Wrapping up 6th grade!

We are in our last week of school---only two more half-days left!  Whew!  I'm beat (as always) and simply cannot wait for a time in which I feel rested.  Kendra is excited for a jam-packed fun summer, but is a little sad about finishing such an awesome year.  She had remarkable teachers, made amazing friends, and has had simply a GREAT year.

One stand-out (among many!) this year has been choir.  I've blogged about her ridiculously talented choir director before and how impressed I've been with how the choirs sound with a bunch of adolescents whose voices are still working on their final timbre.  Kendra has adored choir and she loves her director.  Some kids don't love her as much--she's very loving but kinda tough.  Hmmm....sounds familiar!  :-)  Anyway, my house has been filled more with music and singing and less with the sounds of TV for a while now--a welcome change.  Kendra's spring concert was totally fun.  They step away from the formal music and put on a show of fun contemporary songs.  This show also included some vocal small groups, and Kendra got to be in one of them.  She was thrilled that she was selected for her first choice--they had to audition for the parts.     Kendra had told me that there was an award given at this concert for Outstanding Choir Student, one to each of the classes (there are two girls' and two boys' classes).  Kendra thought for sure that it was going to be given to one of three girls in her class.  So, there I sat, right in the front row of a packed house, completely unprepared for the photo-opportunity when Kendra was given the award!!!  I gasped audibly, and Kendra had the most funny shocked look on her face, but of course I didn't capture it.  I wasn't shocked because I didn't think she deserved it---I know Kendra is a stellar student and her director loves her.  I was shocked because KENDRA didn't think she'd get it!  Super proud momma moment!!

Waiting for the concert to begin.  Crazy kids.

Kendra also received a medal for her solo in private voice lessons competition

 

Blurry because I was flailing around trying to get my camera after she won the award!

Kendra with her director, Jennie Crawford

Engraved with her name and everything! 

 Kendra has auditioned for the varsity girls' choir for next year...will find out if she made it on Friday.  We're both excited to hear, as the director said she is only taking about 20 out of the 90 or so girls from her choir.  Kendra feels good about her audition, so we'll see!!  *****May 31st update:  She made Varsity!!! Woo woo!

Truly, it has been a terrific first year of middle school.  If I could thank her teachers three million times each I would.  She got the cream of the crop this year.

"So, Kendra, what are you going to do now that you have finished sixth grade?"
"We're going to DISNEY WORLD!!!"  Stay tuned because yes, we are!  :-) 

Destination Imagination State Tournament Part 2

After shopping, we headed back toward the high school where the competition was being held because the main challenge scores were ready.  Unfortunately, they were not very good.  :-(  I had a feeling they wouldn't be, as I had seen their last rehearsal back at school and their performance here wasn't nearly as good.  But one thing I love is that the judges are so encouraging!  The judge who came and showed the kids the scores kept saying positive things, and they received these post-it note pages from their particular scoring judges:

You can imagine that this was well-received by Kendra!  :-)

Next was the Instant Challenge, which is the part that had essentially won the kids first place at regionals.  They absolutely killed it there, and they really grooved as a team so we thought they'd do the same.  This is the part that parents aren't allowed to watch, so we gathered as a group in the cafeteria area.  The conversation hovered around the possibility of them making it to Globals.  Most of us were really hoping they wouldn't qualify (the top four teams in each category qualify).  Two families had kids who were graduating from high school the same weekend, and some of us (me included!) were unsure if we could afford to go.  Our district didn't pay for any of us to be at State.  Our school scrounged money to pay the registration and for the teacher/manager's hotel, but the rest of us paid for our two night stays, meals, gas, etc. out of pocket.  The kids came back from their Instant Challenge and they were SO EXCITED.  Their teacher said that again, they killed it.  Seriously, they did whatever it was perfectly and gained extra points, too.  Worried looks crossed the table between parents.  What if the same thing happened like at regionals---we never thought they'd make it to state, and yet here we were!  Would we be Globals-bound?

It happened to be one of the teammates, Jacob's,  birthday on this day, too!  His mom picked up a cake and balloons, and she invited the girls to the boys' hotel to swim and have a small celebration.  The girls picked up a small present for him at Charming Charlie's---a robot key chain who was wearing a tie (Jacob enjoys tie-wearing!)

I feel like these are going to be life-long friends!

 It was time to clean up and head back for awards.  It was  LOOOONG day!  Awards didn't start until 9:00 p.m.!  We took the opportunity to take some team photos with their awesome coach/mentor/manager/teacher, Nicole Silva. 

Yep, that's a Flat Stanley.  Blake's cousin sent him to visit, so he came to awards!

Crazy!

Unfortunately, the kids didn't place this year.  :-(  We wondered if they might win the Instant Challenge award in their category, and when the scores came out later the next week we found out that they had come in 2nd for that!   Their main challenge just didn't pull off the way they'd planned.  But all in all, it was a fantastic experience,  the kids learned a ton (teamwork, problem solving, etc), and they are all great friends now.  Kendra told me on the way home that she doubts she would be such close friends with this group if it hadn't been for DI.  All six of them plan to be a team again next year!

