What an exciting month!!
Kimball was well represented at the high school awards ceremony. At the ceremony he was recognized for his language skills. He received the French 5 award, Spanish Department award and the Seal of Pentliteracy for proving his proficiency in five languages.
I volunteered at Eden's end of year carnival. She was happy I could help out.
Soccer Saturdays. A few hours each week is spent at the soccer fields watching Lincoln, Annika and Eden play soccer. It's usually enjoyable unless it's raining or really hot. Toward the end of the season two senior friends from church, Al and Carole, started attending their games and it was great having a larger cheering section for the kids.
This is the team Lincoln and Annika have been playing with for the last 6 years. There have been a few additions over the years, but they have mostly remained the same. It has been so fun to watch these kids grow up.
Kimball with his two language teachers. They sometimes treated him like a colleague asking his opinion on assignments and how to improve the assignments.
Jane Broton, Kimball, and Mary Murdoch
Last Day of School - High School
The high school gets out of school a week and a half before the elementary and middle school grades so the high school can take Regents exams. Kimball and Rebecah were both ready to be finished with school.
These are classic Kimball pictures from his childhood. We call them "shifty eyes" pictures. We would tell Kimball to look at the camera and he would point his face toward the camera, but advert his gaze. It was so hard to get a good picture of him as a boy. We had to relive those memories!
On the last day of school for the seniors they have a "Senior Walk" where they walk through their elementary school one last time. It's fun for the seniors to see their school and elementary teachers and fun for the elementary kids to see the big seniors. Our elementary school is under construction so Kimball walked through the middle school and the elementary school where grades 1-3 are currently housed. Kimball was able to see Lincoln, Annika and Eden (although we only got a picture with Eden). It's a fun tradition that our school does. Parents can attend and take pictures.
Kimball with his 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Ryan.
Someone made a video of the kids walking through the halls and I was able to screenshot Kimball.
On the last day of school for the high school, Kimball, Rebecah and I went to Eden's school to help her class tie-dye shirts. Eden's teacher, Mr. Schmidt, had surgery a few weeks ago and his arm is still immobilized, so he needed some extra hands. We had a lot of fun, but Kimball decided he could never be an elementary school teacher.
Valiant Activity - Mini Golf
Last day of school - Elementary and Middle school
Our school ended LATE this year... late, even for New York. Our last day was June 25.
Eden's ready to head to fourth grade next year. I can't believe my baby will be in fourth grade!
Eden with our neighbor Kelsey
Lincoln was not excited to pose for a picture! He and Annika are heading to sixth grade next year.
Graduation!
He did it! Kimball graduated! Not that we didn't think he would. Kimball was not excited for graduation. It was just one more thing before he can head to university. He has been more than ready to leave high school behind for his entire senior year. The only reason he didn't graduate before he left on exchange was so he could come back and get his seal of pentliteracy. So, it was a long school year for Kimball.
Graduation went very smoothly. Graduates had to arrive at 5 pm and the ceremony started at 6:00 on the dot! I love how the processional begins and ends with one of our teachers playing the bagpipes! She played two iconic bagpipe songs.... Amazing Grace and Scotland the Brave. What a cool tradition! There were 572 graduates and graduation ended in just under 2 hours. Two students, the principal, superintendent and a member of the board of education all gave brief addresses and the vocal jazz choir sang twice.
In the Netherlands it is traditional for students to hang the country or provincial flag along with their backpack to signify a graduate in the house. This seems like a classier way to celebrate opposed to decorating a car like seniors do here in the US.
Kimball was officially accepted to Vrije Universitiet Brussel in Brussels, Belgium! We suspected he would be for a few weeks because they sent a request for his housing deposit before his conditional acceptance letter was sent, but it was still nice to receive the official letter of acceptance. Kimball will study linguistics and literary studies. We have been busy all month working on his student Visa. There are so many steps to the Visa process. It's a little stressful, but we are slowly checking documents off the required list. He and I will go to Amsterdam and Brussels in September so I can drop him off at school!
We look forward to a fun summer!
