Last Day of School 2023

The last day of school is a glorious thing - check out the pictures from the last day of 4th and 7th grade!

I got this beautiful picture of Cadence before heading off to school in the morning.

Colin rode the bus and then we met up with him at the school for the 4th grade "clap out" since he'd be moving to a new school in the fall.  He's such a cute kid!

I laughed at this one - Grandma's hand in the picture 😂

The 4th graders made a couple of trips down the hallways with their teachers so we could clap for them.  It was pretty cute.

We're going to miss Mrs. Castiglione!

One of Colin's teachers, Mrs. Restucci, was retiring!

Colin's buddy, Ethan

Some of Colin's best buds - Willy and Darren

Another buddy, Graham!

Some of the moms organized an end-of-the-year party with the 10u baseball team at the park.  They are some lucky boys!

We were compared to a JC Penny ad 😜

Colin made a yard sign at school - I had to snap a picture of him with it after his Little League game!

Cadence enjoyed the afternoon (they got out of school 2 hours early) with her besties Macie and Lilly.  Here's Cadence and Macie at Lilly's soccer game.

Here's to a great 2023-2024 school year!

Colin's TEN!

Can you believe it?!  Colin turned an entire decade old this year!  We tried to make the day as special as we could - it was a couple of days before the last day of school, so he had to go to school (sometimes the last day of school falls before his birthday!)  Colin's still got a heart about as big as his shoe size 😊  He still gives the best hugs and is quick to help out when he can tell you're stressed.  He does well at practically everything he participates in (school, sports, etc.), but he's still his own worst critic.  He's gotten a little sneaky in his old age (think video games and candy), so we have to keep our eye on him.  He loves to spend time with his buddies and would buy every Nerf gun on the planet if you'd let him.  He likes to make us laugh, and does a pretty good job at it.  He can be a little insensitive at times, especially toward his sister, so we're still working on empathy.  He's grown a lot over the past year, and I'm excited to see what this next year holds for our lil' (big) dude.

Danny was out of town on Colins' birthday, so just like last year, Cadence helped me decorate the end of the driveway while Colin was in bed.  She did most of the work!  It turned out great!

She also helped me hang up the birthday banner.  And I spy the blasted hoverboard - that thing took 3 of us at work to put the seat together.  Then, after all of that hard work, the hoverboard didn't turn on!  I felt so badly that it didn't work for his birthday.  He was very patient and we finally got the whole thing straightened out with Amazon.  The replacement hoverboard showed up & it worked.  He had fun getting used to it and riding it around the driveway.

Cadence wanted to help me with the balloons, but it was so late and she needed to get to bed as well.  She's a sweet kid.

He was excited to see all of the decorations.

Pops was out of town as well, but Momma made chicken and noodles and I picked up whoopie pies from Giant Eagle (both were requests of Colin and both were delicious!)  Check out all of the pics I took for Danny while we sang Happy Birthday.  Colin's such a ham!

Just love him!!

More Kids' Sports!

The weekend of May 20th/21st, both kids had tournaments.  Cadence and her 12u travel team played in the Mannino's preview tournament in Dublin.  Colin and his 10u travel team played in the Nationwide Striking Out Pediatric Cancer tournament at Berliner.  The weather was pretty hot that weekend, but both teams did really well!  

Cadence's team pulled off big wins all weekend (they won 20-3 and 12-3 on Saturday and 13-6 and 11-4 on Sunday), but they ultimately lost in the final game on Sunday.  We think the final team that they played on Sunday was a B team in a C tournament, so that's not cool.  However, we were all impressed by the girls and their first tournament of the season.

Colin's team lost both games on Saturday, but won both games on Sunday, so they won 1st place in their bracket!  It was a lot of fun and it was great that it was for a good cause.

Check out that bling!

Cadence's Concerts

Cadence and the rest of the 7th grade band had their spring concert in May as well.  Check out our girl sitting in First Chair!  She's so competitive when it comes to band.  If she gets challenged, you better believe she's practicing her clarinet at home.  The band did an awesome job.  It's always fun to see what songs they have in store for us.

We stuck around for the jazz band and 8th grade performances - lil' bro couldn't hang!

Besties

Cadence also had her spring recital for piano!  She played Spring Theme by Vivaldi. To me, it sounds like a song you listen to while enjoying tea and crumpets with your pinky in the air!  😂 She did such a nice job.  Sadly, Cadence has decided she didn't want to take piano lessons anymore, but will continue to play the clarinet.  We're proud of how far Cadence has come and for sticking with piano for the past 6 years. 

Love her teacher peeking out from behind the curtain

Quick, little bow

Final curtain call 😊

PRE Ohio History Center Field Trip

May is always a crazy, busy month.  I'm thankful that I could take some time off from work and join Colin and the rest of the 4th graders on their field trip to the Ohio History Center.  Colin got a little antsy and bored when his group members wanted to see things that didn't particularly interest him, but we had fun and got to see lots.  Colin loves history - he would probably benefit from a solo trip so we could spend time at other exhibits.

The day started in Ohio Village which is set in the 19th century.  We got to speak to different "villagers" and they taught us how things were different back then. Colin learned how to use a fountain pen.

Lunch with friends

Grandma was there with her class!

The animals was a creepy, but really neat exhibit!