Graduation: Take 2

School is over...yay...and not so much yay....I'm glad of the end to schedule and running around with a million things to do and not so glad about keeping four kids entertained and oh yeah the running around with a million things to do....
But...a few more highlights of last days at school and awards and stuff...

oh the infamous "at-too-dee-ta" from Amelia's preschool.....the kids loved that crazy song!

and her lovely preschool teacher Mrs Jaci Gloss....she gave them all little monkeys as a gift (they were the Marvelous Monkey's class...

Daniel also got his Golden Scholar award for maintaining a 3.8 GPA or above for the school year....

...along with some of his friends (he'll also be spending a week at EFY with these guys!)

I did think it was kinda lame that the 8th grade didn't get an actual graduation celebration.....but he got a certificate that obviously had a lot of meaning to him as it spent the day folded up in his pocket:)

The 6th graders also didn't get any kind of graduation.....(i asked around....apparently someone stopped them a couple of years ago???) but their fun Principal made the day pretty cool and exciting for those 6th graders today...they had an assembly where they "graduated" out of their regular spot in the bleachers...all the little kids were so excited for them:)

and then each grade level got to graduate up to the new and somehow way cooler spot in the gym.....Abbie has made it off the floor and into the bleachers.....!

it would be kind of an under-exageration to say that the kids were only mildly excited...I'd probably go with saying that pandemonium reigned and there were a few moments where I was afraid some Kindergartner might get crushed on the floor in the mad rush:))
Oh yeah and they have this Gator shout thing....that is just deafening.....

And then the younger kids all dismissed while the Principal imparted some final words of wisdom and then the 6th graders got to "parade" the hallways to cheers and high fives from all the other students....it was a pretty cool final day at Elementary School!!

Graduation: Take 1

It's that time of year again...with only 4 days left of school (and one of those is early release) we have had the slew of parties, trips, concerts, award ceremonies and graduations....


Jordan got a "Golden Scholar" award for being an A students for the whole year....

....and had his end of year concert...he has decided not to play the violin next year (he actually decided that a while ago when Lacrosse became the focus of life!)

And Amelia graduated from Preschool....my little baby all grown up and so so ready to be going to "big kid school":)

She has had a great year with all her friends....(especially Emily and Kennady!)

but she is excited to go to the same school as Abbie and to finally finally get to ride the school bus (I am giving it about a week for that excitement to wear off!!)

There are going to be some big changes in our house once school starts up again...Daniel starts High School (yikes!), Jordan starts Jr High and Amelia starts Elementary......so many new experiences all at once!!! But for now I am looking forward to a fun, relaxing summer with all the kids at home:)

Naturalized...

Andrew and I became official naturalized US citizens today.....

It has been a long, long, loooooong road getting here! We moved to Atlanta in Oct 2001 right after Abbie was born and began the process of applying for a Green Card right away...after interviews and fingerprinting and doctors appointments and fees and form filling we finally got our green cards in Dec 2004 and then we basically had to wait five years and then start another form filling, fee paying, picture taking, fingerprint giving, interview making, test taking process in order to get our Citizenship and we finalized it all with our Oath Ceremony at the Federal Courthouse in Phoenix.....






















 
It was a pretty cool experience...we all sang the "Star Spangled Banner" and then more surprisingly "God Bless the USA" as in the country song....I was glad they had video screens with the words as I wasn't expecting that one:) A couple of people spoke and we all read out the Oath of Allegiance

yep...no ambiguity on that one is there:) I can't totally remember what order we did this all in, but we also pledged allegiance....

and listened to the Judge speak for a few minutes....

before we were officially declared US citizens and handed our Certificates of Naturalization!!!

Our great neighbors, Denise and Scot Aubrey and Susan, Scott Morgan (and Austin) came to be a part of the day (can't believe we didn't manage a photo with them all) and brought our kids (who I think were most excited to get a whole day off school!)

ok so just one minor observation....you see the design of the courthouse building behind us in these pictures???  It has the most ridiculous design you can imagine for a building in the desert. It is built like a massive greenhouse - all windows and the main building has no AC so it is sweltering in there and it's not even that hot yet!! Thankfully the individual courtrooms were air conditioned:)

 

We arrived home after another hour-ish of line waiting and form filling to find our neighbors had gone to town on our house.....I think some people may wonder if we are just a little too enthusiastic in preparing for July 4th:)

Aidan and Laura arrived with the hugest bunch of American flag balloons you over did see and good old fashioned apple pie and we enjoyed our first night as citizens together. What a day!! I hope my kids will remember this day and tell their kids about it in years to come:)