Another one in the books

Somehow the school year has ended. Both kids had awesome years - Amy got straight A's all year long, and Reed had a couple of quarters of Latin II where he had B's, so he ended the year with all A's except a B in Latin II. Pretty impressive! Amy made lots of new friends in middle school and Reed still has his same gang of pals - they're both happy kids and we're very proud of them.

Now on to lots of summer camps for Amy, and a whole lot of nothing for Reed (well, other than chores).

We'll have a high schooler in the fall!

8th grade dinner and dance!

Heading into 8th grade, we knew the school year would culminate in a dinner/dance. We also knew Reed wouldn't want to go. So I'd mention it from time to time, and tell him that he would indeed be going. Just to give him a heads up. As it got closer, we told him that we were sticking with this and he would be going...and he'd have fun too. I checked with his buddies' moms and learned that at least two of them were also being forced to go, so we were in good company. Some boys go all out and wear jackets and bow ties...some are more casual. We thought somewhere in the middle was very much good enough for someone who was being forced to go. So I got him some nice gray pants and a button-up shirt. Tod handed him down some old Vans that he doesn't wear much. Perfect.

Two thumbs up, ready for the dance!

One of the other parents took this shot at the dance.

We drove his friend Robbie to the dance too so he wouldn't have to arrive by himself (awkward!). During the dance, the school's fire alarm system continued its recent habit of malfunctioning and they had to evacuate twice. Reed would never say that he had a good time, but he did. I asked if he'd danced, and he said "no one really danced...we all just jumped up and down" - so I'll go ahead and say he danced. Robbie and Reed were both very happy at the end, so I consider the night a fantastic success.

Oh and while I'm thinking of it, the other day Reed noticed he could pull his hair into a ponytail (it's long!). I told him "I just don't want to see you with a man bun." So of course he announced it'd be his summer project to be able to do a man bun. Let's hope he was joking.

Where the heck did the school year go?

I blinked and somehow there are just 11 more school days after today. Then Reed will be done with middle school. DONE! This school year has just flown by, it's kind of hard to fathom. Seems like we just got in a groove ten minutes ago and BOOM it's nearly over. But I suppose that's a good thing, right?

Music

I often hear other moms talking about their kids listening to the Beatles or other "classic" music and wonder if I've gone about this music thing all wrong. When the kids were smaller, we only listened to "kids" music that they liked – Disney soundtracks and other music designed for kids. When we got the minivan, then we listened to the Kids Place Live channel on XM and that was pretty much the extent of their music exposure. I wanted them to hear music that was meant for them, music that would "speak" to them - and it did! But I now realize that they missed out on learning about other kind of music in their "formative years" and I hope they'll be able to recover! (only partly kidding)

When I was a kid, of course all we had to listen to in Mom's car was the radio. (Dad was fancy...he had an 8-track player for at least some of the time!) And she picked what we listened to – seems to me it was mainly oldies - 50s and 60s. Old country, too. When it was just the three of us, she also played music at night (loud!) after we went to bed, and it was a wide variety of stuff - the Eagles, Al Green, Emmylou Harris, Jimmy Buffett, the Commodores, the Beach Boys - it was all over the map. And that made an impression on me – I still love (most of) that stuff!

Their musical tastes are becoming more varied now, but it's mostly pop music. Which is fine, but it'd be awesome if they liked the stuff that I like! *Sigh* Maybe one day. Amy's on a big "Hamilton" kick and Reed surprised me by saying he like an album the Red Hot Chili Peppers put out last year. I know they'll eventually find their way to "their" true musical love one day.

I just hope they'll one day be able to sing along to Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke"...

Music is a world within itself
With a language we all understand
With an equal opportunity
For all to sing, dance and clap their hands
But just because a record has a groove
Don't make it in the groove
But you can tell right away at letter A
When the people start to move
They can feel it all over
They can feel it all over people

And maybe a George Jones song or two.

(And I really feel like I've written about this before, but I can't find it if I did!)

Amy's new-found love

Amy was so excited to get the opportunity to participate in the middle school musical. I thought she might want to do set design, but she decided on stage crew. That meant staying after school a couple of days a week, coming in for a couple of Saturdays, and being at school for hours during "tech week" (the week the play starts). The show was "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" and the kids all did a terrific job!

Stage crew, along with art teacher Mr. Kruczkowski,
working hard on a Saturday afternoon, helping out the set design team.

It was really great for Amy to get involved with the "drama kids" and find a space to belong. I think she gained a lot of confidence and more of a sense of belonging by being part of the play.

Everybody taking a bow, stage crew in the back.

Since my friend (and mom to Amy's pal Morgan) Valerie was the parent lead with the play, I also had the chance to do a lot of helping out - selling tickets, setting up snacks for the kids, and helping with the end of play party. It was exhausting, but fun!

Mr. K, who was Amy's art teacher earlier in the year and was the lead staffer for stage crew, was so glad that Amy and a couple other six graders had such a great time with the play, since now he knows he's got lots of kids to help with the next two years' plays!

Grateful that the kids' school has such fantastic opportunities for the kids!

A note from Dad

For Spring Break 2017 we spend 3 days on the beach in Sandbridge, VA. But the best quality time was after we got home. The house cleaning people were scheduled to be at the house at 8:30 a.m. so we wanted to get out of the house for about an hour and a half to let them work. We decided to walk to Starbucks for breakfast. That's about an hour round trip plus half hour to sit and eat. Amy was down with it and of course Reed grumbled but it turned out wonderful. It was a cool, sunny morning and both kids seemed to actually enjoy it (though they would never admit so). Amy talked about the musical Hamilton the whole way and Reed was curious and excited to prove that he knew of a better walking route.

And this from Mom:

Great minds think alike, because I was going to write something similar. Highlight was when Reed and I got a little too far ahead of Tod and Amy, he said "I can't hear Amy anymore so I think we're getting too far ahead of them." LOL - she really did talk the entire way. 

An all-around awesome morning!

Oh, I miss the book box!

Today I was putting the Easter decorations out and came across the Easter books. It made me so nostalgic! For the "big" holidays, we had collections of books that I added to each year. The kids just loved it when the holiday books came out, and we'd read them over and over during that "season." It feels like it was a million years ago that we'd both spend a half-hour in the kids' rooms each night reading book after book.

We also had the "Book Box" where I collected different books that I thought they'd like. When they'd been particularly good, we'd let them choose a new book or two from the book box. It was the biggest thrill for them! I'd also buy them each several new books that we'd give to them when we went on vacations to keep them occupied (for a little while, at least - Reed reads SO fast, and Amy's pretty quick too). Of course over time I got "less good" at picking books they'd like, and many languished in the book box, waiting to be chosen. Probably a year or more ago I finally gave up and donated all those books to the elementary school. But I hope they have positive memories of the book box, and maybe they'll even continue the tradition one day if they have kids themselves.