End of the School Year

Just a few extra things to document in addition to the main events for Bella - I got to chaperone Peter's class trip to the aquarium and Lego Land.  I enjoy getting to see him around his friends and getting to know all those kids better.  We had a great day.

This is Cooper - Peter's best friend.  I prayed and prayed at the beginning of the year that Peter would make at least one friend at Webster and Cooper was the answer to my prayers.  Peter really likes him and it appears to be mutual.  If only he weren't a 2nd grader.  The school as combined age classrooms, so 1st and 2nd grade are together; 3rd and 4th grade are together, etc.  That means that next year, Peter will still be in the same class, but Cooper will move on.  I pray that Peter will find another friend as kind and patient as Cooper.

Because of Bella's graduation, we were going to miss the Spring Piano recital.  So the teacher held a private recital at her house with just her first year students so Peter would still get the practice of performing and the others would get a practice run-through before the big day.  It was so cute to see all the littles playing.  Christian and Peter played a duet which was adorable.  I stupidly was so focused on the music that I forgot to make a video.  Only at the end did I think to even take a picture.  Not one person had a perfect performance, but everyone did very well.  It was a good first chance to play before an audience.

Peter's school also had a choir concert.  He was not excited to be singing but I thought it was adorable.  They sung songs like Do Re Mi from The Sound of Music and several I'd never heard before.  It was so impressive to see all that the teacher had been able to teach them in just one lesson a week.  I love his teacher because the district eliminated band in the 6th grade but this one teacher refused and said he'd still teach it.  So Peter's school is the only one with band class.  If it weren't for band in 6th grade, none of my other 3 would be in band today so I know how incredibly valuable it is.  (Little Peter is in the front row on the right in the blue shirt.)

Peter wanted to build a hydraulic press after church one day but was struggling bringing his thoughts to fruition.  Thank goodness he has such a smart, kind brother.  I found the supplies in my craft and science supply stashes and they built a really cool hydraulic pump together.  I love when my kids are getting along and having fun together.

The classroom pet in Peter's class is a stuffed elephant they can take home.  Peter got to take Ellie home last week.  They are supposed to photograph themselves doing things with Ellie so show the class.  Peter wanted to play video games with her and read her books.  I thought they were so cute together.

Although, I still miss the live guinea pig that Benjamin's class took home on weekends and holidays.  Twinkle was a regular at our house and she was a lot more fun than a stuffed elephant.

Tomorrow is the last day of school.  May my sanity hold out this summer.  It's going to be crazy with Benjamin coming home and two leaving for college plus Scout Camp, FSY, YM camp, Pioneer Trek, marching band camp, and a trip up north.  Hold on tight.

She Graduated!

 May has been a big month for Bella - 18th birthday, scholarship ceremonies, sky diving, and graduation from high school.  She's been busy.

Our sweet girl became an adult and the things she asked for were nearly entirely dorm stuff.  Moving out shifts priorities.  So we got her a laundry hamper full of toiletries and dorm necessities.  She also decided now that she was 18, she wanted to go sky diving, so we paid for that.  I worried all day about that but she had a wonderful time!

She also won a scholarship through a local family that wanted to honor their mother.  She founded the Livonia Arts Council and recently passed away so they decided to use her remaining money to assist high schoolers from Livonia in pursuing degrees in art.  They plan to give money every year and Bella was their first recipient.  They awarded it at an award banquet with other recipients of other city grants - a whole ball room filled with representatives of non-profit organizations.  It was a great experience being with so many people all trying so hard to make the world a better place and were working so hard doing it.  Unfortunately my phone camera was broken so my pictures came out terrible and this is all I got.  4 hours at the iphone store later that week and now my pictures are better again.

Then came the clap-out.  That's a Livonia tradition that I absolutely love.  The high schoolers go back to all their previous schools and walk the halls in their graduation gowns while the current students, teachers, and parents clap for them.  It was so fun to see Bella back at her preschool, elementary school, and middle schools. I also loved seeing all the friends and teachers she had while she was there.  

Mother Hubbard Preschool - Bella's school when she was just 3 and 4 years old.

