ConGRADuations and the End of the Elementary Era

What's up, players.

Today marks the definitive end of the Houghs' Elementary School Era.  Abby graduated from 5th Grade today, and, in doing so, ended her tenure at Chestnut Hill Elementary, where she's attended since starting Kindergarten there back in 2015.

Kris took the day off in order to be able to attend this occasion, which, thanks to Covid-19 (again), was a stripped-bare affair held outdoors, one classroom at a time - a totally different experience than, say, the big production that Alayna got when she graduated from 5th grade two years ago.  She made sure to drive her to school this morning, too, in order to get the traditional picture in front of the school sign (see above.)

Kris also managed to snap a pic with Audrey (Mitch's youngest) and Jackson (Morgan's son.)

Anyway, the 'ceremony' (if you could even call it that) took place at 9:30am, about an hour into the school day, and the whole thing was super quick and pretty bittersweet (since the school had their hands tied with safety protocols, and there was only so much they could do for a graduation ceremony.)  Afterwards, students had the option of leaving for the day with their parents, but Abby - like several others - opted to stay at school and finish out the remainder of her school day so she could hang out with her friends and enjoy one, final day of elementary school.

So here you go, folks - the End of 5th Grade:

Mrs. Reinhardt's class marches out in front of the school.

You can see Abby, in a white-and-blue dress, half-way down the line.

Awaiting her turn to step forward and accept a 'graduation envelope.'

One thing that pissed me off about this whole process was no one announced the student walking forward to accept their graduation stuff - the students just walked forward after the kid in front of them walked away.  How f***ing hard is it to announce each student to the assembled crowd?  It's a graduation, for crying out loud. . .

Abby ends 5th Grade.

(As always, Kris films with her phone while I handle the SLR.)

After each student in her class received their diplomas, certificates, and whatever else was stuck in those envelopes, kids and parents ambled about taking pictures with various people and in front of various things.  Abby wanted a picture in front of the Chestnut Hill building with a couple of her friends, Abigail (left) and Isla (right.)

One with her teacher.

One with all the girls in her class.

One with Papa John and Grandma.

And one final one in front of the school sign out front, with Abigail and Isla.

Each student received, in their envelopes, a personalized class award.  Abby, as you can see here, is the class Bookworm.  She comes by it naturally.

- Brian

A Mighty Noise

Hey gang.

I'm pretty sure I've shared all this before, but the Cannonball took it upon herself to join yet another extra-curricular activity this year.  Aside from her involvement in Choir, the Recycling Club, Safety Patrol, and Girl Scouts, she's also a member of the Chestnut Hill Orchestra.  She's picked back up the violin - which she used to play when she was little down in Orlando - and has since taken to it pretty fast.

Granted, it's still her first year and she more or less still sounds like she's skinning a cat, but she's improved a lot and Kris and I are both grateful that she didn't opt for the Band, where she'd end up playing something like the frickin' tuba or clarinet.

With Christina and Makara

Her sister Abby, by the way, wants to play the coronet.  We'll see what we can do to dissuade her from that shit-show when the time comes.

Anyway, the Orchestra gave a performance alongside the Band and Choir this evening, with choir going first, then Orchestra, and then finally Band.  This meant that we got to watch Alayna in two different capacities, which was cool. . . buuuuut then we had to sit through an entire band performance that had nothing whatsoever to do with my kid.

My kid's not in band, I didn't need to be there.  I tried to leave, but Kris wasn't having it.

Of course.

So first, here's a couple pictures Abby took using Kris' phone:

The Choir, belting out a couple jams (Alayna's towards the right side of the stage, wearing a cream-colored dress, in the front.)

After two songs, the Orchestra took the stage.  Alayna's at Far Left, now.

(You could tell she was pretty nervous.)

This is Alayna's Orchestra teacher (forget his name), who taught these kids how to play their various string instruments three days a week for a half an hour before school started.  He was pretty funny, and the kids clearly like him a lot.

Still, he CLEARLY has an identical twin.

This is what I do now at these events.  I got sick of shooting in gym lighting, and the videos of these events are more fun to look at later, anyway.  And yes, we nabbed front/center seats.  'Cmon, now.

Watching the Band perform.  The Choir only had two songs, and the Orchestra and Band each played for about twenty minutes.  That band performance was a loooooong twenty, people.

Alayna and Dwight

And now here's the show, folks:

- Brian

The Last-Minute Endeavor of Carving Pumpkins

Welcome back, fans.

So Kris and I totally dropped the ball this year as parents.  We totally put off the carving of pumpkins until the very last minute, and even then we didn't even bother with purchasing pumpkins to carve ourselves - we just settled on picking up two for the girls at Aldi and called it good.  After our huge costume party on Saturday, and Halloween itself approaching in a couple days - not to mention how swamped we've all been with school and work and all sorts of extracurricular bullshit - we just didn't have time for it this year.

Abby recreates the Halloween where she open-mouthed a pumpkin.

Anyway, we finally got around to carving pumpkins with the girls today.  The day before the girls gutted them out, and then the actual carving part happened tonight.  It took two days because we only had, like, half-hour windows at night in which to do this.  Alayna has fallen way behind in school, and has consequently been spending hours a night catching up on homework and classwork she didn't get done in class, and we told her she couldn't carve pumpkins until she finished it all up.

I suppose that makes us shitty parents, but. . . so does a whole bunch of other stuff.  And CPS still hasn't come to take our kids away yet, so I guess we have that going for us.

So yeah.  Here's some photographic evidence of this year's Halloween parenting fail.

Enjoy.

Hammin' it up for the camera.

The gutting process begins.  This was the majority of Evening #1 right here - the bulk of the carving wouldn't get done until Evening #2.

Definitely not the kids' favorite. . .

The Dog was super into this process, though.  Who the hell knows why.

Seriously. . .

Meanwhile, down in the basement, Alayna continues to slug away at her missing Social Studies homework.  Note the lack of pumpkin carving going on here.

After awhile, though, we decided that she had had enough schoolwork for the night, and made her go upstairs and take a shower before she, too, got to start carving a pumpkin.

Abby's is a 'mummy.'  No joke.

What's with all the lines?

Kris' advice goes unheeded.  No surprises there.

There's a running theme in these pictures, folks.

Here we are at Evening #2, picking up where we left off the previous night.  Alayna chose to make a 'devil' pumpkin this year, and so I helped her draw out a quick design that was simple enough for her to carve.

Whoever invented emojis must be just swimming in money at this point in time. . .

Abby's sorta-Mummy pumpkin.  Or not.

The finished products, all lit up and ready to roll for Halloween. . .

Alayna turned her pumpkin around so it could cast a creepy, demonic visage across the wall of our Dining Room.  Because she, like her father, has a dark, twisted sense of humor.

Oh, look.  More weird kid faces.

So yeah.  There's our half-ass attempt at being involved parents.

- Brian