A Gaggle of Girls and Their Man: Abby's 5th Grade Year

Abby has graduated from Elementary School! I can't believe it. We did orientation for middle school at the end of the year and I think I was more in shock than she was. She's definitely ready, but before that, let's hear all about her senior year of elementary. I included the first half of her 5th grade year in her birthday post in December, so this post will start from January of her school year, but there's plenty that happened, so don't worry. Here's her picture the morning of Spring Picture Day.

In February, the Young Womens from church put on a program for all the incoming Beehives for that calendar year. Even though Abby won't be 12 until December, she was a part of this group, so we went together and listened to a program and Abby was introduced as one of the incoming girls. I can't believe she's almost in Young Womens. We took a few pictures to remember the evening.

For Valentine's Day, Abby's class at school decided to decorate their own Valentine boxes. Abby picked her minion theme all by herself, researched decorating ideas online, and printed her own extra decorations. She was so proud of her completed box and we all loved it too. Unfortunately, the morning of her class's party, we had a doctor's appointment for her and Aubrey. We thought the parties would take place in the afternoon at school, but the judging of the boxes in her class happened while we were gone, so she missed it. She was pretty upset. I ended up uploading this picture on Facebook so everyone could see her hard work. She received a lot of "votes" from everyone on Facebook, so we appreciated that.

Abby loved when Grandma and Grandpa came to eat lunch with her at school. They brought pizza one time and even had enough left over for Abby to give some to her classmates. Everyone loved Abby's grandparents then!

At the Fine Arts Night in April, a smaller select group of orchestra students got to play prelude music and Abby was one of the two basses who played. I took a quick picture before they started playing. During the actual performance, the hall was too full of people, but I found a spot on the other side of the window to watch Abby. The reflection from the window was pretty bad, but if you look close enough, you can see her arm holding the bass.

The 5th graders got to decorate the sidewalk with Fine Arts decorations outside the school, so I took a picture of the square that Abby helped color. I loved the violin and microphone.

Not really school related, but Abby has continued playing volleyball through the YMCA this year. We were her coaches. Their team was the Panthers during the Fall season. During the Winter season, we had enough girls to coach two teams, so Abby's team was the green Jaguars, but it was a lot of fun coaching all the girls and playing volleyball multiple times through the week. Abby's getting really good at playing, perfecting her overhand serves and sets.

The final orchestra concert of the year was in May. Abby was still 1st chair bass and loved the songs they played.

Their finale song was Star Wars, which was a huge hit with the audience. She also liked the song they played where they got to where sunglasses and spin their basses during the song. She really enjoyed playing the bass this year, but has decided to try band in 6th grade. She's planning on playing the French horn and has already completed one band camp this summer. We'll see how band goes. I just love that she's staying involved in any music.

The 5th grade field trip was voted on by the students, and they picked Western Playland which is an amusement part. I was able to go as a chaperone. It was my and Abby's first time going there, but it was a lot of fun. There were a ton of schools there the same day, but two other moms and I followed a group of four or more of our kids around as they rode all the rides. Abby mostly hung out with Amelia from her class and church. The boys that walked around with them were Parker and Diego.

They rode the swings and all the roller coasters they could squeeze in during the allotted time.

I even took a video as they rode the big boat ride that went up really high. They really had a lot of fun.

We had a set time for lunch, and we took a lot of pictures as the kids were eating. Here are all the LDS kids from Lundy's 5th grade: Amelia, Abby, Parker, Kaemon, and Caleb.

Here's a group of Abby's friends: Fatima, Abby, Amelia, Sophia, Nadia, and Isabel.

Abby with Amelia and Nadia.

Here are Abby's two teachers from this year, Mrs. McIntosh and Mrs. Ayers. And a selfie with me and Abby.

Abby continued taking piano lessons through the school year and they combined with another piano teacher for the recital in June. She played the hymn For the Beauty of the Earth from the Hymns Made Easy book. She's learned a couple from the book now and continues to play whenever she has a moment to spare and can sit down at the piano.

On the last day of school, June 7th, the entire morning is spent on the 5th grade awards ceremony. They had a picture of the entire class outside the cafeteria, so I took a picture of Abby by it. I loved it.

Abby sat in a group on the left which was perfect for pictures from where I was sitting. My parents were in town again, so Taryn stayed with them, and I was able to enjoy the ceremony and take a lot of pictures.

The first couple recognitions that Abby was involved in were Safety Patrol and Orchestra. They just had the students who were involved stand up, so I took pictures when she stood up.

Abby was able to go up on the stage for her A Honor Roll, which we were very proud of. She worked really hard to keep all As all year and sometimes it was a struggle, but she studied hard and did her best and kept those grades up. I was super excited and proud of her for that accomplishment.

They finished the ceremony by having every student walk across the stage for a medal and their graduation packet. Their teachers got to hand out the items, so her home room teacher Mrs. Ayers gave her the medal and Mrs. McIntosh gave her the packet.

She hugged them both as she walked across. She really liked her teachers, and I always only heard raving, awesome reviews from her teachers about how nice and helpful Abby always was.