June 2022-End of School, Aubrey's Recital, Graduation, Beginning of Summer

The last day of school was June 2nd. We took a picture with all of the faculty and staff of Lundy on that last day. It was hard getting everyone outside, but we finally managed it and ended up with this cute picture. It was a fun way to end the year, even though it wasn't really the end for me since I had to continue working through the summer.

I was able to get pictures of the girls on the last day of school before they headed off in the morning. Here's Abby and Taryn on their last day of junior year and 4th grade.

And here's Tessa and Aubrey on their last day of freshman year and 7th grade. I love these girls and all of the hard work they put in to do well in school. School is rough these days and the environment is not easy, so I'm very proud of them as they learn to navigate those situations and thrive by setting a good example and staying positive at school.

 

Someone took this picture of Taryn and Leeno. It is super cute; however, the dog is not allowed on the furniture. Apparently when I'm not home, that rule is not always followed. They're lucky they're both so cute. Abby got together with some friends to go bowling because Devry was in town visiting for McKenzie's birthday. Abby had so much fun bowling, she kept texting me saying we needed to go as a family because it had been way too long since we had all gone bowling and she thought it was so much fun.

 

Seminary graduation was in June and we all attended since everyone attending seminary gets a certificate of completion for that year. Tessa and Abby were both announced as completing the year and we got to support all of our senior friends who received their seminary diploma. Abby was crying a lot because some of her closest friends are seniors and she's going to miss them a lot. I was crying because it will be Abby next year and the time seemed to go by so fast this year. After the graduation, we took pictures. Tessa wanted pictures with her good buddy, Teagan, and her best friend Audrey.

Abby took pictures with Brandon and Braelinn. Brandon was the student body president this year at Franklin and has been a great example to all of the church kids. He's well known throughout the school and the stake. As we started to leave, I realized that I didn't have any pictures of my girls together; so with the sunset behind them, I quickly took a picture of Abby and Tessa together after seminary graduation.

 

 

Abby took her picture with her closest friends from church. Some seniors, some juniors. Here's Sarah, Abby, Braelinn, Amelia, Gracie, and Lauren. Beautiful girls.

Aubrey's dance studio recital was held the first weekend in June. She has been dancing at the For the Love of Dance studio for a couple of months and she was excited to be a part of their recital. She spent the entire day at the school auditorium with the rest of the older dancers. Here's the picture that the owner posted on her Facebook page. I took a picture of Aubrey before we left to drop her off. She does her own makeup and I'm so proud of how independent she is. She loves what she does and she's good at it.

They performed twice in one day, once in the afternoon and once in the evening. I went to both performances. The girls and some of Tessa's friends went with me for the afternoon performance. There's one main boy from Aubrey's ballet class, Jude. He gets to play the prince in both of their numbers. They did Snow White and Cinderella. Aubrey only performed in the Cinderella one. But during the royal ball scene, Jude gets to lift her up. 

It was a fun performance and knowing the story behind the dances helped. Tessa's friend Audrey was one of the stepsisters and we know a lot of the dancers from school and church. Here's Aubrey in her main performance during the royal ball scene.

Aubrey took a bow after the show and then they were all lined up for the final curtain call. In the afternoon, we got there kind of late so we were on the side; but for the evening performance that Tyler and I went to, we were front and center which made for better pictures.

We took pictures after her performances as we got to congratulate all of the dancers. Aubrey was so happy to be in her element. I got a picture of her with me and Tyler after her evening show. We took a lot of pictures after the afternoon performance since everyone was there to see Aubrey and the dancers. Here's one of Aubrey with Abby.

Tessa wanted one with all of her friends. Audrey and her sisters were all performing plus Aubrey and a couple other dancers. It was a cute picture. I wanted one with Aubrey and Jude so I made her ask to get a picture with them. Here's Aubrey with Jude, the prince, and the dancers who played Snow White and a forest fairy.

One of the youth activities in June was a night with the dads. They set up tents to prepare for girls camp and had a campfire to roast s'mores. I wasn't at the activity, but they sent this picture and I was happy to see Tyler and the girls with all of the young women and their dads. It's been a great youth group.

