She's in High School Now

Kyleigh graduated from St. Paul's Lutheran School (K-8th grade) tonight.  Unfortunately, we were unable to be there because of our trip, but both sets of parents and her paternal grandparents were there to see it.

Janice sent me the following pictures:

Grad Photo

Kyleigh and her best friend

Ky and Lindsay with the Joy (the DCE)

Getting a hug from Joy

 Kyleigh starts her first high school sometime in June.  It's an online health class, but she has to attend in person on Mondays to take the tests.

Kyleigh also made the High Honor Roll with a GPA of 3.94.  Not bad for a kid who's dyslexic and has ADHD.

There's now a teenager in my family

This young lady turned 13 today.  She and her parents brought ice cream cups from Baskin Robbins to celebrate her birthday, each one a different flavor.  We'd thought about doing dinner, but she really wanted Chick-fil-A and there isn't one near us.

When she got home from school, this was waiting for her in her bedroom.  It's hard to see, but there are flowers too.  It came from her father and his girlfriend.

We gave her some cash, which she'd requested, and a cookie decorating kit that a friend of a friend was selling as a fundraiser to help with her husband's medical bills. 

 We've had both of our vaccine shots with the only side effects being a sore arm (me) both times.  Devin and Janice have both had their first vaccine, too.

Bahia Trip

Many years ago, Devin's family spent some of their vacations at the Bahia Hotel in San Diego.  Devin, Janice and Kyleigh spent a week there a few years ago and the others have always wanted to go back, too.  They finally got a chance to earlier this month. The whole family, grandparents, children and grandchildren all met there for a few days of fun and relaxation.

This is the view from Devin, Janice and Kyleigh's room. 

Kyleigh is part fish and loves the beach.  When she was there a few years ago, she met up with some friends from her daycare and they let her borrow their paddle board.  She's been wanting to do it again ever since.  Neither of her parents were willing to go with her, but her Uncle Adam came to the rescue.

Kyleigh also has three younger cousins on Devin's side of the family and they all love her and want to be around her as much as possible, so she got a chance to do some babysitting

They all had a great time and can't wait to go again.

July Activities/Pictures

July was a fairly quiet month.  I went to the grocery store, bank and drive up communion.  I also had a couple of medical appointments and we got takeout occasionally, but other than that, we've stayed home.

David's birthday was the 18th and Janice, Devin and Kyleigh came over with takeout from Famous Dave's, a favorite local barbecue place as a surprise for him.  Kyleigh received a perler bead kit from her mom for her birthday in March so she could make it for grandpa for his birthday.  BTW, he loved it.

Earlier in the month, Kyleigh attended a virtual Girl Scout Camp.  The theme was arts and crafts and they gave her a box with all the materials needed.  They made crafts, sang songs and did other fun activities and Kyleigh had a really fun time.  These are the crafts she made.  The item on the top left is a bandana and the one on the right is a t-shirt bag for carrying her sleeping bag.

She also made a chalk art heart on the sidewalk in front of her condo

and a vision board.  Instead of doing it on paper, Janice had her do it on the computer.  She's going to Disney World in May with her dad's family and that's the subject of the board.

Taz sometimes sits beside me while I stitch and usually sits on my scissors or something I need.  One night, he decided to move over to my lap.  (He likes to be close to people.)

Finally, Kyleigh had her Pom banquet last week and Janice sent me a picture of her receiving an award for "Best Performance" for the way she is always smiling during the performances now and goes full out.  She'd expected to win the one for "Most Improved" though.  She starts POM camp next week and there's a chance she may be the team captain this year.

June Activities/Pictures

There wasn't a lot happening in June since school was out and summer activities were either cancelled or hadn't started yet.

One of Devin’s scripts was picked by Coverfly, a website that helps screenwriters, to be performed as table read during a Zoom meeting.  The script was Orson's War, a behind the scenes look at the making of War of the Worlds.  Sean Astin played Orson Welles and all the comments were positive.

Kyleigh died her hair again, this time with maroon.  She does it every summer with Janice's permission, but usually does blue.  The maroon definitely shows up better.

I did a lot of cleaning and decluttering in my office/craft room this month and put a basket for filing back on my desk.  Even though it's not really big enough for him, Taz has taken up residence in it.  He spends quite a bit of time there when I'm using the computer and is there right now.  I guess it's a case of "If I fits, I sits".

