Bella was inducted into the national honor society for next school year. We're very proud of how much she's done in school, church, and the community. I love that she's a part of a group of people who also seek to be heavily involved in that same kind of work.
Just had to post a few cute pictures of Peter taken recently. He's getting so grown up but he's still my sweet little buddy who always wants to hug and cuddle and always reminds me that I'm his favorite person. :)
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Christian and Bella had their piano recitals this past week. They each handle stress so differently. Christian was far more nervous and crammed lots of practicing in at the end, while Bella pretty much didn't look at her piece the three days prior to the performance. I thought both did a great job and all their practicing, whether early or later, paid off.
His seminary teachers also came to congratulate him. I cannot express how grateful I am to these women for their dedication and sacrifice on behalf of my kids. Teaching teenagers at 6am, five days a week is BRUTAL. I subbed on occasion and it wiped me out. Teenagers are a tough audience. God bless these amazing women.
It's official. Bella has her driver's license. She passed her driving test with flying colors. I was really proud of how well she did. I was so nervous I couldn't look out the front window for the first half of the driving portion of the test, but then I settled down and was able to look around a bit more.
In anticipation of success, she and I went out to breakfast together before the exam and she drove us over to the testing site. The first half she's alone in the car showing her ability to park in various ways. Her parallel parking wasn't as good as when we practiced with chairs in the church parking lot, but she still got everything on the first try. Then we all get in and she drives around for 30 minutes. The tester was very kind and Bella was very well prepared. We had downloaded the test requirements from the Michigan.org website so we knew exactly what she would need to do and what they would ask her. I wish I'd done that for Benjamin.
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So excited for her! Another milestone achieved.
The end of the school year, and especially the end of Benjamin's senior year, have been full of final concerts, awards ceremonies, and robotics competitions. May has been very busy.
Christian's team got the Inspire award at their most recent competition. It's the award that goes to "the best team that didn't win," as he put it. It's an award for the team with the best sportsmanship, community involvement, presentation, etc. It can also be the team that won, but it is independent of the robot. His team has a lot to be proud of this season.
My last baby has finished preschool. A bitter sweet day. He looked so adorable up there getting his medal and having his teacher talk about him as "their serious soul in class." She said he told her when he grows up he wants to be a "policeman who also does magic." He's told me that many times as well. He always says, "I want to be a "policeman magician." Someone who can catch the bad guys but can go to schools and churches and entertain and do amazing tricks in his off time. I have no idea how that desire started. Except when he first started describing it to me, he couldn't keep the difference between magician and musician straight so he often mixed those up. It took some practice with those words before he was confident explaining his plan.
With Mother's Day on a Sunday and Kelly's crazy busy bishop schedule, there's not much that we can do on that day However, it was absolutely gorgeous weather and my boys love playing football together, so we decided to head down to the high school football field and play. (This was before Benjamin broke his wrist - sorry these stories are a bit out of order chronologically). It was a wonderful time together and we spent many hours there until we were all out of water, and slightly heat-stroked. Kelly was even able to join us for part of it.
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Well, what I feared has happened. Motorcycling led to injury. He was going too fast, lost control and slammed into a tree. His wrist is broken in two places. They stabilized it all the way up his arm so he can't rotate the bones that connect to the break. He's not in a lot of pain and we are SOOOO grateful that it's not a brain injury or worse, but he's definitely done riding for the season. Now he just needs to concentrate on getting healthy quickly so he can still go on his humanitarian trip in July! Not much construction work happening with an arm in a cast.
Bella has turned 16! She's gotten all 50 hours of driving time and will be taking her driver's road test next week. So many milestones!
We love Bella so much. She's hard working, organized, kind, creative, thoughtful, intelligent, talented, and beautiful. She's all around amazing. She's so close to getting her eagle scout award, she's gotten straight As in high school so far, she's in multiple different bands at school, and she's in her class presidency at church. She's got a lot going on and still she balances it all and has a great group of friends. It's so fun to see her grow. She and I hold tight as the only girls in the family and she reminds me all the time that she's my favorite daughter.
For her birthday, she wanted the giant stuffed bear from Ikea and several much more expensive items. I figured we could at least get the bear and see where we go from there. :) He's become a permanent companion ever since.
