Oil on Canvas - Savannah style

These are the two pieces Savannah brought home today that I want to hang on my dining room wall.  Now I am even more motivated to get that painting done.  This week is crazy busy.  I had hoped to do paint by this weekend as we will be having family over for Julia's birthday, but that's not happening.

I love teapots and have mentioned here before that if I had a place to display them and the money to collect them, I would.

This photo does not even do this painting justice.  The texture is amazing.  I hate to put it behind glass for that reason, but I feel I must do that to protect it.

Savannah really enjoyed working with oil painting.  Hopefully, she will revisit that some day.

Elementary School is moving behind us

Julia's fifth grade celebration took place today.  As I pulled these pictures, I must admit that I am disappointed in myself for not taking more.  Julia leaves this campus as a lifer.  She started there at two years old and admitted today that she's very sad to leave her friends.  They will move on to the big campus, but she is switching schools.

The celebration was nice.  I loved the class video.  I can't imagine how many hours went into that.   We celebrated her class and then had lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen. It was a great time with her friends and mine.  I had hoped my other two lifers (Zach and Savannah) would be able to make the ceremony, but Savannah's award ceremony took place at the same time, and Zach returned home from school sick, so he scheduled a doctor's appointment at the same time.

No tears from me today.  I cried lots on Tuesday last week when I withdrew Julia from school.  In fact I cried so much that I did not call the school to withdraw her because I knew I would be unable to speak.  I sent an email instead.  This is painful, and we got here so fast.  Really?  Shouldn't I be dropping her off at preschool instead of preparing to send her to middle school?

Julia wrote us a letter thanking us for her years at Rock Creek.  She reminded us that she made lots of friends and worked under supportive teachers.  She has lots of memories, and thanked us for waking her and getting her to school and to her activities.  We leave behind a precious campus at the end of this week.

Today also ended Savannah's junior year.  The AP tests she took a few weeks ago count for finals in her AP classes, and she was exempt from her other finals. Savannah only attended school today to pick up her artwork and return school materials.  She was recognized at her award ceremony for being awarded a spot in the summer program she will attend in a few weeks and for making National Merit. We are preparing to paint our dining room, and we love one of Savannah's art pieces so much that we may have to change the color we have chosen to be sure it will coordinate because that piece is going up.

It's prom night!

Savannah started the day with an AP test, so by the time prom rolled around, she was already pretty tired.  She went from the test to lunch with friends and then several of her girlfriends gathered at a friend's house to get ready.  They also stayed the night, so I have no idea if she had fun at the prom. I am sure she had fun at the after-party.

The grand entrance.  Of course they told their dates to be there at 4:30 and then made them wait.

She might be getting the hang of this.

Wyatt and Julia enjoyed the hammocks at the beautiful home where the kids gathered for pictures.

close friends - these two will spend three weeks together on a college campus this summer

Savannah's date is a nice guy.  Julia jokingly told him to have her home by 11, and we had to make sure he understood that we did not really expect them to leave the prom early.

another close friend

such lovely ladies with big hearts

very hard to get the guys in this picture

Savannah's Collide group- of course this isn't the whole group because they don't all go to the same school, and some of them went to prom with other groups.

I hope they had fun.  They did have a celebrity appearance at the prom - way cool.

Lasts and New Beginnings

On the same day that Julia performed her last elementary school concert, we made the painful decision to withdraw her from the school that has become our community.  You can see from the pictures that she is very invested in this community that has been her home away from home for eight years now, so while there is hope and joy in this decision, there is also heartbreak.  Please pray for me as I struggle to make peace with this decision.  It is purely financial.  If there were a way around it, we would not withdraw her.  Pray for Julia and for the jealousy that may ensue as she watches her friends move on and as her siblings continue at the school where she has had many good years.  Julia has great opportunities at her new school, but she has made her mind up that this will only be a one year break because we only need a one year break from her tuition.  We would rather she go willing to invest herself in this new school.  Julia makes friends easily, and we hope that will be true for middle school too.  If she ends up having a lonely year, it will be painful for all of us, but there are lessons learned even in that.  We are raising adults here, and life does not always give you your dreams.  It often disappoints, and if our children never face disappointments, adulthood is much harder.  I am tired of hard, but we can do hard.

As usual the kids did not disappoint.  They have a pretty phenomenal music teacher, so these concerts are always a joy.

We love Julia's teacher.  She could not have had a better fifth grade school year.

Julia also happened to be student of the week this week.  I guess we did alright on our video for her.  We were new to that process, but it has been shared with the principal and may also be shared with another teacher or two before she brings the flash drive home.  I plan to show it to family at her birthday party but hope there are no hurt feelings.  We really didn't include extended family in the video despite their huge importance to her because we were already running long on it.

Of course the kids then convince the parents that an after-party is necessary at a nearby ice cream shop.  It's not so hard to convince us.  They have the best ice cream in town.

We've spent fourteen years on this campus.  We're gonna miss this place, but we hold on to many sweet memories.

Party Time!

The girls wore fancy hats, and the boys were instructed to remember their bow ties (though some rebelled).  They enjoyed a good, clean southern party to celebrate a local holiday.  This is what I love about Savannah's friends.  They have a great time with good, clean, innocent fun, and they are so cute!  Unfortunately, despite my repeated instructions to take pictures because I wanted so badly to see the girls all dressed up with their pretty hats, Savannah did not bother.  Hopefully, someone will share the group pictures, so that I can take a peek into the fun.