Franklin High School's graduation was held on June 7th. We knew a lot of seniors, but we definitely went to see AJ Kasallis and the other church kids. Tessa was also picked to be in the graduation band that played before and after the ceremony. Abby was also there and she spent the entire day helping organize and prepare everything at the coliseum since she's in STUCO. We never even saw Abby. Even when we tried finding her for pictures afterwards, her phone was dead and we never found her. Tessa took pictures with her senior percussion boys. Here she is with Josh and Steven. We got pictures with AJ too, but that must not have been on my phone since I didn't end up with a copy of that picture.

We sat with the Kasallis family and realized after the graduation that we'd be attending graduation for the next 8 years since our kids are each in their own graduating class one after another. It's crazy how fast the time flies. It was a good ceremony. The senior class president, Gracie Washburn, had a speaking part, so we figured that would be Abby next year. She made a goal two years ago that she wanted to speak at her graduation. She thought her only option for that was to be valedictorian, but when she realized that was going to be too difficult, it's amazing how her goal can still be accomplished. Now as senior class president, she will get to speak at her high school graduation.

Here's a picture of the band. They were sitting up high in the stands, but the Jumbotron was right above them, so it was cool to see them when they played the National Anthem and the graduation march. Tessa got to play the snare and was pretty much in charge of the percussion section for the performance. I was so proud of her. She had fun cheering for her senior friends and being with the band kids.

AJ was set apart as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the Sunday after graduation. We were able to be there at the house when the stake president came over. It reminded me of when my brothers left on their missions. The girls were all very sad. It was like having an older brother leave for them. We are going to miss him a lot, but we're so proud of him and the example he's setting for all of the youth.

As summer started, Taryn was able to attend a basketball camp at Franklin with Teagan. She had fun and learned a lot. Abby knew a lot of the boys who helped with the camp and they thought it was funny once they realized that Taryn was Abby's sister. One boy kept saying she looked so familiar, so it totally made sense when Abby told him Taryn was her little sister. 

For the summer, we also ended up getting season passes to Urban Air for Aubrey and Taryn. Urban Air is a trampoline park and the passes let them go anytime, any day. The Kasallises and some other families also have the pass, so it was a fun thing for the kids to do to make summer a little more exciting. We usually just drop the kids off, but I did stay one of their first times to get a few pictures. Here's Aubrey as she flew past me on the zipline and then I got a picture of the kids as they waited their turn for laser tag. They always have fun together, when they're getting along. :)

 

Audrey's 40th birthday was in June. Aubrey and I took her for smoothies on flip flop day and we got our nails done to celebrate her special day. The exciting thing was she had no idea that we were also planning a surprise party for her the day after her birthday.

With the help of her mom and our friend Holly, I made a reservation at Thyme Matters and sent out texts to get the word out for her surprise lunch. We all showed up and her mom got Audrey there for the big reveal. She was definitely surprised even though her mom had to do some fancy talk to get her to follow along with the plan. It was fun visiting with all of the ladies and celebrating Audrey on her special day.

May, Part 3-End of School Year Concerts, Games, & Recitals

In May, there was another tragic school shooting in Uvalde, TX. It's unbelievable how common these are becoming. It makes it scary to send your kids to school. I rely on the knowledge that I'm at the elementary school with Taryn and just pray that we will be kept safe. Malerie's mom made these Uvalde shirts for the girls to wear in remembrance of the innocent lives lost. Abby and Tessa had their picture taken with AJ after he gave his farewell talk before leaving on his mission. AJ has been like a big brother to all of our girls and it's been amazing to see him grow and watch as he prepares to leave on his mission to France. We are so proud of him.

Tessa and the band performed at Charcoaler's for a fundraiser and Tessa got to play a song or two on the tenors. She's hoping to audition for the tenors for next marching season. She's been working hard at learning the cadences on the tenors so she'll be ready for the tryouts this summer.

Tessa was also able to participate in a Memorial Day Parade on the east side of town. Multiple marching bands combined and after a few practices together, they all marched in the parade. Tessa was one of 8 or 9 bass drums and they had fun marching together and making friends with other high school drummers.

