Spanish Student of the Week & Student of the Quarter

Congrats to Peyton & Hailey who both earned honors at school over the last month or so.

Peyton earned Spanish Student of the Week and has been working hard in Spanish class. It's not easy to earn an A in Spanish class especially with the HCHS teachers. I've often heard from native Spanish speakers how difficult these classes are and if you are in Honors Spanish, then it's even more challenging for these non-native speaking students. Anyway, super proud of Peyton showcasing her willingness to speak Spanish in front of her peers in class. Beyond that her teacher thinks she's the greatest and is just very "joyful" when she comes to class everyday. (Her words not mine. I wish she could be joyful when she comes home from school everyday!) 

Hailey on the other hand earned Student of the Quarter nominated by the 6th Grade teachers. I'm not even sure we were notified. We used to read about all the Students of the Quarter in the newsletter when Austen and Peyton were in middle school. I found out by going through Hailey's cubby at home where she keeps her coats and backpack. There, crumpled beneath a book and a bag, was a printed certificate naming her as Student of the Quarter. No idea what she did or how she earned it aside from what it said on the certificate but super proud of her too. 

Honestly, yes, my kids can be pains in the butt at home but it's really nice to hear from both Peyton and Hailey's teachers (at their conferences) how much they really enjoy having them both in class and how hard they both work as well as how respectful they are in class to the teachers and their peers. Good grades are of course important but I'd take good human beings any day over good grades. 

Sports Seasons = Done

We finished up all our sports a few weeks ago. Peyton had her cheer banquet and Hailey's basketball team made it to playoffs where they had a weekend of games earning their spot in the finals. 

Hailey definitely grew as a basketball player this year. She became a more aggressive player - chasing down those loose balls and grabbing the ball when she could to force a jump ball play. She had a number of steals and in the end a few rebounds too. 

I saw her dribble the ball between her legs in a game and make a 3-point shot this year. She definitely improved from last year and has a desire to get better as she went to the park close to our house at least three times in a week to shoot some baskets. She'll continue to improve her skills by doing some ball handling training in the spring since she did not want to play softball again, and will have time to pick up something additional.

She'll also be continuing to skate and hopefully moving into the Intro to Hockey level (not sure where this will lead but she's enjoying learning so we'll keep at it). She just finished a cooking class that was every Monday after school that she enjoyed as well. And, she's finishing up her final religious education classes too after confirmation. 

Peyton continues to take some tumbling classes to prepare for her spring cheerleading tryouts for next year and has an interview to be part of a "link crew" for the school helping freshmen and new students acclimate to the high school. She will continue to lifeguard this summer too at the club she worked at last year. 

Austen, on the other hand, had to get a new job this summer since they are redoing the golf course where he caddied the previous summers. But, he found one at one of the clubs in the area doing golf services (cleaning carts, clubs, etc.). He's excited about being outside and around a golf course and having more hours this summer (with no competitive soccer) to make some money (which he realizes he needs to support his college lifestyle).

I can't believe how quickly this year has gone and that spring is almost here (despite the snow on the ground right now). Soon the kids will be moving on to sophomore year in college, junior year in high school and 7th grade! Trying to enjoy all the moments - even the ones where I get yelled at for not allowing a 16 year old to go to the city of Lollapallooza! 

2nd Place Champs (Hailey back row middle)

Peyton is Such a Princess!

Today, Peyton comes home from school and told me a bird pooped all over her car! I told her that happens to cars. Well, she said, that's soooo embarrassing. 

I told her to go clean it off if it was so bad. "Ew!" she said, "I'm not cleaning that! I already texted Dad to clean it off!" She then said that she's not driving that car (until said poop is cleaned off). 

OMG, what a princess! That's part of owning/driving a car (which she doesn't pay for!). I then told her she could take the bus tomorrow if she didn't want to drive the car/clean the car. 

We'll see what she does. She'll probably convince Tom to clean it. But, she said there's no way she'd be caught dead driving that car with the poop on it! People would post her picture on the "Barstool" - which is a social media site that her school uses to post funny things. 

I guess she'll be taking the bus tomorrow then because I certainly won't be cleaning it (unless she leaves it outside in the rain tonight which would be another good option!).

Hailey Makes Her Confirmation

And that's a wrap! We have successfully ushered three kids through religious education classes receiving many of their sacraments including confirmation. 

Hailey and Papa

It's been a journey through 2 parishes with us changing churches so Austen could make his in 8th grade instead of 10th grade. We returned to the first parish once they hired a new priest (who is fabulous and made you actually want to go to church to listen to his homilies) and after a year there he changed the confirmation age from 10th grade to 6th grade. So Peyton made hers in the 7th grade since that was the year she was in when this change was made. A few years later, Hailey entered 6th grade and her final confirmation class. 

She's the one that is probably my most "religious" but she has complained relentlessly about 6th grade confirmation classes and how utterly boring they are - of course most of her friends are in the Sunday class but they tell her it's the same on Sundays and her teachers are actually nicer. She used to love going to religious education classes but this year it has been hard to convince her to go and they must still go even after confirmation. She says no one goes and especially now since she made her confirmation (even though they are supposed to). In fact, after dropping her off last week, she sent me a text with a picture saying "Thanks a lot Mom, I'm the only girl here!" I did feel bad and promised her that since she has not missed a class since the start of the year, that she can have two free misses - her choice. 

But, she did make her confirmation on a Friday night at the end of February with Papa as her sponsor. (Papa has served as the sponsor for all three of my kids. They all said he's the most religious person they know!) We bought her a white dress (even though they wear red robes over them now), had a nice dinner and ushered off our Madeleine (her confirmation name) to confirm her Catholic faith.  Bishop Spies led the ceremony, which we were initially disappointed about because Father Mark is so good and we wanted to hear from him, but Bishop Spies was absolutely wonderful too. It's such a breath of fresh air to have priests that relate to the kids and the parents. He gave an amazing homily about having a favorite quote from the Bible and being able to recite it and it mean something to you. He shared one that he adopted as his favorite in the 6th grade and it was about friendship (which so many 6th graders could relate to) and yes, that verse could've been talking about your peers who were your friends but he was really taking about allowing Jesus to be your friend. It was a great way to relate to these confirmandi. 

Anyway, Hailey (Madeleine - the patron saint of girls rights and education) was confirmed. We had cake (bundtinis) afterward to celebrate the latest sacrament for Hailey. Now she just has 7 more classes to go until she's totally done with religious education (we'll see if she uses one of her free passes to miss tonight - it's actually confession/reconciliation today but I'm not going to tell her that. After all, she had one year less than Peyton and two years less than Austen where she had to go to religious education classes so I think she's made out just fine). 

Celebrating with Hailey

Papa gave her gifts

Hailey processing in (w/ her friend Bree behind her)

Hailey Confirmed with Sponsor Papa