End of the School Year

The 2014-2015 school year is officially over.
Emma is now a Senior
Rachael is now a Freshman
Megan is now a Middle-schooler
Bridget is now a 3rd grader
and Hanna is still a handful.



Emma ended her year with AP tests, the SAT, the ACT and a new job. We will find out about the AP test and the ACT later this summer but were very pleased with her SAT score already.  The new job is a weekend morning job at Sam's Bagels where she assembles bagel sandwiches and is on her feet. It is great to see her working hard and earning a paycheck for it.

Rachael just ended her 8th grade year and is riding the waves of emotions that come with transition. She has been having lots of celebrations with her friends and it has helped her slug through the end of the year. They had an award ceremony on the last Wednesday and Rachael was recognized for being on the honor roll every quarter of middle school. Then Wednesday night they held the farewell in the high school auditorium. Rachael and her friends were teary eyed as they gathered after the ceremony, but also full of smiles. Rachael told me this week that she didn't like middle school but it was also full of a lot of good memories. She received educational excellence in all of her subjects except gym and her certificate is heavy with honors.

Megan has finished her elementary school years with the completion of fifth grade. They had a big farewell ceremony during the day on Tuesday and we enjoyed celebrating with her and her class. They showed a slideshow of each student as a toddler and then as a 5th grader. It was really sweet. they also sang "I Lived" and played a video of a teacher rendition of the song. Afterward we grabbed a few pictures and then headed off to Matthew's for lunch. Megan is excited to be heading to middle school but is sad that not all of her friends will be attending. It will be a big transition for her.

Bridget had a good 2nd grade year and made huge gains in her reading progress. She was very proud to be asked to participate in the highest reading group for discussions on Charlotte's Web even though she is at the lowest reading level. She was able to read along to the audio book every night to stay on pace with the group. She will be doing a weekly reading class over the summer to hopefully continue the progress. Bridget was excited on the last day of school to meet her 3rd grade teacher and  to find out that one of her close friends will be in her class next year.

Johanna will be starting a pre-school in the fall but for now she is busy, busy, busy soaking up all that is going on around her. She has this neat habit of noticing the illustrations on the title page of a book and then finding the matching illustration somewhere in the pages as I am reading. She has figured out how to climb out of her crib and will appear silently with her Sleepy and Mamies in the morning. She hasn't napped in 2 weeks but she does stay in her crib for an hour or so before she climbs out of the crib for more stimuli. She is pretty amazing.

Now we are ready for summer!