Chores

Mimi surprised us by taking out the trash, when I thanked her she said she had to because it was "slickery"

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Yoda while playing a math game on his device, "It's so awesome that math just works!  It makes sense!"

Parker Graduates

It took us a while to wind down from all of the end of year celebrations, and to gather all the photos. 

*First his little high school.  

He attends a typical high school and classes, but he also attends their "Experiential Program" in a different building.  There are smaller classes, he calls his teachers by their first names, and they have old-school college style class scheduling.  

The big draw for us is that one week out of every year he picks his own curriculum called Interim, and the last semester of his senior year is called Walkabout, where he determines what he'll do for 2 eight-week sessions.  It's also a tight community of less then 150 students for the whole school (compared to the main campus high school that has close to 2000 students). 

It's a beautiful and quirky Tudor style building down the road from the district's 2 main campus high schools. 
 

One more time up the tree!  Can you spot him? 

The Saturday started off with the students sharing a 15 minute talk about their own Walkabout.  (Then we could listen to up to 5 other student's talks.)  It was really interesting to see how the students grew over their time doing something so different then just school.

Here is Parker talking about his time doing voice acting.  8 weeks with a coach and 8 weeks on his own. 

After a lunch break they started the wonderful senior recognition ceremony.  It was very personalized.  Each Senior invited someone, often a member of the staff, to share something about them and introduce them to the audience.  

Parker had an English teacher that he's become pretty close to over the years to talk about him.  He shared some class jokes and some heartfelt kindness.  No kid has it easy, our kid definitely hasn't, but it was nice to hear from a teacher who is on his side.  

Then this is totally different, the students circle the audience and they stretch a ribbon on their shoulders.  Staff members come around and snip the ribbon, so each student gets a portion of the ribbon.  It's symbolic of them being in the community and then being released I think.  I'm trying to get the video off my phone, it's cute.  

This is minutes after the ribbons were cut.  They then get to wear the ribbon at the main campus high school graduation-- see below...

This is the spot where he often ate lunch. 

*Ok, that was a very long, emotional Saturday.  Sunday was a quiet Seminary graduation where I didn't take any pictures.  But it was a tricky 4 years of seminary-- early morning seminary is always tricky.  I'm going to write about it here just for preservation, if this doesn't make sense, that's ok. 

Freshman year-- because of where we live, it wasn't clear where he'd attend seminary.  Most of the high schoolers in our ward congregation attend a different high school and we were also a relatively new ward so we didn't have a teacher.  So we found the students who attend his main campus high school in a different ward, he didn't know most of them.  Over the year (as often happens and it's understandable) a bunch of kids dropped out.  Then mid-year the teacher moved from just a few blocks from the high school, to a very inconvenient neighborhood.  

Sophomore year-- a new hope.  A few new families moved in and it looked like we could make the suggestion that we have our own seminary class.  An amazing teacher took over, it helped that he lives in a perfect spot for the high school.  But as things go, students dropped out and over time, Parker was pretty much alone by the end.  (Greg often attended so they wouldn't be alone.)

Junior year-- the amazing seminary teacher stuck with Parker!  Then the pandemic and yup, Parker and his teacher kept seminary going over zoom.  Now it was called Zoom-inary.  They moved the time to 9am and I started attending with Parker.  All this and they switched curriculums around at some point so Parker hasn't had any Old Testament for seminary, which is a bummer to miss out on. 

Senior year-- we lost our amazing seminary teacher but got 2 new amazing ones.  They were determined to make it work through the pandemic.  Our school district was all remote, and the other school district was hybrid, so between the two them they had 2 classes, one at 6am, one at 12noon.  This way students could decide and go to the one that worked best for their schedule each day.  This also meant there were lots of students attending, including Mimi! 

They kept it this way through all our changes (remote, hybrid, remote, hybrid, all-in).  When both school districts switched to all-in, there was just a few weeks left in the school year.  They continued all classes at 6am over zoom and the teachers switched off weeks.  Parker kept going, even though his schedule was bonkers with play practice, working a few days where he could, Walkabout, and a few classes at the main high school.  But that's what youth is for, right?!  

*Monday and the main high school graduation.

It wasn't clear until about 2 weeks before that day where the graduation would take place.  Normally it's held in the convention center on a Sunday, both big high schools, one right after the other during the day.  But a couple years ago we were told we would have to move to Monday or Tuesday night at the University's basketball stadium because of construction.  I think this actually proved to be a plus, because there's less demand for a Monday or Tuesday and we were able to keep the basketball stadium, where other school districts had to do drive-through graduations in the high school parking lots like last year.

What do I like least about graduation? 

Crowds- no problem!  Everyone was limited to 4 seats because Covid restrictions were still in-place.  

Families cheering so you can't hear the next kid's name- no problem!  I'm not sure why they did this but they paused a full 5-10 seconds after each student's name so we could hear every kid's name.  I loved this.  We did the math and it added maybe 30 minutes to the night, but so worth it!  

Finding a good seat- no problem!  Because of Covid they had to assign us seats through ticketmaster! 

Here are some photos of the night...

Panoramic photo

He's in there somewhere...

 

 

Here he is with his ribbon from the little high school and his Theater cords.  Just days before the end of his high school career he did the initiation that earned him these cords. I had no idea what they were for -- I guess there's all sorts of them! 

*Tuesday was chill, Parker could stay home and relax while his younger siblings went to school.  The elementary school held a tea for students who were graduating and still in the area.  It could have been better if some of the kids he knew had gone, mostly he chatted with teachers which was very nice.  

