Farewell to 5th Grade

Luke said goodbye to 5the grade yesterday with his Moving Up ceremony.  It seemed very official and, well, final.  He loved both Council Rock Primary and French Road Elementary but he's very excited for Twelve Corners Middle School.  I'd be sad if he didn't feel ready but he's really looking forward to it.  He received a nice certificate and a few handshakes yesterday and now we have 3 days left until summer vacation.  He had a great teacher this year, Ms. Giordano, and she did a really fun thing for this class.  She is actually planning to retire when they graduate high school.  Since she'll be leaving Brighton schools with them, she had the class create a time capsule that she'll open with them when they are seniors.  Now the one part that was difficult was the optional assignment she gave to the parents.  She asked us to write them a letter that they will read when the time capsule is opened.  

It was hard to do.  HARD.  How do you write a heartfelt letter to your first born, your boy, when you know he'll be much more like a man when he reads it?  It forced a quick succession of flashbacks of the last 11 years.  I tried to think about all the meaningful things I want to impart to him when he goes off to college (fingers crossed).   I sent the letter to Matt to review at work and he told me I should have put a huge warning on it that it wasn't something to be read while one was at their desk at work.  Hey, if I had to struggle through writing it, the least he could do was struggle through reading and editing it.  It was really very sad - a total tear jerker. I'll be a mess when I read it again in seven years which is way too soon.  

So here he is in all his 5th grade glory:

Creativity

Adrienne came off the school bus yesterday with a clipboard in her hands and a serious look on her face.  She had decided to write a play? (out of the blue) and needed to work on it immediately.  She went to work on living room floor writing  her script.  She wanted to leave the pages right there spread out on the rug but that would have meant preventing curious siblings from traipsing through and proving their own creative flare in the form of rearrangement. 

She definitely has the most creative mind in the family.  It's almost like she has so many ideas in mind that she's constantly searching for ways to get them out and see them to fruition.  Many times, she enters her own little world and you can see her sorting through the thought bubbles in her head.  She has strong visions for her projects and methodically works through them to the end.  It's truly a talent that I wish I had.  But because my talents do not lie in this space, I'll just wait to see what she comes up with!

Coco's First Year at Trinity

Coco has successfully completed her first year at Trinity Montessori.  She has such a great teacher this year, Mrs. Yerger, who she'll have again next year.  Coco is very much loved by her class and she loves them equally in return.  She has a best friend - Jordana and constantly talks about whose birthday it is, who brought in what for snack and who misbehaves in class.  She enjoys the classroom pets, especially the turtle and the butterflies.  This year she even went to her first gala which she raved about.  Her date was none other than dear old dad.  She has even  been asking to go to more galas so that she can get glammed up again.  She is at Trinity for some of the summer by way of their summer camp but she misses her teachers already and it has only been a week since school ended.  

First day of school:

Last day of school:

The gala with daddy:

Spring/Summer Lacrosse 2018

Well, it's official, all Zappia offspring can claim they play "acrosse."  Our gummy bear, Coco hit the recruiting circuit early.  She was asked to play on the pre-school, intro-to-lacrosse, boys team this spring.   She loves playing with her best friend, Jordana and always reports to us how many goals she scores.  Nevermind that the goals she scores are on on unmanned goal during shooting drills.  Her favorite part is playing on the playground after practice and she also really enjoys the water breaks.  

For her part, Adrienne tends to control the field when she's playing in games.  She scores many goals and is Queen of the ground ball.  She towers above many of the other kids at this point, which helps, but she also appears to have some natural ability.  All of the time spent battling her brother in the yard has been phenomenal training for her.  She's headed off to Nazareth Girls Lacrosse camp this summer as well as Brighton's Sharp Shooters camp.  She is very excited to move up the the 3/4 division next year.

