Last Day of School Parade

I love our elementary school, Little Cedars Elementary!  For the last day of school celebrations, we had our 2nd annual parade.  Each class decorates a banner and everyone, from students to staff, parade around the school grounds while parents cheer and take pictures.
This year, with the opening of the new high school, Glacier Peak, the kids were able to extend the parade route to include the high school parking lot.  The whole student body of the high school came out to participate in the parade with the kids. Some of the teenagers were even high-fiving the kids It was awesome! (We found Bobby at the parade!)

The kids always enjoy this end of year tradition (carried over from some of the previous elementary schools).  It was made especially great this year with the participation of the GPHS cheerleaders and drum core.

(The GPHS Cheerleaders with Wolvie the Wolverine, LCE’s mascot.)

 

After the parade, there is a school wide assembly where the choir sings, a slideshow is shown of pictures throughout the year, awards are given, the teachers put on the “lost and found fashion show” (great idea!), the student body sings “I’m on My Way” from the “Brother Bear” Disney movie (super cute), and then the “moving up” ceremony.  (This one gets me every time.)

The “moving up” ceremony consists of the 6th graders, who are sitting in chairs while the rest of the student body sits on the floor, are dismissed back to their classrooms.  Then the 5th graders “move up” to the chairs and everyone else moves back to the grade behind them.  This leaves room in the front of the group for the kindergartners.  So sweet!  I cry every year!

(Alex receives a perfect attendance award)

 
(Sarah and school singing “I’m on My Way”)

The end of school is always bitter sweet to me.  On one hand, it means summer vacation and lazy days and water fun.  On the other hand, it means my babies are growing up and I am now the mommy of a SENIOR in high school, a 5th grader and a 2nd grader!  Where does the time go?

Girl Scout Camp

In May, Sarah and I joined our girl scout troop at our first ever weekend girl scout camp.
 
We went to Camp Killoqua, which is a campfire girls camp.  There were 14 girls and 9 adults for our troop (including a few siblings)!  We were able to stay in this huge A-frame cabin that had running water and a loft upstairs.  The cabin was full of bunk beds and we were able to put most of the girls upstairs with 2 chaperones.  The rest of the mommy’s and a few of the girls slept downstairs.
The girls all had a wonderful opportunity to participate in community service projects, team building exercises, pj games, craft time, group camp fire, marshmallow roasting, learning new games, canoeing, group sing- and dance-alongs, and meeting new friends.    
For each meal, a different troop was asked to do a blessing for the meal.  It could be a song, a prayer, a poem, etc.  Our girls were chosen to do a blessing for lunch.  We chose to do a song that was to the tune of “We Will Rock You”.  It was super cute!
One highlight for me was having the  opportunity to canoe on the lake.  This was very exciting because Sarah had never been in a canoe, and I had never been in one where I was in charge!   It was Sarah, Gracie and I in our own canoe.  And let’s just say we only hit a tree once!  What was interesting though is that Sarah turned out to be the leader and was telling ME how to steer!  It was amazing to see her step up into that role!

Another highlight was making a wonderful snack called girl scout gorp.  Each girl in our troop got to add a delicious item to our trail mix that had a significant meaning to being a girl scout.  We had this huge mixture of cereal, M&M’s, marshmallows, raisins, nuts, chocolate chips, etc.  It was so good, that some of us weren’t even hungry for dinner that night!
I wasn’t really excited about going on a camping trip with 11 little Daisy Scouts.  But, I have to say, I had a great time getting to know them all a little more, spending time with Sarah, and experiencing all the wonderful things that Girl Scout Camp has to offer.  It was truly an experience that I hope to have again with Sarah.