  I told her that I wouldn't be offended if she didn't want me to go, but frankly, I didn't want to be the only parent that showed up either.

That would just be awkward for me, let alone her.

So we asked a neighbor friend who was in the 9th grade, do parents actually go to this?

And she shook her head, "only parents of bad kids usually go."

So it was settled.  I wouldn't go, and we wouldn't worry about it anymore.

Until the night before when Cas came home from school and stated that teachers had asked in classes if anyone was bringing parents and there were people who raised their hands.

She wanted me to go.

Things I observed during my day as a 7th grader.

1.  It hit me full force how much I enjoyed 7th grade myself.  I met some amazing people that year and, thanks to facebook, can still be in touch with them.  Friends that I hung out with clear through graduation were friends that I made when I entered 7th grade.  Even though Cas isn't going to the same school I went to in 7th grade, I had memories hitting me at every turn.

2.  Cas is pretty comfortable in her CTE class.  I got to watch them on their first day in the kitchen as they attempted rice krispie treats and that girl was in her element.  Especially when other kids were staring with furrowed brows into their pots, "is it normal for it to burn?"

Well, I guess the answer to that would depend on who you live with.  At our house it's not uncommon for me to tell The Man, "just don't scrape the bottom when you dish up."

I can say that Casidee's group made perfect rice krispie treats.

Not a bad breakfast, if I do say so myself.

3.  I loved watching her in her orchestra class.  Just straight up loved it.  Her teacher is dynamic and they would play along with other music and I just couldn't help but smile through the class as I listened to them.  I think it's awesome that she's learning to play an instrument.

4.  I'm an English nut.  A geek to the core when it comes to grammar.  In fact, I'm working on a bachelor's in English right now (The Man says, "isn't that a useless degree?  I've always heard that English and history degrees are useless."  Seriously, it depends on what you plan on doing with them!  psh.)  So I found myself paying extra attention in her English class.  Her teacher is the cutest thing and the class had a great collective personality... most of it coming from the boys that Cas was grouped with.  They sat in groups of four and she was the only girl in her group.  A proud mom moment came when they proof read a paragraph.  The teacher asked how many mistakes were found and the boys in Casidee's group were adamant that there were 12 mistakes.  Cas insisted to them that she had 13.  "No way," they told her.

Guess what?  There were 13 mistakes.

That's my girl.

They were also asked to arrange strips of paper in order of how they needed to be used in essays.  Casidee's group laid them out in order, though haphazardly.  Their teacher checked them off as being correct and then as they sat there waiting for other groups to be checked off Cas began to line the slips of paper up in a nice, straight column.

One boy gasped.  "She's making it pretty!"  As in, how dare she.  And, she's such a girl.  There was a lot of good natured banter in that group.  It's an honors class and I told her to be nice to those "nerdy" boys, they'll always be the fun ones and she'll be glad she knows them.

5.  The girl never uses her locker.  She totes her books around all day long in her backpack.  This is craziness in my opinion, but I noticed that she's not the only one who does it.

6.  She pointed me out to her friends in every class we went to.

It made my heart happy.

Except when she pointed me out as, "my mom is the mom with the 9 inches of flashcards in her lap."  Um, I'm sorry but I have a science midterm to study for!  And I got a lot of flashcards memorized as I sat in those classes with that girl.  Make fun of me...

7.  The last class of the day for her was Chinese.  Holy cow, I don't know how she does it.  The teacher spoke a lot, and gave directions a lot in Chinese (mixed with hand signals).  Before the class began a boy sitting next to Cas said he bet he could guess which mom belonged to Cas.  I overheard that and looked up at them (I may or may not have been looking at 9 inches of flashcards) and saw them both staring at me.  So I made a face.  Immediately Cas comments, "not that one, I have no idea who she even is."  Another boy said, "that's your mom?  I thought it was your 21 year old sister!"

I'll take that, even if it's unrealistic.

Over all, I loved being there with her through the day.  I loved seeing her interact with those she sat by, I loved watching her get things that her teacher taught.

I loved that she seemed so proud that I was there and that I belonged to her.

Teachers would ask me who I belonged to and I felt just as proud to say it was Casidee.

I don't know if I'll be given the chance to go to school with any of the other kids, but after yesterday, I sure I can.  Because the kids who live in my house and belong to me, are pretty cool to hang out with for a day.

Thanks Cas, for sharing your day with me.

Beginning Orchestra

Once upon a time Casidee signed up for orchestra, even though she'd never played an instrument before.

We had an old hand me down violin from Grandma Julie that used to be Aunt Kristin's so Cas decided she'd give learning how to play it a whirl.

And she fell in love with it.

The teacher said that this years beginning class is way ahead of where the beginning class last year was.

They're learning things and playing songs in their first concert that last year wasn't able to do until the end of the year.

They replayed a song and let parents swarm the front of the stage to get better pictures of their kids.

Which I loved because Cas was in the middle so it was hard for me to see more than her shoes and the top of her head.

 And when it was all said and done her boyfriend, Max, showed up out of the blue with flowers.
And they were even green, her favorite color.

She hadn't even known he was coming.

I love that his family is teaching him how to treat his girl.

And in return I'm teaching Cas how to treat her boy.

Our kids need to learn these things.

Way to go Deeds.

Considering you've only been doing this for three months, I'm seriously impressed.