One. Day. At. A. Time. That is how I'm doing this. Abby is now officially a patrol. Her training is over and now she is on the job. We have a bike gang that meets up and rides in together (while younger siblings hang until their turn to go in to school). She's selling ice cream gift cards as her first fundraiser. We had our last First Coast match of the season. Kerri and I walked away with a win. We stayed for lunch to celebrate. We had a new student night at the middle school so I went to help get new PTSA members. It was a big night for Duval county, turning quite blue and electing our first female mayor! I got to lunch with my high school pal, Alex on Wednesday. And then Thursday was a tennis play day with lots of the country club crew followed with a nice lunch at Jax Golf. I was happy to walk away with a win on every court for that round robin. Our team got a huge trophy for winning the league. That night Voss had his final play off game and won! He's so lucky winning the whole division AGAIN! I ran from there to Wine Women & Shoes, supporting my friend, Lauren. It was such a great event. Rachael and I ended up meeting Phil at Lillians. All week were studio rehearsals at dance so that was a lot of racing back and forth with new times and durations. I was saved Thursday night, already being two places at once, when a friend's mom dropped Ellie off on base barefoot at the ball park; yeah that's about how the week went! Ellie got to go to Gradventure with many 8th graders in the city. They closed Universal down and had a ball...even in the rain. We had a great night with Keith & Chris catching up over charcuterie in the living room. I got up and got beat in a singles match at Boone park then Spot and I took Ellie to her dance practice in St. Augustine. Phil took Voss to his baseball team party then dropped Marly at one Birthday party and took the littles to another for Voss' friend, Isabel. That night was the MOPS & POPS party at the Spencer's. We went to mass on Sunday and had our CCD end of the year party. The older girls went to a volunteer meeting for VBS while Phil and I went to lunch. Then the girls got ready and we headed downtown for dress rehearsal. We had 14 costumes to bring and Ellie left one at home (to be fair, it was a costume they re-used from last year). Phil and I got into a knock down drag out and he eventually brought the costume to a friend who brought it to the theater in the second shift. That put a damper on the night but it was still fun to see all the dances and sit with all the dance moms. Monday Voss had a Kindness Cotillion at school. It was the sweetest thing. His teacher started it years ago when she felt the need to teach the class empathy. She read the book Wonder and then put on this day of fun activities. They wrote kind notes to each other, dances, made crowns and watched the movie, Wonder. It was amazing. I raced from there to get Ellie out of school and ready in a hotel bathroom for the first call time. I went back home to get the others and get them ready. Phil got my parents and Voss and tailgated with other dads at the hotel across from the theater. The girls did such a great job knowing all the steps, smiling and showing off their stage presence. I'm so proud of them! It rained like a monsoon! We went to Mellow Mushroom for a late dinner. I worked on my VO2 max and met Steph and Jess at High Tide for lunch. Voss cleaned up at his awards ceremony; All A's, citizenship, perfect attendance and the PE award. I met Rachael for rucking and lunch downtown over the bridges. Ellie graduated from 8th grade that evening. We were only allowed 2 tickets for guests so Phil and I went and sat in the hot gym bleachers. It's a very impressive group of 8th graders! My parents picked up my other 3 and met us for a celebratory dinner at TCC (calling in our orders before the kitchen closed!) Gorgeous sunset for photos with friends outside the gym. I'm so proud of Ellie on finishing middle school with all A's and headed to one of the top high schools in the country! Friday morning we hit the ground running for Readers Beach. In the rain we set up tents, water, popcorn and snow cones. It was a cluster! I'm amazed at the teachers at this middle school who go all out and do so much for the students! I dipped out in the middle to go to my first Nutcracker board meeting. Who knew the Community Nutcracker did so much for Dreams Come true and for the dancers! I can't wait for this party to begin! Back to the middle school to close down readers beach and return everything I had borrowed! Right about then I got a reminder that Ellie had rehearsal out in St. Augustine! I was wiped! Thankfully Phil drove and we met the Hogans for dinner while the girls danced. Marly and Voss had a sleepover with our neighbor. Abby was happy to have a quiet night alone. Saturday was a chilly day. I spent most of the day cleaning the house and getting my life back together. Marly went to a friend's Birthday party. I finished listening to Hello Beautiful and started Demon Copperhead. Ellie went to Addison's, Abby had Virginia over. Voss went to the Jumbo Shrimp game with the Strassers. Abby, her friend and I surprised my parents at 5pm mass. I went to my neighbor's Birthday party with a live band on the roof! Sunday was kina an off day. We were supposed to go for a boat day but it was too chilly so we went to TCC instead. We hung with the Hollands and had lunch by the pool (in sweatshirts!) Abby spent the night at Virginia's. We took Ellie to Anna Kate's graduation party. This morning we celebrated Memorial Day by reading about Lt. Murphy then doing an abridged version of the Murph Challenge. We headed to the pool for festivities. Water slide, candy and money dive and I won a cocktail by being the only mom to do the obstacle course! We had ribs for dinner with my parents. Phil took all the kids tubing. Home in time for an early bedtime and to take a breather before the last week of school! Whew! Here are the pics of the last 2 weeks.
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