*Wednesday, Parker took off to the little school's field day.  They had bouncy house type inflatables and lunch.  It was a great day to finish off a busy and high energy week. 

For now...

There's too much to type about Parker's graduation, so for now I'll show you the contents of Yoda & Mimi's pockets...

They often dump out their pockets on the way to the bathroom and a little pile develops.

Some things are obvious: a solved Rubik's cube, earbuds, pins from a sweatshirt.  

Somethings are funnier: an acorn, a very small post-it note, and a very small bit of paper that is rolled up super tight (this happens quite often and I find them all over the house).  

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I think Mimi is part squirrel (hence the acorn).  One of her 8th grade teachers shared that she walked into the classroom and saw Mimi kinda perched on the back of her chair.  I mentioned that it sounded like Mimi was turning into a squirrel.  Her teacher said she thought that was a perfect word to describe Mimi!  Always perched on something, and holding things super close to her face.  

Mimi's current principal held a school-wide Zoom meeting to discuss something and I happened to be the only parent who showed up so we just chatted about Parker and Mimi.  He mentioned that when Mimi eats her lunch she is perched on the edge of the stage nibbling away.  I held up my hands just like how Mimi eats and said she eats like a squirrel and he laughed pretty loud.  A few weeks later we were on another Zoom call with that same principal and one of Mimi's teachers.  The principal said right away, "before we begin, would you like to see my impression of Valerie's impression of Mimi eating like a squirrel?"  We all had a good laugh, Mimi is such a good sport! 

Last Day 2021

Just for a reminder, here's a link to the start of Remote learning in the fall.

And here's a link to the start of Hybrid learning in the fall.  

Mimi is our only child not changing schools next year.  

May 2021

Yoda is off to middle school next year.  This was our last of 13 years at our little elementary school.  When we moved here, we found a month-to-month, furnished apartment and after a bit of looking found the house we bought and stayed.  

Here's Yoda on his way in.  They found the principle on the roof in a Shark suit!  That's the gym teacher taking a picture and posting it to Twitter. 

 

I have a few pictures of Parker and I'll post them soon...

A visit

On his way across the country, my brother stopped to see us.  We made sure that when he hit the road he had some Buckeyes and Fry Pies. 

Here's our Dickersons-by-the-car photo!

2nd Birthday during restrictions

 

It was lovely and quiet, and as you can see, we had some yummy cake.  A friend stopped by with some goodies, a got kind cards, phone calls and texts from family and friends.  My kiddos played in the year-end orchestra concert and gave me a couple Jane Austen books.  My sisters gave me a new counter cross stitch pattern, Star Wars plates, and the hilarious shirt below.  My parents always come through with some birthday spending money and I'm thinking about getting a quilt frame.  

And of course, Greg made the day awesome with food I didn't have to make or clean up after, an awesome new lamp, more chocolate, and made the day run smoothly.  

Cheese Road Trip

Matching

 Parker is a senior, Mimi is a freshman and they are both in theater.  For theater they get t-shirts and this day they were eating breakfast, totally unaware that they were both wearing the same theater shirt!

Brady Bunch

 

We're benefiting from my generous family's various streaming services during covid.  I'm hoping we can watch many family sitcoms to see what fictionalized families outside of our house looks like.  On the list: The Middle (HBOMax), The Goldberg's (Hulu), Everybody Hates Chris (Peacock- that one's actually free and I recommend it), we may even try the Simpsons (Disney+). 

But right now we're diving deep into the Brady Bunch (Hulu).  Thanks to my family!  

Yoda and Mimi laugh at all the silliness, and don't take it too seriously.

Parker, "let me guess, there's a miscommunication and funny stuff happens..." or "and then there will be some wacky-sitcom-antics."

Anyway, that's why Yoda is in his robe, so he can fit in with the Brady's! 

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In one episode, a car drives up and the vent window is tilted... kinda like this...

Yoda was stunned, "that window... it's... popped out!?"

 

 

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In one episode Jan says their house telephone number and it was exactly 1 digit off from our families while growing up.  My siblings all confirmed!  

Nashville

We were very excited to see Greg's family!  They treated us to lots of fun, sight seeing and some amazing food!  Greg's brother got us both Nashville Hot Chicken AND fantastic BBQ! 

Even though none of their ages line up, the 6 of them get along great!

Statue commemorating Tennessee's help in getting the 19th amendment passed.

We also visited the Civil War sight, Fort Negle.  There were beautiful views of the city!   This is not our first visit to a Civil War sight together. 

 

 

 

They watched some musicals.

Hung out and played a lot. 

And of course there was Ukulele. 

We brought a puzzle to win of one cousin, fancy butter to win over another cousin, and various root beer and sodas to win over everyone else.

It was tough to say good bye!

We traveled

I know, I'm such a wimp, but we decided to mask-up and take off...

On our way to visit Greg's brother and family in Nashville, we stopped at Abraham Lincoln's birthplace.  You may remember the mistake we made a five years ago and missed it by an hour. The time zone change tripped us up. 

 2021-we made it!

2016-too late!

 

There's Yoda on the steps.   

The spring that made this location popular and valuable.

The replica cabin.

 

 

Also, 5 years ago when driving to Alabama we noticed the National Corvette Museum and thought it would be a great place to visit on our way back.  Again we made a mistake and drove back on Easter Sunday, one of only 5 days this museum is closed in a year.  It was totally worth the trip 5 years later.

Yoda wanted to find the car from when he was born. 

A few years ago there was a cave-in.  They have since rebuilt, but they have lines to show where it happened. 

My favorite car.  

And one of the cars my dad had. 
Next stop Nashville!