Destination Imagination State Tournament Part 1

Kendra has been a member of her school's Destination Imagination team.  They competed in their regional tournament and won first place which secured their participation in the state tournament.  (You can read more about the regional tourney and what DI is here.)  So on April 12th, we took off from school early and headed south west to a 'burb of Houston called Katy, Texas.

The road trip was uneventful most of the way--sunny skies, loud tunes, a big ole Diet Coke, and views of Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrushes along the highway (quite stunning, actually!).  Uneventful, that is, until we were within minutes of our hotel.  We had not one, not two, but THREE navigation devices in our car and yet not one of them could successfully guide us to our destination.  NOT fun in Houston's metro traffic!  I stopped and called the hotel to be guided in--finally!!!

There are six members on Kendra's DI team--three girls and three guys.  As fate (and overbooked hotels) would have it, we couldn't all make reservations for the same place, but it ended up that the girls were all in one place and the guys in another.  Their teacher and team manager, Nicole Silva, luckily ended up with the girls.  :-)

The first night was a "mixer" in which the team came, their managers registered them, and the event of the night was pin trading.  Each region has their own pin and the kids come with a bunch of their regional pins to trade for other pins.  Kendra bought 10 pins to trade.

The regional pin--it lights up!

The pin trading crowd and Kendra

Her pin trades on her regional medal

Saturday morning was the big event.  They had their main challenge at 11:00 a.m. (they did the same skit they did at regionals, with some tweaks).    It was a little nerve wracking as the boys (who had ALL the props) left their hotel late and squeaked in just in the nick of time.  The performance room was a theater room, I guess, and the walls were completed covered in black curtain.  It made for TERRIBLE pictures, but I did get a few before they got in. 

Excited to go in!

The team In Disguise!

Not sure what's up with this here...  ha!

Our friends, the Rodgers', who moved away from here this past summer were also at the tournament because their son's team was also competing.  We were so happy to see them, but unfortunately due to hectic competition schedules we only saw each other very briefly.  They did come to see Kendra's main challenge performance.

Missie and me!

Randy, Reagan, and Kendra right before her performance

We also had another unexpected supporter!   Kendra's science teacher, Karel Stewart, made the five hour drive down to Katy and spent her own money on a hotel stay to come support the kids!  Can you say OUTSTANDING TEACHER????  The kids were so excited she came, and I know it meant a ton to them because it meant a ton to me as a mom!!!  Karel is one of a kind, to be sure.  Love her!

The kids with Karel!

Lunch at Jason's Deli between challenges.  This is Kendra's good friend, Cami.

After lunch we did a little shopping at Charming Charlie's, an accessories type store here.  The kids were crazy trying on women's dresses, jewelry and shoes.  I ended up with new pair of sunglasses as mine were scratched to bits!  For some reason Blogger is going wacko and won't let me do anything past this picture, so I guess this post becomes two!

Easter & New Beginnings

Easter was pretty low-key this year.  We almost forgot to color the eggs!  Sigh.  I guess that's what comes when your child gets older!  We had a lovely dinner with the Ballards and enjoyed a lovely church service where Kendra sang with a group of other Primary kids (she had a small solo, which she didn't want to do.  She is SO done with Primary!)

The basket's contents are becoming more sophisticated with time, too!

Gotta love a sleepy face!  Flip flops are Easter basket tradition around here.

There she is, all prettied up!  (But notice eyes are still tired!  We are NOT fans of 8:30 church!)

A Ballard/Zitzman sandwich!  Poor Sophie!

We also had Young Women's New Beginnings Night!  I'm a leader in our church's Young Women's program, and in July Kendra will be joining this program!  Each year there is a special evening to welcome the girls who will be coming into Young Women's in the year.  This year's theme is Stand Ye in Holy Places, so we did a "shoes" theme.  Each pair of shoes had a tie-in to one of the Young Women values we teach.  I am in the presidency of this organization with some amazing women.  They did all the decorating without me---they did it during the day when I work.  :-(  We had a lovely dinner of chicken salad croissants, fruit salad, pasta salad, veggies, and I made individual brownie parfaits for dessert.   The girls decorated sugar cookies (we learned how to "flood" them with icing) that were the take-away gift, and we also gave the new girls a pair of flip flops with value colored ribbons they could use to tie and decorate.   It was a very fun night and it has excited Kendra even more to become a Young Woman!

 

Our other spring break activities!

The majority of our week was spent in re-doing Kendra's bedroom (see previous post) but we did squeeze in some other fun (and not-so-fun) things as well.

First, Kendra started her break by flying to Utah to see her dad get married.  He flew her out on Thursday afternoon and she came home Sunday so it was a fast and furious trip. She got to see almost all of her family on her dad's side, which was fun for her.  Her new step-mom is really nice and she has two sons and two daughters, so Kendra now has step-siblings.  She really likes all of them a lot.  I like that she has other people to visit when she goes to see her dad.  Here's a picture of four of the five kids (her oldest son is on a mission for our church).

