Wrapping up 8th Grade

The end of the school year brings many fun activities and a whole lot of celebrating! The middle school students were allowed to go to Disneyland on a school day for an end of the year behavior reward. I think a few kids had a close call on being allowed to attend. Gemma spent the night at Brooklyn's house before the trip so they could all leave early in the morning for opening. She was excited and energized with a Starbuck's delivery before they departed. 

 

The whole middle school arrived at the gates for park opening. The eighth graders were excited to spend a day of fun together with their teacher Mr Gottmer.

Lucky for Mr Gottmer there are only 8 of them and he could manage them for the day, although a ton of Mom's chaperoned and joined in the fun.

It was pretty crowded but they got on a good number of rides.

Posing with Pocahontas.

A lot of the kids and Mom's left the park around dinner time. They were tired and some of the kids had sports the next day. Lucky for Gemma her friend Lily and her Mom were willing to stay until closing time and Gemma and Brooklyn got to stay with them. 

We also had the end of the year sports banquet. It included all the middle school sports for boy and girls. Gemma and most of her friends played every sport this year. 

They got certificates and medals for Volleyball, Basketball, and Soccer. They also gave out awards for best defense, offense and GOAT award for each sport. 

There were so many kids in so many sports. It was a really lovely evening and they provided dinner for everyone as well. 

The 8th graders got to keep their photo banners that were displayed on the gym wall throughout the year. They are these really fancy photo banners and now they decorate our garage walls!

Gemma had the BEST time playing sports this year. A big reason she was excited to come to Ascension was the chance to play sports without having to be on a club team and make tryouts.  Everyone gets to play and have a chance and they really all worked together and supported one another as a team.

Gemma and Lily received a special award for Athlete Scholar. They were the only two that qualified. You had to play in all three sports offered that year and also maintain a 3.5GPA the whole year. We are so proud of them!

Gemma was invited to attend a 13th birthday party for her friend Paige who is in 7th grade. Her party included a ride in a party bus down to the Grove shopping area for a day of shopping and lunch.

The party bus was awesome, they didn't mind the long drive at all.

Gemma had all her confirmation gift money saved and shopped till she dropped. Then they all had lunch and came back home. 

The last weeks of school included a lot of special moments on campus. They got their yearbooks and spent a lot of time signing everyones.

It was fun to arrive to school one morning and see this fun banner and the photo heads!

They spent a day at the beach with the whole middle school playing volleyball with their teachers.

Gemma is going to miss her time at this school so much!

All District Band Festival

Lily's band participated in the All District Music Festival with Elementary School and Middle School bands.

It is always such a good concert and you can really see how the children progress throughout the years.

Frank is always stealing the show and this year he came out to conduct wearing a Mickey Mouse conductor hat and Mickey gloves. The music was all Disney movie theme.

The High School performs last and then there is one final song where it is all the bands from Elementary to High School.

Gemma's Confirmation

 Gemma celebrated her Confirmation on Sunday May 18th at Ascension Lutheran Church. All our family attended and several of her friends as well. We made a chocolate cake for her party that she decorated. Even the little tiny Jesus was included.

There were nine students confirmed. Only two of which were girls. Several were from her class at Ascension School.

Gemma shared her Faith statement with the congregation as part of the Sermon. All the confirmands helped perform all the aspects of the service.

It has been a great year led by Pastor Chamie and Jen Avalos. 

Gemma's forever Best Friend Liv attended as well as their friend Mia.

Joel and Tonya came down from Oregon to help celebrate. They are her God parents.

Goppy was most thrilled of all. 

Granny and Grampy made sure they had planned to be in town from the UK as well.

We are so proud of Gemma how she has matured this year and followed through on her commitment. She really got involved with so many activities and church functions. 

We planned a big party and it was a race to finish the backyard in time for her party. We got a giant 5ft long Italian Sub for the party. 

The weather could not have been better!! The day before was so cold and literally drizzled with rain all day. It was like living in a cloud. It all cleared up and was sunny and warm. 

Everyone enjoyed the food and cake.

Then it was time for lawn games like Giant Jenga, Mini Golf, and the fan favorite Volleyball.

Our little badminton net got a work out with some serious games of Volleyball.

Then it was relaxation time in the shade.

The party wrapped up about 3PM and Gemma and her friend Lily raced over to Austin's to celebrate with him at his party as well. His party was mostly over by then too and they decided to all go for a round of golf. Austin's Dad was nice enough to take the 5 kids to play 9 holes at Tierra Rejada! What a busy, fun day.