Prom and an 18 year old

The day has come that should’ve taken twice as long…Amelia is now 18 years old. We have a pre-adult! Her special day was terribly busy and honestly did not feel much like a birthday, maybe a better adjective is anti-climatic. I’ll get to that here in a bit. 

I HAD to open my big ole mouth at work during the planning committee meeting. We’re in charge of celebrations and fun activities for the elementary school. The past 5 years Mrs Douglas spearheaded a STEM challenge during Da Vinci/Great Brain night at school. With the 4-day work week, testing schedules, and PTA changes the STEM challenge was pushed to the side. I HAD to lament out loud about that, Monday morning I got an email asking me to organize a STEAM into Summer assembly for the school. Yay. I met with Mrs Douglas Tuesday afterschool, she gave me the supply lists and challenges by grade level. I went to my classroom and cried. It was too much for my brain, not enough time to beg for supplies and force teachers to scratch out time and beg for support. Thank you Jesus for the brilliant idea of doing a simple paper airplane contest! The school has paper and lots of it. During my specials time each class can learn how to fold different styles of paper airplanes, decorate their planes, and practice launching their creations. I asked for the grades to be separated (k-2, 3-5) for the assembly, hopefully reduce the noise and time for an airplane contest. I feel rather excited now about it, simple is best most of the time. 

I had a lovely “sick” day at home Monday morning. I caught up on some sleep, did laundry, and caught up my journal entries for the past two weeks. It’s easy to fall behind. Everett had two tennis matches this week. He slayed at the tournament on Monday! On Wednesday he was not feeling well and had a very spicy, rude opponent. It’s hard to believe tennis is nearly over now. Next week he has districts Friday and Saturday. Good luck! Evelyn actually came down with a nasty fever and cough Sunday night. She stayed home from school Monday-Wednesday. Josie stayed home Tuesday for moral support, her tummy was aching and allergies acting up. Tuesday was also Josie’s holiday: Pah-hass-a-mus day. On the calendar it says Professional Administrator Day, but we all know what it is really called. All the spring flowers are lovely but they sure do come with a cost! Evelyn got her expander taken out and a new bar installed that rests next to her palate. It is much more comfortable and easier to eat, talk, and sing. 

Wednesday night procrastination raised it’s ugly head, gratefully both girls did not have activities to attend so we had an hour to work on their Great Brain projects. Evelyn researched Scottish Terriers, made her own PowerPoint presentation. Josie wanted to do something about violins, how they are made or something. She finally decided to research the difference between violin and fiddle. She learned that the instrument is the same but the style of playing the instrument is what makes the difference. Of course Murphy’s Law also worked perfectly that evening, the color printer was not printing cyan so the slides looked terrible. I finally got it to work after running 8 cleaning sessions on the printer heads. I was taping the papers to foam board at 10:30 pm. Geesh! Da Vinci and Great Brain night went well. The girls enjoyed telling those interested in their subject about their research. I walked around and listened to many amazing presentations. We bought some “paint brush” rice crispy treats, watercolor popcorn, and other treats to tide us over until we could hear home. 

This week at school the 3-5th grades did a fun science experiment coding micro:bits to read the level of moisture in wet and dry soil. It was a lot of work the first day, but became easier as I repeated the lesson. I had piles of dirt all over the lab, never mind the precise instructions to use the tablecloth areas to measure the soil. I enjoyed the process AND was able to check off the requirement from the state for receiving two free classroom sets by making a video of the lesson. 

Friday Amelia turned EIGHTEEN! Yes, yes, you read that correctly. She is now 18 years old. I was gone most of the day grocery shopping, taking Evelyn to see Nina, getting Amelia’s hair arranged by Kymra, and taking prom photos. Amelia spent an hour working on her makeup before getting her hair arranged. Around 4 pm her two choirs friends, Carlie and Emily, came over to get dressed and fuss over each other’s outfits. That was fun and sweet. I got Amelia a point-and-shoot camera for her birthday, gifted that to her when the girls were all ready. Amelia’s prom date, Andrew, arrived before everyone was ready. The chorus of squeals as he got out of the car about lifted the roof. Justin and I chatted with him for the first time, he’s a quiet, shy guy. I felt quite proud of him for getting up the courage to ask Amelia to prom. His hands were unsteady when he slipped a wrist corsage around Amelia’s wrist. I drove the group to Kathryn Albertson’s park for some prom photos. Carson and Kassidie were very late so I did not get many photos of them. Everyone went with Carson once he arrived. They had dinner at PF Changs then headed to the dance. Amelia said the music was terrible, just ear-blasting rap music, it was so loud students had to go outside to talk. She didn’t say much about prom, it was fun getting dressed up and spending a fun night on the town. They got back home around 12:30 am, so it was not a very late evening either. 

We celebrated Amelia on Sunday with her favorite meal (sushi) and raspberry jell-o cake. It was raining, a lovely spring rain that lasted about an hour. It begged for us to slip off shoes and socks and soak our feet outside. That was the best Sunday in a long time! Amelia organized a game called “Rain Quest,” she had the kids running here and there for a good 30 minutes. I was the Final Boss to defeat in the game. My neighbor, Paula, sent me some photos from her garage and door camera, asking, “what in the world are you doing in the rain with your kids?” The photo shows me performing a radical booger gun from my left nostril. Take that! There is something powerful about connecting with the earth during a rainstorm. We were freezing cold, not cold enough to stop eating ice cream and cake to celebrate Amelia. Then we sat on the couch and looked a cute photos and videos of Amelia as a baby. She was so cute.