I also cleaned off the Cat Tree in the living room and after David put him in the tree a couple of times, he now spends part of most evenings there (instead of on our bed).  He even uses the steps to get up and down.

May Activities/Pictures

I only had one picture to post in April so I decided to skip the April posting and add it to May.  I was thinking that there would only be one or two pictures for May also.  Boy was I wrong!

These are Kyleigh's and Janice's cats.  Kyleigh's cat is the one on top and is our Taz's brother.  Janice has had her cat for several years now.  They started out enemies, but are now friends.

On Mother's Day, Janice, Devin and Kyleigh came by to deliver groceries.  They also brought fresh baked homemade cinnamon rolls and Kyleigh hid a homemade card in the groceries.  I didn't get any hugs, but at least I got to see them.

Kyleigh is a member of the POM team at school and one Saturday they surprised her with a visit and a goodie bag.  Janice made her actually get dressed that day.

I've shown pictures before of Taz sleeping on David's chest.  Well, his new thing is to curl up on the newspaper. 

 

 

 

 

 

Kyleigh spends every other weekend with her father and his mom.  This particular Friday, they went bike riding which they do a lot when she visits.  Her old bike was getting small and the brakes were going out so they bought her a new one.  Unfortunately, she hit a patch of water and fell.  In addition to the scrape on her arm, she also bruised her face and hurt her leg

When Kyleigh got home on Sunday afternoon, Janice took two more pictures showing the damage in more detail.

 

Our church has been very proactive in providing worship opportunities by streaming all the church services and posting a Pastor's POD (Promise of the Day).  The one thing they hadn't figured out was communion.  Finally Saturday, 5/16 they did their first Drive Up Communion.

This week was Kyleigh's last week of school and she went to her homeroom on Wednesday morning to turn in her books and pick up her supplies.  Each student was scheduled a individual 10-minute visit.  In addition to turning in her books and getting her personal items, Janice took a picture and then the teacher danced the brand new 7th grader out of the classroom.

It's hard to see in this picture, but Taz is lying behind my laptop and is guarding a partial package of Ritz Crackers that he found there.

We let Taz outside for a little while most mornings, but once he comes in, he's my bosom buddy and after bothering me for awhile, he curls up somewhere on my desk and falls asleep.  This is where he landed this morning.  Unfortunately, he's about to be woken up so that I can get to the pile of mail underneath him.

And that was our May.  We spent most of our time at home.  I did go grocery shopping a couple of times and we drove through a drive-through occasionally, but mostly we stayed home.

Special Friends Day

Every year on the last Friday in January as part of  Lutheran Schools Week, Kyleigh's school puts on an event called Special Friends Day where each student can bring an adult to school.  It can be a parent, grandparent, other relative or even just a good friend.  I went for her first one, back when she was in preschool (I think she was three.) and this year it was my turn to go again. 

In her classroom. she interviewed me about when I was in 6th grade and we did some review quizzes on her iPad.  We also attended chapel which was about the love of animals and how it was unconditional like God's love for us and saw a really cute video of animals demonstrating their love. 

They used the sets and leftover crafts from last year's VBS for taking pictures and some of the crafts.  We had our picture taken and then Kyleigh made a frame for it.  

 

 Kyleigh's friend and classmate, Grace didn't have a Special Friend with her so she joined Kyleigh and I for the morning.

There were several crafts available outside that involved beads, tiny rubber bands, etc.  Kyleigh and Grace chose to make bracelets out of the tiny rubber bands.

We used markers to color key chains in the Art Classroom. 

The one on the left is Kyleigh's.  She said it's the devil snake from Genesis.  Mine is on the right.  I was at a different table so it was just coincidence that we both chose the same animal.  They also had tigers, monkeys, etc.

Kyleigh and Grace are both wearing their POM uniforms because POM performed in the Quad at the end of the morning.

We both had a fun time and I saw a lot of people I knew. The mother of Kyleigh's "off and on" friend that is a boy also introduced herself to me.  (They're currently "on".)

Next year will be the last year Kyleigh can participate, because the 8th graders help with the games, crafts, etc.  and she's hoping to bring her grandpa who hasn't been yet.