Graduation!

On Friday, we celebrated 2 graduations in our family.   Alaina "graduated" from her elementary school, and Ethan graduated from middle school.

Alaina's 4th grade promotion was a short morning ceremony.   The class sang a few songs and a few of the kids spoke about their favorite school memories.  We have been taking a kid to that elementary school for 9 years, so it will be a transition for us to no longer go there.   Middle school, here comes Alaina!

In the afternoon, Ethan had his 8th grade graduation, which had more of the usual pomp and circumstance.   The kids were individually recognized, and each received ribbons and a diploma.  Jeremy, Gary and Eileen came up from Southern California, and my dad and Marilynn were there as well.   

  

Afterwards, we had a nice dinner at Perrys to celebrate the occasion, followed by cake at home.   

 

My dad gave him a pretty cool graduation present--he framed his first check that he got from working at Kumon!

Then Ethan left to attend his 8th grade promotion party where he celebrated with his classmates.  Though we really have no idea what went on, he did come home with a cup full of candy and told us that basically he just ate and jumped around the whole time.  

 Anyhow, this is an interesting inflection point for Ethan--he is leaving all of his classmates to head to high school in the city.   By the end of his time at middle school, he definitely felt "done"--he has been frustrated by the lack of challenge and the social scene there.   I hope our switch next school year will be a better fit for him!

Reflections at 44

 This past Monday, I celebrated by 44th birthday.   44 is somewhat of an unremarkable year, I suppose.   At first for my birthday, I was feeling sad, because Jason was out of town, and I had to work.   

But actually, as I really began to reflect, I snapped out of it because really, what do I have to be sad about?

I have a wonderful family, a beautiful home, a great job, and importantly everyone is healthy.  I am pretty lucky.   So I spent the day feeling grateful for all I have, which really is the best birthday present ever.

Piano Recital

 This weekend was pretty quiet--relatively speaking.   We only had a piano recital, an 18th birthday party, softball practice, and a Girl Scout meeting, lol.

The highlight of course was the piano recital.   The kids both did ok, having probably not practiced as much as they should have before hand.   Ethan played the first part of the Joplin's entertainer, which is a pretty difficult song to play.

On Saturday, we also celebrated Alexandra's 18th birthday with Marcy and Jason's cousin Becky.   We went to a Japanese restaurant in Petaluma.   It was the first time we had been to Japanese sinc

e our trip to Japan and the kids were excited to try their favorites here in the US.   Ethan had Tonkasu and Alaina Gyoza.   It was very good--but the kids tell me, not as good as Japan.   Spoiled kids.