The end of the school year

Concerts, recitals, performances, speeches, projects, celebrations, activities, birthdays: the end of the school year is always full to bursting! Here is a photo album of the end of the school year, with captions for details.

Jay, playing the bass at the high school orchestra concert.

The final orchestra concert of the year was on Thursday, May 28th. Rose played in the freshman concert orchestra: piano for one piece, and cello for two other pieces. (She's tucked away at the piano in this picture.)

Rose playing cello at the concert. I had possibly the worst angle for pictures: Rose is in the front row of cellos, between the piano and the outer/first cellist. This freshman orchestra was tiny, but the cello section was mighty (and sounded really good).

I zoomed in to get a fraction of Rose's face.

The upperclassmen chamber orchestra was bigger than the freshman orchestra, but still not very big. Jay rocked out playing the string bass.

Again, my child's face was the most well-hidden in the whole group!

The upper classmen combined chamber orchestra and wind ensemble to perform one fully symphonic piece together. It was great! Four violins is too few for a group that size, though--they had to work so hard to be heard! I loved watching Jay play the bass. He was so calm and collected up there.

Thank you, Mr. Langston! The quirky band and orchestra teacher has a fun rapport with the students.

Partway through the orchestra concert, a thunderstorm roared to life outside. When we drove home, the sky was full of lightning flashes and a blazing sunset all at once. Rose counted over 50 flashes of lightning during the 3 mile drive from the high school to our house! We rarely get thunderstorms in our area, so it was pretty fun, even if the rain didn't last long.

Our across the street neighbor, Jory Anderson, took this epic picture of the lightning flashing over our house.

One morning, all three kids were eating breakfast at the table at the same time! Early morning seminary ended Memorial Day weekend, so Jay and Rose were home longer in the morning for the last few weeks of school. I took a picture because this group breakfasting phenomenon was so rare.

On the first Saturday after track season ended (June 6th), Jeff assembled a new tool that he ordered: a 20 foot long squeegee with a hose attachment to wash the pigeon poop off of our solar panels. It was hilarious watching him scrub the panels from the ground with that long bendy handle!

The pigeons still like to sit on top of the barn and poop on the solar panels, but the panels were clean for a few minutes that one day!

We made it to one graduation party: Shaun Wise. I love this picture of Shaun with his tall friend and his tall coach.

On the evening of Saturday, June 6th, Rose ran the Yakima Mile with her group of track friends. Our whole family went to this race last year, but we were feeling beaten up and exhausted this year and ended up staying home except Rose. She snagged a ride with Bethany and their group had a blast racing in the open high school race and watching the elite mile races at the end of the event. Rose sent me two pictures while she was out.

The Sunnyside Yakima Mile crew! Taken of their reflection in a window, haha. We are going to miss Anna and Mia--they graduated the night before this race.

Jay and I were out of town in Missouri on Jeff's birthday, so we planned to celebrate his birthday on Sunday, June 7th with presents, homemade pizza, and brownies. Then the night before his birthday celebration, Jeff accidentally ingested some pretzels dusted in a nightshade (probably paprika or chili powder) at the graduation party, so he felt too sick for his birthday dinner on Sunday. He started feeling well enough to open his gifts on Sunday night, though! He got himself some hilarious projector glasses that play a movie from his phone and make it look like he's watching it on a big screen through the glasses. I did not describe it well, but basically he can sit and stare straight ahead and watch a movie in these silly glasses.

Testing the projector glasses.

I got Jeff a drone. It was the first time that I have ever ventured to get Jeff an electronic device as a gift (Jeff knows more about electronics than me and has stronger opinions about them than me, so I never have even attempted to gift him electronics). This was also the first time that Jeff has been excited about a gift I gave him too! Haha! It only took 19.5 years of marriage for me to find Jeff a gift he liked! HA. Gifts are hard.

Sunday night (June 7th), Jay and I cooked steak together on the stove. I found three big steaks for 50% off at Safeway and got them for my hopeful son. It was fun cooking together, and the steak actually ended up tender! I was surprised. I have never cooked steak before--I normally dislike hunks of beef. I'm not sure I'll ever want to pay full price for steak, but if it's on sale I might venture to buy it every now and then.