Here are some of the drummers from Franklin who were in the parade: Marcos, Nicholas, Gisele, Tessa, Josh, Steven, and Kevin.

Aubrey's dance team performed at a Roller Derby arena. One of the dancer's moms is on a roller derby team and they set up for the girls to dance in between games. It was fun to see an actual roller derby game in person and to cheer on the dance team.

They did both their hip hop routine and their dance number and they looked great on both. The crowd was really supportive and everyone cheered a lot for the girls. There were even little girls in the stands trying to copy the girls and dance along with them. It was really cute. Aubrey had her picture taken with Claire, one of the captains and one of her closest friends from the dance team this year.

Aubrey had another softball game and it was a high-scoring, close game. She walked whenever she came up to bat, but she made it around to score every time she got on base too.

I tried to get a picture of the scoreboard. It was such a close game. We came from behind to win 15-13. It was their final game, so it was a fun way to end the season. The girls had really progressed as the season went along and they had a lot of fun playing together and learning the game of softball.

Aubrey got along with the girls so well and they had so much fun playing and learning. After this final game, they met up at Peter Piper Pizza to celebrate the end of their season. Most of the girls had never played softball before, but they definitely improved and will do much better next year if they all play again.

Tessa and her percussion class had a percussion concert at Franklin. They played all of their percussion ensembles that they have been working on all semester. 

They played their Shared Space number which is the one they're taking to state to perform. This concert was just a few days before they left for Austin for state solo and ensemble. It's so fun to see them perform and hear what they've been working so hard on for months.

Tessa loves these kids and gets along with them so well. They have so much fun together and they work hard to make their music sound the very best. Band and percussion is going to be a big part of Tessa's high school memories and I'm so proud of her for working so hard at something that she enjoys.

Here are a couple pictures of the entire percussion class after the concert was over. They had to have a silly one and a serious one. They're a great group of kids and I love seeing Tessa shine at something she loves to do even if she's in the minority and only one of two girls in the entire group.

Aubrey had her final dance performance a the Coronado dance recital. They performed my favorite dance of the entire year. It was such a beautiful and fun dance and the girls looked so pretty in their modest yellow dresses. Aubrey had a little solo in the middle of the number and I loved watching her dance. 

They performed over Memorial Day Weekend and she and I were the only ones in town for it. Tyler, Abby, and Taryn drove to Utah to go to Halley's high school graduation and Tessa was in Austin for Solo and Ensemble. I went to Aubrey's performance and cheered loud for everyone. They had these cute picture spots so we had to take some pictures after the recital before we headed to Olive Garden for a celebratory dinner. I love watching Aubrey dance because you can see how much she loves it whenever she's on the stage.

Another adventure that happened while Aubrey and I were the only ones home was butchering our roosters. I had been ready to get rid of the mean birds for weeks, but Tyler was always hesitant because he doesn't like to hurt animals. I got his permission while he was gone and I called our friends, the Johns, from the ward, and they came over to do the hard work for us. The elders wanted to come too, so they came to help and we spent the afternoon plucking and cleaning rooster feathers.

Aubrey thought it was the coolest thing and she helped out a lot too. We plucked all of the feathers and Aubrey even got to do some of the butchering. Roosters don't have a lot of meat on them, but we saved what breast meat and leg meat we could and then cleaned up the mess so it was all finished before Tyler and the other girls got home.

Tessa sent me some pictures of her weekend in Austin. They performed well but ended up with a 2 at state, which is still amazing. They did some shopping and picked out clothes for each other. Tessa loved the outfit that Fred picked out for her so much that she bought the whole thing and now refers to it as Fred's outfit whenever she wears it. Grandma and Grandpa Black drove up to Austin to hear the ensemble perform so I got some pictures of them with Tessa too. I was so happy that someone in the family could be there to support Tessa since Tyler and I couldn't make it.

 

Some of the other band parents sent me the picture of Tessa with my parents, but Tessa took a selfie too so we could remember the fun times they had in Austin. It was a fun weekend for everyone!