Movin' On Up

We had a big couple days to finish off the week.  On Thursday Jacob turned 11, and on Friday both kids got a little closer to finishing off their respective milestone school years.

Jacob's birthday ended up being pretty low key.  The weather was terrible and his field trip to Seabreeze got postponed, so it was mostly a normal day.  I ended up missing out on my annual lobster night through work because I didn't want to miss Jacob's entire birthday.  The weather also ended up canceling lacrosse practice, which saved us a tough decision and ensured Jacob could have a normal birthday dinner.

Because he's had a pretty big couple months with the Raptors, including two trips to Toronto and a number of new shirts and souvenirs, he knew he wouldn't have much to open on his actual birthday.  In fact, he got only one gift...

A waterproof Bluetooth speaker--for when he plays basketball or is out at the pool

I snagged a selfie before we left for school, too...

He chose Outback Steakhouse for dinner, and very much enjoyed his steak and shrimp while peeking over the partition at the NBA Draft on the bar TVs.  We let him stay up a bit later since the next day wasn't a real school day, and that was about the extent of it.  His party is coming up next weekend, so a lot of this weekend has been spent getting the house ready for it.  Now if I could just figure out how to do his cake, that would be great!

Friday was a very busy day and started bright and early!  Carter had his Farewell Breakfast at school, so we were off to eat a snacky breakfast with his class at 8am.  Unfortunately, not a lot of people showed up, but we had a nice time with a few of his classmates and their parents.  We saw a very nice slideshow his teacher put together, and it sort of choked me up!  It was amazing to see all of the things they did all year long, and realize (despite my reservations about his reading and writing skills) how much he's learned this year.  After all the teacher drama last summer, it's hard to believe the year is already almost over!  How can my baby possibly be done with Kindergarten already?  

Showing off his bubbles from his teacher

After leaving him at school, I did some running around before meeting Craig at the high school auditorium for Jacob's 5th grade moving up ceremony!

They sang their school song to open up the program...

See that girl next to him?  He's known her since he was an infant at his first daycare, and you may recall him going to a couple of her birthday parties when they were little.  This was the only year they ended up in the same class.  

There were a bunch of awards handed out, and despite a large group of kids winning at least one, Jacob was not one of them.  I told him afterward that it was a little bit of a bummer because we know how smart he is and if he made more of an effort (beyond the bare minimum to do things just well enough), he could run circles around most of those kids.  He has always done well academically, so that he didn't even receive one of the academic awards was interesting.  But without them using real grades, I guess we have no real way of knowing why.  I told him he just needs to be a little more intentional about his interest and effort, and told him my goal for him is to win an award either by the end of 6th grade or by the end of 8th grade, depending on how his new school handles their awards.  I tried not to make a big deal of it, but it was a little tough seeing so many of his friends get them and not know what in particular led to him not getting even one.  He's certainly capable, so all I can figure is that it lies in them knowing his potential but knowing he's not doing it justice.

He finally got to walk the stage for his "graduation", and look!  A nice pair of shorts that are not athletic shorts!  (Yes, we had to go out and specifically buy them for this event.  Thank goodness we found a pair at the second store!)

The girls are looking at their class picture on the screen--they had one nice picture and one silly one!

They finished off the ceremony with the song "Hall of Fame".


And that was it!  Had to grab a shot of the guys before we split up for the day--Jacob and I went home, and Craig went to work.

Both kids now have 2-1/2 days left.  Jacob will be at Seabreeze tomorrow, his class picnic is on Tuesday, and I'll be picking both kids up before 11:30 on Wednesday.  Jacob starts camp the next day, and Carter will spend Thursday with Craig and Friday with my parents.  They'll both have a couple days of camp the next week before we potentially go off on a pseudo-vacation prior to Jacob's last lacrosse tournament.  No idea where yet, though hopefully my passport comes back soon so we can include Canadian destinations in our options!

But before all of that, I had one more exciting thing on tap for myself...