Bella homeschooled for Kindergarten and attended a charter school for 1st grade but we didn't get a picture there.

Webster Elementary - Bella went here from 2-6th grade.

Mrs. Rost - Bella's 2nd grade teacher:

Mrs. Gezahegn - Bella's 3rd and 4th grade teacher and Peter's current 1st grade teacher.  That was so fun to get a picture of them together.

Mrs. Macek - Bella's 5th and 6th grade teacher.

Some of the other kids who had been in 5th and 6th grade with Bella in Mrs. Macek's class.

Friends who met in  middle school who are still friends today - Elijah, Bella, and Alyssa

Madison and Bella - they met as 3 year olds in pre-school!

It was such a fun day of remembering and marveling at how much she's grown and how fast the time has gone.

Then came the actual graduation!  I didn't cry with Benjamin at all but for some reason, as they called Isabella Katherine Dalton and that sweet girl walked across the stage and took her diploma, I just lost it.  Kelly handed me a tissue and I cried over just how proud of her I was.  She has put so much work and time into these last four years.  She juggled working, studying, playing three instruments, 4-5 different music groups, getting her eagle scout award, getting her driver's license, national honor society, multiple church callings, and early morning seminary while still getting a 3.99 GPA and I didn't ever once have to remind her of anything or push her in anything.  She did it all on her own and all I did was correct an English paper now and again.  She's a rockstar and I was just so proud to be her mom.  She's going to be amazing at whatever she does.

This is Laith.  He and Bella have been in all their church classes together since they were born.  I was their nursery leader when they were just 1 year old.

After high school graduation came Seminary Graduation.  As her seminary teacher, I got to say a little about her and the other seniors.  I was happy to do that.  However, the high councilman in charge of the event decided to make it a "Seminary Celebration" not a "Seminary Graduation" and so he tried to honor all students who attended seminary and it really took away from the event for the seniors.  I was very disappointed.  Not to mention, they didn't even hand out diplomas!  They were just sitting on a table and the seniors picked theirs up on the way out!!  I was not going to stand for that.  I had Bella go up to the stake president and made him hand it to her while I took a picture.  It's clearly a bit awkward as Bella's face shows, but better than nothing.  It was our first graduation in this stake and now I know what to expect.  I will make sure future ones are better.  Those kids worked so hard for four years!  They deserve something more.

Alas, a second child is done.  Benjamin comes home in just 6 weeks and then they're both off to college.  Everything goes so fast.  Before I know it, this little guy will be gone too.

Easter, Etc.

 Spring has been so lovely.  Not too hot and a lot of lovely rain so everything is green and growing like crazy - means lots of money for Christian's mowing business.

Easter was a bit hectic and unplanned this year.  Between getting back the day before from Paris and having General Conference the same weekend, we didn't do a whole lot.  A little egg decorating and a hunt was about all I could get going. The hunt was a lot of fun, though.  This was Peter the whole time:

Bella recently went to Grand Valley University in Grand Rapids, MI to compete in a state-wide graphic design competition called SkillsUSA.  She spent 7 hours creating social media, mail, and other advertising materials for a fictional company and then her work was judged against that of other students from around the state.  She got third place in the competition.  Such a great accomplishment. 

She had fun spending the weekend there with others from her school in addition to the the competition.

She's going to be amazing in the art program at Western.

She also attended senior prom with friends this weekend.  A woman in our ward who's a professional wedding hair stylist offered to do her hair for free as a graduation present.  She did a wonderful job.  She looked beautiful.

She also attended a council-wide Eagle Scout recognition dinner with two other recent eagle scouts from her troop.  Such a busy talented girl.

Christian had a unique opportunity to baptize a friend of his this weekend.  Dustin began attending church when he decided he wanted to get closer to God.  Christian met him there and he joined in on Dustin's lessons with the missionaries.  When he decided to be baptized, he asked if Christian would do it.  Christian was just made a priest in January, so it was a wonderful opportunity.  He felt quite nervous, but honored at the request.  Dustin is a great kid and we look forward to getting to know him better in the future.   The missionaries are Elder Wilde and Elder Hoopes and they are just absolutely fabulous guys.  

