Two blogs at once! They are long but take the time to read them both!

I've sent my kids off for the last day of school. Three of them at least, and now I am going to spend a minute doing what I should of done for the past two months. I do miss blogging, I think it's the hard chair it requires to sit on that I just don't enjoy...

Awards assembly's are always touchy... I don't see myself as one of those mothers that feels every kid needs a trophy for participating on a sports team, or that there should be 12 valdictorians at graduation, but sometimes an award at the right time would be nice!

My sweet brown eyed boy tugged my heart into the direction of "everyone needs an award" yesterday. He was so excited for me to go to his awards assembly. I assumed he wouldn't be getting an award since there had been no letter home in the last week or so, but he was just beaming about the assembly so I wanted to be there "for him". The awards started coming, and children began their trek to the bleachers to receive their awards... but Brodric's name was never called. Then the next set of awards, and the same outcome. With each name that was called I could see the sparkle in his eyes begin to dim. He kept turning around to find me in the crowd of parents to give me that look, "why aren't they calling my name" was written all over them! I kept blowing kisses to his little spot on the floor and I would smile and take his picture. He seemed happy that I was taking the pictures, but still that look.... It nearly broke my heart!!! I couldn't hold back tears but would quickly hide them so no one would know.


So contrast that with the other son. 13 years old and not a care in the world... On Monday he comes home and I ask when his awards assembly would be... He lowers his head and with a different look in his eye (one that says, "shoot, I'm in trouble") said, "um, it was on Friday"!!!
"WHAT?" was kinda my response! Then I got TEARS and began the questions! Carter got 4 awards and I was not in the stands to enjoy the parts that moms like best!

After the fact one of the teachers stopped my husband in the halls at church and said, "Wow, Carter really got a lot of awards the other day!"
Scott looked kinda stunned and all he could say was, "oh really?"

Upon questioning Carter about his awards he said that he was most proud of the PE award because it is his worst subject in school and he was proud of himself for getting the presidential award, he was second most proud of a math award because it meant he was smart and I was most proud of the citizianship award because it means he is a good kid, WHICH HE IS! He is a good kid!

The awards didn't stop there in our family, Clara made the honor roll again which is a great accomplishment for her! She has worked SUPER hard this year and has really excelled in her learning, we couldn't be more proud of her!

And last night Kendahl got a cool award! She had a chior concert that turned out to be surprisingly great. The school is very new and this is the first year there has been a chior. They have from 6th graders all the way up to 11th graders, and the chior is quite large, probably 40-50 kids. They did fantastic!!! They sounded great. After the concert they had a little awards assembly which everyone got participation awards and then the kids had voted on silly awards for some of the kids. Kendahl won the "biggest know-it-all" awards voted on by her peers! She was laughing with all of them and by the whooping she did as she received the award you could tell she was proud! And then the final two awards were given to a child from middle school and one child from highschool. For this final award the teacher read off her reasons for giving this award to the person she chose and every time she read a great quality Kendahl would say some child's name that she thought it was. But in the end Kendahl's name was the one she announced! Kendahl was shocked to hear her name! I wish I had a picture of that moment because she was geuninely surprised! It was classic! The name of the award is called the National School Choral Award and there is one given to every chior in each highschool in the country the teacher said. There is a plaque that will hang in the classroom and each year another name will be added to the plaque, but Kendahl's will always be the first one on the plaque! She also received a little hefty trophy and a pin! What a great award for a great girl who puts all her efforts into the things she loves!!! It was great to see her be recognized for this!

And now that the last day of school is upon us, (except for Kendahl who has one more week of school,) the kids are off at school hopefully enjoying their friends. It has been a good year and I am so proud of our kids and the accomplishments they have made! I love them so much!

Let me add one more thing (I know this is so long, but I should post more I guess.) A couple of weeks ago the kids had their 3rd piano recital. They each spent tons of time practicing and had a totally successful recital! Again I was so proud. I wish I had a video, but I don't so I'll share some pictures.
What I should mention was that at one point early in the practicing for their recital peices both Carter and Baillie were discouraged and wanted to "quit!" But they perservered and were both able to finishe their peices and were in the end very happy with what they were able to accomplish. About that time Brodric decided he wanted to start piano lessons again! So he too was able to work hard and learn his song. They were all great! By the way, Kendahl didn't do piano this time, she decided to do voice and she has been able to really improve on her talents. She sang three songs at the recital and they were all beautiful. Two of them were in french!




And then there were more awards...