Life Lately | May 2022

Happy Wednesday!

Only TWELVE MORE DAYS until school is out! We are so ready for no more lunches, no more homework, no more memorizing, no more early mornings rushing out the door. Bring on the summer routine!

So much has gone on around here, I thought it was about time to share life lately here at the Grossman house.

Naiya and Josiah have been working hard since January to memorize their piano recital pieces. We spend every Wednesday straight from school til 5:30 driving to and from lessons, with a combined 1 hour 15 minute lesson. They have been such troopers with this commitment. Practicing at home has certainly come with many, many tears and frustration, but they are finishing strong!

And while one has their lesson, the other plays…

This past month I planned and organized our girls’ middle school dance. It is tradition for the 7th grade parents to “host” the dance, so myself and one other mom headed it up. Not going to lie, the planning started out feeling suuuper stressful, but in the end was so much fun! This year’s dance was a Glow in the Dark party theme.

This is Alexia’s 8th grade class. Such a fun group of kids! I always get tidbits of conversations these five have had at school, and the personalities and sense of humor of this bunch has me cracking up all the time.

At the dance, there were balloon relays, t-shirt decorating with glow markers, a photo booth, interactive dances (their teachers can do a mean cha-cha, slllliiiide to the left…!”).

The night culminated with the second annual Ultimate Cabbage game. A messy version of ultimate frisbee, but with a head of cabbage. Which required all of the upper school students to promptly cleanup before they left to go home. #delegateforthewin

On the home front, we are putting in a pool. This month they dug it out, put in the form, rebar is in, and on Friday they will be pouring concrete in. Woohoo! The hope is that it will be done by August, but I keep telling myself and the kids, it might be more like October. Hopefully I’m wrong!

Two weeks ago, the kids had their school annual History Faire, where each class performs and recites what they learned this past year. It was so well done, we were so proud of our kiddos, and some of the performances had me dying laughing!

So much creativity, memorizing and hard work went into this end-of-the-year program. We are so grateful for this school!

First up, Josiah’s 1st grade class…

Next, Noah’s 4th grade class, which did a reenactment of The Battle of Bunker Hill…

Naiya’s 7th grade class led a game show (Naiya was the announcer) for the audience to vote on who was the world’s best leader (conquerer)…

Last, but not least, was Alexia’s 8th grade class with a talk show platform. Each “guest” shared the origin, history and what life was like for different religions in our nation’s history. I was laughing so hard, I about fell out of my chair during this performance. The improvisation by each student, as well as owning their individual characters, was above and beyond what I expected! So good.

In honor of Mother’s Day this year, I was treated to words of affirmation (my love language), and our family tradition of a festive breakfast.

This last Friday, the kids had their school Fine Arts Program. It was an evening where we were able to see the kids’ art projects displayed and then a musical performance followed, which included singing, keyboard and recorder performances.

Josiah is in class with his cousin, Madilyn, so sweet to see these two side by side…

Noah loves a good performance. His stage presence is quite impressive and he loves to shine in these kinds of environments…

Naiya had her first voice solo at this year’s fine arts program. There were three girls total that had a small solo among the whole school performance. So proud of her boldness!

Alexia played a keyboard duet with her bestie, I’m always impressed with these two young ladies! They both love horses, riding, hard work, piano, soccer, sugar and sarcasm. A match made in heaven. 😍

And just when you think we couldn’t possibly fit one more recital or performance, we did.

Josiah and Naiya had their spring piano recital this weekend. Josiah has been taking piano lessons for almost two years now. It started out as a requirement for homeschooling, but he has continued on even after starting school with the big kids last month. As for Naiya, we gifted her voice lessons (and piano lessons) for Christmas, as she has shown a passion for theatre and musicals. Sadly, neither Ryan or I took any photos, just videos of them.

Josiah played “God Bless America”…

While Naiya had her second voice solo in one weekend, where she sang “Always Remember Us This Way”. Ryan’s mom and I were in tears at the gift she has…

And as spring is moving into summer, our kids have been soaking up the sun…

And just on Monday, the kids had their first after-school swim of the year! This is our school cousin carpool team (missing one cousin, Natalie)…

That’s a wrap on life lately. See you back here on Friday! xoxo