We finally had Jeff's birthday dinner on Monday, June 8th (8 days late). I made four giant bacon mushroom swiss pizzas with herb cream sauce, but didn't take a picture of that. I ate three pieces of the rich pizza with the help of 3 lactase pills, but still felt horribly nauseous and ill for hours after dinner that night.

 I did not eat the birthday brownies, but while I was making the creamy cheesy pizza and the rich chocolate brownies, I joked that I was playing with poison, since all of those substances are basically poison to my hyper sensitive system.

STARRING AMBER!

On Wednesday, June 10th, Amber performed a piano song at her elementary school talent show! She did so well! I was proud, and it was fun to see her perform since I missed her studio piano recital while I was in Missouri. Bonus: Amber was the 4th or 5th act in the talent show, so I was able to slip out the side door when she was done and didn't have to stay for the remaining hour-plus of elementary talents like I did last year, when Amber performed last.

A few hours later on the same day, I went back to the elementary school to see Amber give a speech in the 5th grade promotion event. Amber wrote her own speech about her good times in elementary school, and read it bravely in the microphone.

Amber, in the white dress, sitting in at the end of the row with her class, amidst all the other 5th graders during the promotion assembly.

Each of the 120-ish 5th graders received a certificate of promotion to middle school. I still can't believe that all of my kids are done with elementary school! It happened so suddenly!

Amber, in front of her school on our way out after the 5th grade promotion.

Amber requested a French braid in her hair for the big day, and I was extra careful so it would stay in better than usual. I have to admit to feeling proud of that long thick braid--Amber's hair is so thick, wavy, and perpetually tangled that braiding it is always a huge challenge. She is still enjoying growing it out, though.

THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL: JUNE 11, 2026

Last day of 11th grade: Jay is officially a senior! Everything from now on for the next year will be a "last" for Jay before he leaves my nurturing nest, and I hope my heart can handle it.

Last day of her freshman year: Rose is officially a sophomore!

My tall tall high schoolers. SNIFF.

Last day of 5th grade: Amber is officially a middle schooler! Amber wanted to dress up for her last day of school, so she wore a skirt with her t-shirt. She also had never worn sandals to school before, but her summer sandals came in the mail the night before and she wanted to wear them to school. Cute girl. 

I started feeling nostalgic while I drove Amber to elementary school for the last time. We have made this drive together, just the two of us, every day for 3 years (ever since the bus wouldn't take her anymore since we put her in a school we're not zoned for). The daily grind of driving a kid to and from school pretty much controlled my life: how much can I get done before we leave for school at 8:40am, what can I do on the way home from school drop-off, where to meet Amber for pick-up after school, if I can't make it to pick her up, who can I ask to be there, etc. I wonder how loose and flappy my schedule will feel when everyone is out of our house by 7am next school year! Middle school will be a big change for both Amber and her sentimental mother!

Amber, walking towards the elementary school playground with the crossing guard one last time.

Schools released 2 hours early on the last day of school, so our cross country team conditioning run happened at high noon on the last day. Rose and I discovered that my sports bra and her tank top were matching while we ran in the heat of the day together.

Amber brought home all of her big projects over the past few weeks. She is such a focused student! She worked all year to get her organization grade from a 3 to a 4 on her report card, and she finally got that 4 on her final report card of the year. I know her brain doesn't think or notice to organize physical items naturally, so I thought that was an especially impressive improvement that she made.

Jeff got a summer gift for our family that we opened on the last day of school: a pickle ball net! The pavement in front of our barn is wide enough for a regulation sized pickle ball court, so we set it up and played right away. We could have waited till the barn shade moved a bit farther across our court though--that sun was baking us to a crisp! We were not very good...Jay knew the most pickle ball rules and Jeff had the best serve. But it took us over an hour of play before we got a volley going with more than 3 hits! HAH! It was still lots of fun laughing at where the ball ended up when we hit it wrong: lots of chasing and fetching. 

Happy Summer!