Right when school got out we headed out to Phoenix for a warm weekend in the sun and pool. Kids had a great time in the lazy river, on the waterslide, and hanging in the cabana with new friends.
Madden had the best 3rd grade teacher. Mr. Maxon is famous for his BELT bike rides. His class meets him once a month and they all bike to school. Due to covid he wasn't able to do it for his class this year so once school got out and California reopened he planned a bike ride for all of them.
Madden got to play against his buddies in a soccer scrimmage.
So proud of Skylar and her friends for doing junior guards for the time. They rocked the two weeks at the beach.
It feel just like yesterday when I dropped Skylar off at her first day of kindergarten. I know that sounds really cheesy and what everyone says, but its honestly so true. I remember her outfit, her backpack, and her walking into the classroom, hanging her backpack on the outside rack and sitting on the floor as her teacher was reading to the class. Now, here we are six years later and she is graduating and moving onto middle school. I feel extremely blessed that I didn't have to work and I was able to be apart of her elementary school chapter. She had a wonderful time in elementary school, made the best friends, achieved so much academically, had great teachers and really just enjoyed every minute of it. Yes she did get screwed and didn't get to have the full experience of 5th grade because of Covid, but she made the best of it, and it will definitely be an school experience that she will never forget. I was so happy in the end of these wacky year we were able to have a graduation and celebrate her class for their achievements.
The graduate.
The girls and their 5th grade teacher, Mr. Castro.
Best friends since day 1 of kindergarten. I hope it stays that way for the years to come.
The girls with their principal, Mr. Devich.
Not only did Skylar survive her covid school year, so did Madden. Distance learning wasn't ideal and we definitely had our ups and downs, but in the end Madden rocked 3rd grade and made the best of his school year. I'm really happy for him to be back in full time school next year.
Once the state opened up youth sports, we were so excited to get back to Friday Night Lights. We decided to leave our old team and luckily at the last minute was able to form a new one with a bunch of great boys. I was really proud of Madden for starting a new season with a new team and he got along great with all of them. For being a new team and never played with each other, we weren't too sure how the season was going to pan out, but boy did these boys rock it. Out of the gates we dominate game after game. Madden really played great all season. In the end the boys ended up 7-0 and won their conference. We got the 2nd seed in the silver playoff bracket, but sadly we got worked our first playoff game and were out round 2 (we had a bye round 1). There were tears but also a lot of cheers for a group of boys who didn't really know each other to go out their and do what they did, we couldn't of been prouder.
This picture is one of my favorites. Luke had a game winning defensive play and he ran right over to Madden and tackled him in pure joy.
Right after our playoff lose, but the boys received their Conference Champ trophy which helped with the sadness.
The lights turned back on the stage this year and we couldn't of been happier. After the pandemic cancelled the kids dance recital last year we were extremely excited that this year they were going to have one. Yes it was outside and not in the beautiful theater, but the kids were so excited to perform they didn't care where it was.
The Father/Daughter dance even came back this year. They usually practice every Saturday for five months. This year that had to learn via zoom and only had two in person rehearsals. It didn't matter for Skylar and Jake as they killed it this year!
Dance Dad reunite.
No fancy costumes this year (which was kind of nice). Just CDC Spirit Wear.
It has been such a weird year; first with zoom classes; class time cut down, and now having to wear a mask while they practice, we weren't sure what to expect when it comes to her dancing growth, but Skylar is really coming into her own. Since there was no recital last year, no viewing week, it has been over a year that we had seen Skylar dance and we couldn't be more proud of what we saw. She is becoming quite the little dancer.
Our pretty ballerina. We usually don't get to see her do ballet at the recital so it was nice this year to see her perform.
In the same line as not seeing the kids perform forever, getting to see Madden left us speechless. He killed it in a really fast tempo, hard hip hop routine and loved every second. I love seeing how much he enjoys hip hop. He even told me a few days before the recital, "Mom, I'm so excited for recital." Which just melted my heart. I hope he sticks with hip hop for a long time to come.
