She crossed over!

You've seen the sneaks, now for the real thing!

Julia officially left middle school this week, and for a few days while Wyatt finishes finals, we have two freshmen in the house.

It was a weeknight and regular workday for me.  Julia has been wanting a photo shoot with two of her friends since she entered a contest to win one.  We were able to get in a mini-shoot before the ceremony with one of the girls, but the other one couldn't make it. I have a feeling they will be getting dressed up and trying this again sometime.  

CALMS approved..their new principal calls the middle school CALMS

All the siblings showed up.  

two freshmen - for a few days anyway

Sweet friendships were celebrated.

Throwing it back to kindergarten graduation which was the same day Zach crossed over to high school.

Final Thoughts

The ceremony: I do not know how Crossover has morphed into what it is today.  The venue and ceremony have not changed at all since Zach celebrated his Crossover a few years ago, but the dress certainly has.  What used to be a mildly dressy ceremony has become dressier.  Note that Zach is wearing a polo in the picture from his day.  This week the boys wore bow ties and jackets and some wore polos.  The girls, for the most part, wore long dresses.  The dresses are not meant to be formal.  It's just very hard to meet the dress code.  Dresses have to come to the knee and cannot show off shoulders, so no spaghetti straps or sleeveless attire.  Girls who wore dresses like Julia's covered themselves with sweaters for the ceremony.  If you have been involved in buying clothes for teenage girls at all, you know that finding dresses of an appropriate length is very challenging even for the shortest girls.  It's easier to buy long dresses.

The only notable change for this ceremony is that it took place at night.  I have asked the school for years to make this change and plan to send them a thank you.  In the past I had to find a way to take off work at a difficult time to do so.  I do know that the ceremony was changed because of scheduling conflicts with the venue rather than my request.  I am not that important!

Awards: Julia received the Bible Achievement Award which is an award chosen by the teacher for the student who works particularly hard in that class giving their all.  This award is given to only one of the teacher's students.  Julia also made the Principal's Honor Roll for all As, all year.  

It's chaos after the ceremony. It took such a long time to find Julia that I got very few pictures of her with friends after the event.  It has certainly been a nostalgic few days for me as I ponder this move into high school. I know all too well that high school goes far too fast!