Dandelion Days

I was looking back through post drafts that I'd started but never finished. I found this picture with this title from back when we lived in the Chicago area, about ten years ago. I remember exactly what it was about, even though I had never added text beyond the title.

Phoebe and Sophie were still young enough that they weren't in school yet. They spent a lot of time playing pretend and running around in the backyard. On this day Phoebe had brought me this bouquet of dandelions and they'd ended up on the counter, next to the toy hair dryer.

It struck me then how fleeting this stage would be, the time of gathering dandelions and bringing them to mom with love and wonder. I'm glad that, even in the midst of the overwhelm and tired, I was aware that I should pay attention and notice the importance of these tiny moments.

And it's true, we are past the dandelion days. Topher will still occasionally bring me one of the yellow flowers, but we've mostly moved on to other stages. I love watching my kids learn and grow and become who they have the potential to be. But there's a sweet melancholy thinking about the exhaustion and happiness of the days when they were little.

Play Ball!

A few weeks before school ended Sophie had the opportunity to sing the national anthem with the other elementary chorus singers at a local AAA baseball game. We went to support her, then stayed for the game. Peter even joined us after a long day of missionary work. Phoebe was on a school trip, so she missed the game.

She did a great job!

The weather turned cold during the game. I held on as long as I could, but I finally retreated to the van during the eighth inning. I took Topher with me and he found several more photo ops.

The game went into extra innings, so Bryan, Cooper, and Sophie (Peter had driven separately and had already left) decided to call it and headed for the van. As they were walking out a hit ball landed right at their feet. It was a pretty cool souvenir.

Pomp and Circumstance

Cooper graduated from high school a week ago. It was a sunny, sweltering evening until the sun went down. But I think that was preferrable to the rain and cold that our friends experienced at their son's graduation a few days before.

All the seniors from concert choir were invited to sing the national anthem at graduation. That included Cooper, which I think is very cool.

Cooper wore pink cords because he was in chorus.

He also wore a cash lei and a candy lei. I offered to make a flower lei as well, but he felt like that would be too much.

It was a great graduation! I'm so thankful we could all be there to celebrate Cooper.

Phoebe snapped this great picture of Cooper.

Peter got artistic with this picture.

Here's the stadium, post graduation.

We got home very late, but that didn't stop Topher from trying on all of Cooper's commencement paraphernalia.

 I think he's looking forward to following in Cooper's footsteps someday.

Congratulations on your high school graduation, Cooper!

Broken Tradition

I knew that the last few months had been crazy. May was insane. But I didn't realize how busy and overloaded my brain was until I realized I never took our last day of school picture.

I've done this for years, and this time I forgot.

Maybe we'll take an early summer break picture and count that.

At least we got a picture of our whole family at Cooper's graduation, that was almost the last day of school. That counts, right?

Lazy Days

Summer break so far has included turning off alarms, swimming at a friend's pool, and spending many hours at a different friend's house today. I think we're off to a good start.

Water Attack!

Today was the last day of school for the year! One of the moms at the bus stop had the idea to greet the kids coming off the bus with various water sprayers. I was the designated videographer. This was the result.

The Giving Tree

A half-day of school equals mid-day conversations under a tree.

We Are Fam-i-ly, I Got All My Sisters With Me

Cooper graduated from high school tonight! There are so many pictures to go through and my brain is too tired to do that right now. Instead, enjoy this picture of a sister hug that took place after the ceremony tonight.

Librarian Teaser

Phoebe and her friend Phoenix ran to be librarians for concert choir next year. This was the campaign video Phoebe made.

Spoiler: they were elected!

Spring Serenade

Cooper and Phoebe had their final school concert of the year. All the seniors were given boutonnieres to wear, probably so the audience members could identify them. 

Phoebe sang with Nightingales, the select treble choir.

Cooper sang with Cantus, the select SATB choir.

They both sang with the concert choir as well.

Can you find them both in this picture?

Near the end of the concert, the choral director read off the names and post-high school plans for all the seniors. Cooper's included his mission and BYU. We all thought it was very cool that his teacher read off the whole name of our church, people often truncate it.

We grabbed a few pictures with our singers when it was done.

 It's been so great to watch them both blossom as singers over the last year.

Excellent concert, Cooper and Phoebe!