Here's a cute picture of Peter doing his newest favorite thing - origami.  He has become obsessed.  He has been folding paper every free minute for weeks.  Here he is in battle mode and then in kingly mode with his latest creations - a sword, crown, and shield.  He does them almost entirely independently and it's so fun to watch him work so hard on something and have so much fun with it.

Miscellaneous odds and ends:  Peter and Kelly before a spontaneous weekend afternoon motorcycle ride to test a repair Kelly did on the bike  and  Pandora in a standoff with the floor-sweeping vacuum.  She finds that thing irresistible and is batting at it and interfering with it any time it's on.  It's so fun to watch.  It has little bristles that sweep out from under it and she seems to think they are antennae or little tails, maybe.  She can't stay away from them.  In a standoff between the two of them, Pandora wins every time.  I can't wait for the day she decides to ride it.

Paris!

Spring Break this year was amazing.  Bella and I spent it in Paris.  We've been planning to do this for years and it was so fun to finally make it happen.  We stayed in a cute studio apartment in the 9th arrondissement, walking distance from Mont Marte.  It was the perfect place to be equally close to nearly everything.  The trip was a fun mix of things Bella likes (shopping, eating) and things I like (history, culture).  We saw all the usual bucket-list places.

The Louvre (and the Mona Lisa):

The Versailles castle and it's surroundings (gardens, Grand Trianon, Petite Trianon, and Queen's hamlet):

The Eiffel Tower:

Notre Dame Cathedral:

Arc de Triomphe:

Place de La Concorde where the Guillotine once stood (with the Egyptian Obelisk, Jardin des Tuileries, and the Champs Elysees, not all pictured - even in France, I often am too in the moment to think of taking pictures):

We also visited the Pantheon (where many notables are buried, such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and Marie Curie), the Hotel des Invalides (where Napoleon is buried), the Gallerie Lafayette (the most famous and fancy store in Paris), the Sacre-Coeur Basilica, the Luxembourg Gardens (gorgeous place to hang out and location of the French Senate), the Saint-Sulpice Cathedral (2nd largest church in Paris after Notre Dame), the Place de Sorbonne (the famous university square where many political uprisings have begun, and the Jardin des Plants (giant conservatory and zoo) :

In addition to all the great sights, we had a ton of fun doing other little side quests every day.  We took a boat ride on the Seine.

We visited adorable little shops and ate our weight in gelato, croissants, baguettes, and pain au chocolat.

This one is called Fruitini.  The owner freezes fruit, scoops out the pulp, makes gelato out of it and puts it back into the fruit shell.  So she just has a bunch of fruits on display to buy but when you open it up, it's gelato inside, not fruit.  All natural, no sugar, and absolutely delicious.  We had mango, kiwi, and pineapple.

This little crepe shop was NEXT DOOR to our place.  The temptation, I tell you.  It smelled amazing all the time.  

We also had to stop at the Jelly Cat Cafe for Bella.  She was dying to experience what she'd seen on instagram and participate in the pretend making of a Jelly Cat stuffed item.  If you haven't seen this, look it up, but basically you stand in front of this French chef who hands you fake frosting bags, whisks, etc. and the two of you pretend to be french bakers making a french pastry of your choice.  He makes it really fun and dramatic, and in the end you get your little stuffed macaron or stuffed lemon tart, or whatever you chose to buy.  He wraps it up all fancy and pretends it's actual food.  It's a fun time.  Definitely had to try it once.  Bella and I got matching tarts - she got strawberry and I got lemon.  They are adorable.

Keeping with our tradition of finding sushi every where we go, we also found a delicious sushi place, Sushi House, right on the same street as our place.  One night we got take-out and ate it at the base of the Eiffel tower (Bella's idea).  It was magical.

On Sunday we attended the local ward which meets across from the Centre Pompidou - the modern art museum.  It was a bit disappointing because I'd expected to meet French church members, but they shuttled all visitors into a separate room immediately upon entering.  We sat with 150 other tourists watching church on a screen and then left by the same door as soon as it was over.   We never even saw the rest of the building or spoke to anyone native.  (No pictures)

While we were in Versailles, we visited the Paris Temple.  Sadly the visitor's center was closed for renovations, so we just took a few pictures outside.

