School's Out AND Daddy Had A Birthday!

One more school year has come and gone. First, Aurora (my baby!) graduated preschool. Then, a week later, Lorelai and Celeste celebrated their last day of school at their charter school, Great Expectations Academy.

This year, I wasn't able to volunteer in my kids' classes nearly as much as I wanted; I was able to manage one field trip with each girl, and that was about it. Lorelai's teacher said she didn't need any help in the classroom, and Celeste's teacher was either absent (which was a lot...she had a new baby in the fall, and it took up a lot of her time), or needed volunteers at a time when I couldn't make it. Oh well...the girls seemed to survive without me, at any rate! However, not being there most of the time made it more difficult to understand what my girls were going through on a daily basis. I'm hoping that next year, with all three girls in school, I'll be able to have a more consistent presence in their classes, or otherwise helping out at the school.

Look at these cuties!

There were some ups and downs this school year (some loneliness/"mean girl" issues for Lorelai, some difficult/disobedient children for Celeste), but overall I think both girls ended the year on a positive note. Celeste's grades stayed fairly consistent, and Lorelai got mostly strong but fluctuating grades. She would get all A's, and then one B or C in one subject. Finally, in the fourth quarter, Lorelai got straight A's! We were very proud of her for this achievement, and hope that will boost her confidence going into the fifth grade next year (yikes! That sounds very grown-up to me).

There weren't any assemblies on the last day of school; the students all celebrated in their classrooms. It was mostly low-key, but all the kids had fun. Best of all, it was a half-day of school, so I showed up early to help the kids clean out their desks and say their final goodbyes to their teachers. But their excitement at being free overwhelmed their nostalgia, so their goodbyes felt pretty perfunctory. They were also excited to go out to lunch, which has become our last-day-of-school tradition!

This year, we decided to go to Chili's for lunch, which was up in southern Tucson. The girls really love the food there, but they also loved being crazy and making lots of silly faces.

 

So many silly faces that I was compelled to join in as well...

 

 

After our lunch, we crashed pretty hard at home and savored our new-found freedom for the summer. But our weekend wasn't all laying about doing nothing; there was something else to celebrate...

Nathan's 38th birthday! It is both Nathan's blessing and curse that his birthday falls in late May. Blessing, in that he often gets to take four-day weekends for his birthday, since Memorial is so often right after his birthday. Curse, in that with school ending and a holiday imminent, Nathan's birthday celebrations often get a little rushed and overlooked. But I think things worked out pretty well this year.

Nathan started out the fun by going out to breakfast on the girls' last day of school. Aurora and I accompanied him (if you're keeping track, this means I went out to eat for both breakfast and lunch that day; I felt very overstuffed by the late afternoon!). The next day, we had a lazy morning but a fun afternoon. The girls stayed with Grandma for a couple of hours, helping her cook Nathan's favorite dinner (his mom's famous chicken enchiladas). In the meantime, Nathan and I went on our "date"...

...we golfed nine holes at the Country Club of Green Valley! Even though this was to celebrate Nathan's birthday, I have to point out the significance of this event. This day (Saturday, May 23rd, 2015) was the first time I've ever played any holes of golf. And I was pretty terrible, if I do say so myself!

Since I'm a lefty, we borrowed a friend's left-handed set of clubs. Even though we started at the closest tee-box for each hole, I still had to hit the ball like a dozen times on each hole, in order to get the ball to the green.

I am so glad we went late in the afternoon, so there weren't many people behind us! I was constantly afraid that some other golfers would catch up to us and sit there, impatiently tapping their feet, waiting for me to get my incompetent butt in gear. Thankfully, that never happened...but I was still going pretty slowly.

Nathan's golf game has improved significantly since he started playing regularly last fall. He has also learned all the terminology and phrasing, and he likes to go on about his swing and par and club types and other things that mean almost nothing to me. I am trying to learn about golf, but it's not a sport I'm really interested in, so I'd be lying if I said I always listened intently to everything golf-related that Nathan has said. I hope I was a good enough sport on this outing to not totally drive my beloved husband crazy! He says he's going to take me golfing again in the future, but I don't plan on encouraging him. At this point in my life, I still prefer to exercise by myself. Time will tell as to whether golf ever becomes one of my passions.

But it is always fun to ride around in the golf cart, especially with a studly man like Nathan as my chaperone! Plus, Nathan tells me I got a triple bogey on one of the holes, which is good for a first-timer...I guess? From here, I have nowhere to go but up.

After golfing, we sat down to an absolutely delicious dinner, courtesy of Grandma Barrett and her little helpers.

After dinner was done, we had dessert. Usually, Nathan likes me to make pies for his birthday. This year, however, he decided to break with tradition and requested angel-food cake and strawberries (his father's favorite dessert).

There was one more family activity to wrap up the day. The week before, our family took a short trip to a local BevMo to buy some botique/independently bottled sodas. We have been doing this activity every few months for a year or two now. It is great fun! Here are our selections from this trip...

This time, we got pretty lucky...most of the sodas were quite tasty! The exception was (as expected) the corn soda...ick! You definitely do not want to burp after drinking that one. My favorite ended up being the blueberry lemonade, with the huckleberry soda coming in as a close second. Our opinions were somewhat divergent, though...there were many different favorites among our family!

After a relatively quiet Sunday, we had a few friends over for a rib barbecue on Monday (Memorial Day). It was very enjoyable, but wouldn't you know it...I forgot to take pictures! Probably because the weekend wore me right out. At least I was worn out in a good cause...entertaining others and making new friends (one of our guests was a family that had recently moved into the ward). Everyone involved brought a lot of yummy food, the kids played well together, and everyone had a lot of fun visiting with one another.

I am so grateful for my family, and all the milestones they experienced at the end of May. I can't wait for a relaxing, fun summer with the girls, and I am so happy Nathan had a good birthday as well. I can't wait to spend more time with my loved ones this summer!