Goodbye Freshman, Hello Sophomore

​Today, Annika wrapped up her Freshman year of high school. She had finals Tuesday-Friday. Her hardest/most taxing finals (honors bio and alg 2/trig) were on Tuesday, so the rest of the week was rather manageable for her. Today’s final was PE; the kids had to run a mile (hence the workout clothes in her pic below).

Annika’s first year as a Bear was full of fun, challenges, and adventures. Some of her key takeaways from the year include:

- Building a new friend group

- Being in choir, English, and painting classes

- Going to NY with her choir group

- Bio class field trips to Greenlake to test the water for their ecology labs (and some people jumping in!)

She’s looking forward to a summer filled with relaxing/sleeping in, sailing camp, Irish dance, and Miss Emma!

While taking this photo, Annika realized how she has grown into her Class of 2026 shirt. It used to go almost down to her knees (see 2nd grade photo) and now it fits her like a regular, ol' shirt.

(I truly appreciate her willingness to humor me and still take beginning/end-of-the-school year photos.) 

Hello, 9th and 7th grades

 It is embarrassing to admit that it has been over a year since I last posted here. Life during a pandemic is odd, let's just say that.

I'm using the kids' returns to school as the oomph I need to reignite my blog-er-iffic record keeping and notes about our comings and goings.

Yesterday, Annika had her first official day of classes at Bishop Blanchet High School. Last week, she had 2 days of freshman orientation AND she had all-student orientation on Monday of this week. To say she was EXHAUSTED when I picked her up from school yesterday would be quite the understatement. Her brain was complete mush. Her school has a block schedule system; yesterday she had Algebra 2/Trig, Honors Biology, Personal Finance, and Theology.  Today, she'll have English, Treble Choir, PE, and Community Period (akin to homeroom, but with the addition of community topics/social justice/etc.) She has met a lot of new people so far and has a couple of familiar faces from CKS in some classes. 

Conor begins his 7th grade adventure at Christ the King (aka CKS) today. He's quite torn - he's excited to see his friends on a regular basis, but he is also sad to say goodbye to summer. Yesterday, he and I went to the school's meet-and-greet event to drop off his school supplies and to meet the new 7th grade teacher. We were thrown for a loop because the 6th and 7th grade classrooms were flipped over the summer, so Conor wound up dropping off his supplies in the same room he was in last year. That said, he'll rotate rooms during the day based on subject. His electives for this fall will be drawing and board games (where were these fun classes when I was in middle school???)

In true kiddo fashion, both kids are already counting down to the upcoming Labor Day weekend so they can soak up a little more summer fun and relax.