On Monday we took my car in for some service.  I had an issue with a headlight (replaced the bulb but still wasn't working) and I took it to the dealer first.  They were going to charge me $120 just to look at it, so we said we'd come back later.  Took it to a local oil change place that I really like and they said they could do an electrical diagnostic for half that price, so I told them go ahead.  $55 later and it turned out the replacement headlight I bought at a parts store was a bum light.  :-(  Lovely.  I guess it's good that it wasn't a larger electrical issue, but still!

Tuesday we took our REALLY shaggy doggie in for grooming.  At Christmastime we took her in and received a call saying they wouldn't groom her because she was biting.  What?  Seemed strange.  I tried brushing her myself and she was trying to bite the BRUSH, not me.  I trimmed up her face and let it go.  I got a recommendation from a friend for a certain groomer at the same place so decided to give it a go.  She did GREAT, but unfortunately because her fur had gotten so long she was matted all over the place so she had to get buzzed.  We thought we'd be taking home a little rat, but it doesn't look too bad at all and we've actually come to like how she looks.

I forgot to get a "before" picture, but trust me, she was a disaster!

Wednesday we checked out a new science museum in Dallas called the Perot Museum.  SO COOL.  It is four floors and was really, really neat.  Unfortunately it was spring break so even though they only sell a certain amount of tickets per time slot (a cool way to manage crowds), it was very busy.  We will definitely go back to see it again when it is less busy!

Hanging with the mammoth

They had a "create your own bird" activity

The sports area--Kendra served a volleyball while they recorded her motions

Then she could watch her form

We just thought this was cool.

Thursday we did a little shopping...Kendra had a gift card from her dad from Christmas to Aeropostale, so she bought three pairs of shorts, a pair of capris, and a lightweight hoodie jacket--she is getting all set for spring!

Friday was our theater day--we went to our favorite local community theater, The Artisan, and saw the children's show in the morning and volunteered and saw the mainstage show (Thoroughly Modern Millie) in the evening.  When you volunteer you get to see the show for free--we love it!

Saturday was spring cleaning day around the house and getting geared up to go back to school.  :-(  We also threw in some yard work this week (trying to de-weed my yard is a constant process---I inherited a mess when I bought this place!).  It's been a great week--lots of sleeping in, enjoying gorgeous weather, spending time with my favorite gal, and getting things done.   Spring break = success!

Kendra's room re-do

The major project of our spring break was painting and re-decorating Kendra's bedroom.  It was the first room we fully decorated when we moved in six years ago, and it's the first room getting a re-do (and I have no plans to redo anything else in the near future---I do NOT like to paint!)

Here's Kendra's room when we first moved in...

We added baby pink and hot pink polka dots and a fun canopy soon after this.  I don't have any pictures of that (I don't know why) but you can see them both in this picture:

This is from Christmas this past year when she got her new bedding.  Because much of the accents in her room are pink and hot pink, like her desk chair, book bins, and round chair, the room re-do needed to incorporate pink somehow (since I'm not Mrs. Moneybags). We decided upon three colors and challenged myself with the task of painting straight lines on textured walls (what was I thinking???)

Step one done---a pewter grey on top

Step two--add a bold pink line.  Bottom is jagged because we will cover that next

Then came a small disaster.  We made our 7 millionth trip to the Orange Depot (you know the one), and we saw a glaze treatment that was supposed to add sparkle to the wall.  We consulted a HD paint person, who said we just apply it with an old t-shirt or sponge, and it was pretty easy.  Since Kendra's favorite color is "sparkle" and this treatment was less than $10, I thought, why not?  Well, here's why not:

Yep, just looks like dirty wall, doesn't it.  Well, the lovely HD associate failed to mention that you shouldn't use that glaze treatment on textured walls, nor on satin finish paint.  Both of which we have.  I could have cried.  It looked TERRIBLE and we had used all of the grey paint.  I knew we had to re-paint, though.  Luckily, the customer service at HD is also kind, and they gave us a new can of paint at no cost to apologize for the bad advice.  Unfortunately they couldn't give me back the time it took to re-tape and re-do it all!  Argh!

Here we are, a bit silly from paint fumes, I think...

The bottom half first coat---painting with black is NOT for sissies.  Had me worried...

But came out great with the second coat.  Repainted the grey next...

My helper---she did a FANTASTIC job.  She truly did half of the roller work!

Removing the tape and putting everything back...

It isn't completely finished yet.  I bought some white, black, and hot pink stars (different sizes) in vinyl to decorate and Kendra purchased five Broadway musical posters and framed them for the walls.  But we have to wait a couple weeks after painting before we can apply the stars, so I'm sure I'll have a post with the final result when we can put it all together!!  It was a lot of work, but it was really great to work together like we did to accomplish this project.  Kendra loves it!