School stuff

I remembered something about the end of the school year. It is busy.

B U S Y.

Last year we left on our ridiculous road trip the day after the last day of school. That was a mistake. An unavoidable one, to be sure--we were working around the reunion--but man it was killer. So much to do, plan, clean, pack, map, and on and on...and so many field trips, field days, ceremonies, concerts, recitals, and on and on going on all in the month of May.

This year we are happily staying put until July so there was no big trip to plan for, but the full schedule was still tangible. (This year Scott and I are training for a triathlon though, and the busyness has proven to make training difficult.)

So anyway, maybe next year I'll remember the lesson: don't plan on trying to do anything at all for the entire month of May. You will be at school. Maybe even start keeping a change of clothes and some deodorant there, because who knows when you'll be able to leave.

Afton had her last day of preschool party early in the month.

The boys had their spring piano recital (and I've already mentioned Emma's concert).

Josh had a field trip to the Smoky Mountain Heritage Center.

Playing an old-timey game involving trying to quietly take one of the
sticks without the blindfolded opponent hearing you. 

Lunch with buddies.

Ben had two field trips four days apart. Oy vey. One was very cool though, they went to a local pantry for the needy and helped distribute food. Nice job for fifth-graders going on a service field trip.

The other was was to the Tuckaleechee Caverns in Townsend. Also cool.

All three elementary schoolers had field days and class parties. For kindergarten and first graders field day is just a big fun run-around-and-do-whichever-activities-you-want day. This was great because Afton could join in and do them all along with Lydia and her friends. This made me smile: the fifth graders help this day by manning the activity stations, and almost every single one of them knew Lydia. "Lydia! Come do this one!" "Hi Lydia!" "Oh Lydia, is this your little sister?" And the two or three that didn't know her already would look at her a minute then go, "Are you Ben Cruze's little sister?"

 

Nooooooo!

Who can jump rope the longest?

That's right. Ben can.

And finally, the last Monday of the school year, all the fifth graders got to go to a big, fancy pool on campus and have a pizza party and jump off the high dives all night (no, not the really high dives, just the small one, but they weren't complaining).