We also took a croissant and pain au chocolat baking class.  It was so fun learning a new skill from a native Parisian along side people from London, Los Angeles, and Alabama. Bella was the star of the class.  Everyone else needed a lot of correction and help but Bella seemed to have done it all before.  The teacher just kept complimenting her and moving on to others.  Eating croissants fresh from the oven was amazing.  Those were the best ones we ate the whole trip.  How cool is it that we made them?!

We also did a food tour with a bunch of others around the area of le Marais in the 3rd and 4th arrondissements.  Our tour guide, Lucilla, walked us all around town for 4 hours, stopping in various cheese shops, bakeries, restaurants, etc. and buying various items for us to try.  She would describe the history of the item, how it was made, why this place makes it well/different than other places, etc.  It was a lot of fun.  I tried things I would never have thought to try on my own.  One place we went in and sat for a while, others we ate as we walked.  We ended in a cheese and wine place whose dining area was in the cellar.  That was very unique.  She got grape juice for me and Bella and we enjoyed some of the best cheese ever while talking to our newly-made friends from Norway, Sweden, and New York.  It was fantastic.  

The trip was amazing and I'm so glad we went.  It was easy to get around and everyone we met was friendly and helpful.  Bella also found some cute clothes and a pair of shoes for graduation.  I'm so glad we went. 

The only downside the bureaucracy of France.  I wasn't going to write anything negative, but just briefly, I want to make note because it was something that really hit me while we were there. I love so much about Europe and I see lots of failings in America, but in America the customer is always right.  If a rule is inconvenient, you can almost always get management to bend it to keep a customer happy.  It's where the whole Karen phenomenon started - because it works.  In France, and to some extent in Europe in general, a rule is law and no amount of logic or common sense will change it.  That frustrated me several times.

For example, the longest non-resident metro card you can purchase is a 5 day pass.  However, we were there for 8 days.  So when I bought the 5 day pass, I asked to also buy a 3 day one to use after the first expired.  No, can't do that.  Have to buy it on the morning of the 6th day because they are time stamped at purchase and if you buy them together the dates won't work.  Already a dumb idea, but ok, fine, we have to find a way to buy another card on day 6.  Day 6 was the Eiffel Tower, so before we can go there, we have to buy a card.  The man in the booth tells me he can't take cash, I have to use the machine to buy it, but the machine is malfunctioning and issues me faulty cards.  So I'm out 120 Euros.  I go back to him and explain that the machine messed up, hand him my two non-functioning cards and the receipt to show I paid.  He remembers me from moments earlier when I tried to buy from him, so he knows I'm telling the truth and he goes and checks the machine and discovers the problem.  He and I both agree that the simple solution to this is to issue me two new functioning cards and we both be on our way.  But that's not possible because his rule is that I have to pay for every card I get and if he were to give me two new cards, it would look like he just gave them away for free and he'd be liable.  He insists I pay another 120 euros.  I politely ask hm to call his manager and see what he says.  He was super sweet about it, understood my plight and plead my case to his manager for 20 minutes with no success.  The only option was to pay twice and then petition the metro online for a refund of the original 120 euros.  Absolute insanity.  He had a stack of cards right there at his desk.  He had receipts and proof I'd paid.  How much easier would it have been to issue two new cards than to now go through the whole process of refunding internationally??!?!  That kind of lunacy would never have happened here.  The guy would have taken two seconds to see the situation and he would have handed over two new cards and we could have been on our way.  Instead we were an hour late at the Eiffel tower and out 240 euros for metro cards.

This kind of silly, stupidity happened more than once during the week and I really started to get why the founding fathers dumped the tea and revolted.  I wanted to do the same.  Americans are rebels against stupid government systems and although I consider myself very German, my American came out strong at times on this trip.  I would like to go on the record, however, and say that I was never a rude Karen.  I was always kind and polite and represented my country well.  And if nothing else, these frustrating situations were good chances to practice my French.