Our lacrosse glutton, Luke seems to take advantage of as much time on the playing field as possible.  He plays winter box lacrosse, spring town team lacrosse, Flyers travel team lacrosse, and a 3D travel team lacrosse.  Currently he is schedule to practice or play in games every.single.day of the week including both weekend days.  He plays a different position for each team so that means we travel with a ton of lacrosse equipment.  We'll be headed all over upstate NY as well as Maryland for the current season's games.  

And because of all this, we've turned into "those" people who eat on the run - often in the car, travel with a spare set clothes for every weather condition and are regularly pulling a wagon with folding sports chairs and random other junk.  

Eleven

We celebrated Luke's 11th birthday by taking him and 3 friends to Dave and Busters to play arcade games.  It was an interesting experience for me, a fabulous experience for Luke.  Four, eleven year old boys rocking out to rap music (clean versions, of course) in my car was enough of a party for me but that was just on the way to D & Bs.  We got there, I loaded their cards up and off they went. I opted to sit in the restaurant and people watch.  About an hour and half later they came back with their winnings and were rabid with hunger.  We ate and headed home.  On our way back, I heard lots of whooping cushions, pre-teen humor, and even some singing.  A success on all fronts.

Luke was generously gifted  money, gift cards, and other gifts.  He bought an ipad on which he could finally play fortnight without begging for my phone.  Just one more birthday left without a "teen" in it  - eek!!!!!!!

Spring Break 2018

Spring break was a necessity this year.  One can only take so much winter before one starts thinking 30 degrees is "actually quite decent."Just the regular crazy talk we start doing in March every year.  This year we traveled to Isle of Palms, South Carolina which is just outside Charleston.  We joined three other Brighton families for a total of 12 children and 9 adults.  Of those 12 children, 10 were girls, so we were quite surprised at the lack of drama.  Most days were sunny and warm with 2 days that weren't really "beach weather."  The kids still managed to do plenty of swimming in the chilly 60 degree Atlantic water.  There was lots of hermit crab herding, boogie board riding, drip castle dripping, and sand dollar searching.  I have never seen so many sand dollars and definitely had never seen a live one.  For the adults, there was lots of eating and drinking.  Need I say more?  And food in the south is heavy - ugg.  I was feeling sloth-like by the end of the week.  Apart from the beach, our adventures included a trip into the city of Charleston and a touring of the USS Yorktown, an old aircraft carrier-turned-museum.  We all really enjoyed the aircraft carrier and it certainly peaked the kids interest in history.   The city of Charleston had really unique and interesting architecture but I can't say that I really loved the city.   The kids liked the candy store in the city best.

Our bronzed bodies are back now and we are re-adjusting to regular life.  We did happen to bring a few items of interest back from the south with us in the form of really ugly crawly friends known to most as hermit crabs.   Adrienne is the most impressive salesperson of hermit crabs ever! Those poor hermit crabs took a few wild turns in the car on the way home and are subject to daily dealings by three very eager handlers.

Did you know that hermit crabs are night creatures? In fact, if you have to sleep in the same room with their cage, then you hear what appears to be hermit crab line dancing in the the middle of the night!  And no, their cage is not in my room but a certain youngest child keeps recruiting me into her bed in the middle of the night.  I just hope that none of our new friends come up missing.  They are really ugly.

Piano Recital 2018

This year we switched to a new piano teacher, and although we loved our old one, the kids have learned so much more this year.  Our new teacher, Miss Kate, not once, but twice, was able to get Luke and Adrienne to successfully play a duet!  In this recent recital, they played "Hot Popcorn."  The timing was tricky on this one so it seemed to cause a lot of tension between the two.  Someone was always playing too fast, the other, too slow, etc.  BUT, they finally got it together and played quite well in the recital.  I was sweating the whole time and maybe also holding my breath.

It's really amazing how well each of them can play when they practice.  And I have to admit, sometimes we all forget about practicing piano all together - but the kids are inspired and next year, I think we'll see a whole lot more practice time.  Sometimes I even muse about reteaching myself so that they can play duets with me!  If only one could somehow discover how to add more hours in a day.