The End of an Era (8th Grade Graduation)

Our family has been at Northshore Christian Academy since September 2009 when A started first grade. On Tuesday June 11th, C graduated from 8th Grade and we said goodbye to NCA. The first graduation event was Commissioning Breakfast. We had a continental breakfast and mingled for a while. The posters made by the students (to represent their past, their present, and their future) were on display. Here is a portion of C's poster.

This next photo was taken by someone from the school during the Commissioning Breakfast. You can see us in the middle if you click on the photo.

Two NCA alumni spoke. A boy who went to a Christian high school and a girl who went to a public high school. They are both graduating from high school now and moving on to college. They gave words of advice for life in high school. We also had a special speaker. He is a pastor and a dad of one of the graduates. At the end the teachers, the principal, and the superintendent each prayed for the kids and we laid hands on them.

I'm in the middle of the photo above in the white cardigan. Afterwards, some of the boys posed.

In the evening there was the Graduation Ceremony.  Here's a breakdown of events.

1. Pomp and Circumstance was played on the piano and the graduates came in, alphabetical order by last name.

2. Special Awards were given out: Valedictorian, salutatorian, the President's Awards for Academic Excellence (C received one). J and I were pleased that both the valedictorian and salutatorian were boys, because of the boy crisis. The salutatorian is one of C's friends.

3. Student speaker selected by the faculty. This was a surprise to the kids. It was an outgoing boy who had a key role in the musical. He prayed at the beginning because he said he was nervous.

4. The advanced choir sang.

5. Commencement Address from guest speaker.

6. Presentation of certificates. Mr. W. (C's history teacher in the photo below) was great at announcing names.

7. Girls Choir and Boys Choir sang The Prayer.

8. Slide show of all the graduates of Then and Now photos. A baby/toddler photo followed by a current photo. It was fun to try to guess them from the old photos which weren't labeled. The current photo was labeled.

Here is C's then and now:

9. Benediction and Introduction of the Graduates.

There was a dessert reception in the lobby. It was extremely crowded and warm.

We got a family photo in front of the school. I took a few photos of C and his friends.

I wish I could have gotten photos of C with more of his teachers. This is C with his band and physics teacher:

This is the band that C plays with.

Some of C's friends went to Red Robin so I took him there. J and A went home. I had a very nice chat with two other moms. We didn't have a chance to eat supper that day since C had to be at the school by 5:15 pm for the group photo. Our group stayed at Red Robin  until almost 11 pm.

The following day there was a graduation party off site planned by a group of moms. I helped a bit with planning and chaperoning. They started with bowling and arcade games at 2:30 pm until 4:30 pm at a bowling alley in Lynnwood. Then they were driven (in various cars by moms and dads) to a large church north of Snohomish for a whole bunch of activities including dinner. J and I arrived for dessert and send off at 8:30 pm. They had a short time of open mike for the kids to say something to everyone. As you can imagine, some are better at that than others. The girls would most likely start crying. To end the evening one of the pastors of the church (a dad of a student) spoke briefly about leaving childhood behind. Each student received a helium balloon and they went out to the large field and released the balloons.

Then all the parents gave their child a sparkler.

It was difficult to get C to leave. We were being attacked by mosquitoes. One of C's really good friends was crying at the end. He told his mom a few days before that there were three friends he'd miss most and one of them was C. That was special to hear.

C will miss his many friends from NCA. I pray that he makes good friends at his high school.




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Selfie Scavenger Hunt for C's Birthday

Well, we did it again. We had an elaborate birthday party for C. It was held on Friday May 31st. This was his 14th birthday.

We started after dismissal at school, where J and I picked up the boys and their stuff which included musical instruments. The boys didn't all fit in my car since I don't have a van anymore.

J gave them instructions for the Selfie Scavenger Hunt. The above photo was taken in the lobby of C's school.

Some items were worth 25 points and the hardest one was 175. There were twenty four "missions."

Here are almost all of the missions.

1. Vending machine
2.  lying on a mattress
3.  life size mini figure (Lego) 
4. with a store manager
5. with a Chick Fil A manager
6. with a teddy bear 
7. with a doll 
8. holding a chain saw (this was just to get them to Lowe's)
9.  shaking hands with a mannequin 
10. with a mall cop 
11. inside a tent 
12. with a a girl with a name beginning with A 
13. with a guy with a name starting with D 
14. holding something with a price tag of $999.99 
15. getting a massage 
16. helping a lady try on a shoe
17. video of singing a love song  
18. with a girl wearing pink. 

Based on the points they got, there were 5 tiers of the food we would buy them at the end.

C told us ahead of time which fast food places are more popular with his friends.

Trash - Jack in the Box
Above Trash - McDonalds
Middle Tier - Little Caesars Pizza, KFC
Next Tier - Wendy's
Top Tier - Chick Fil A.

We dropped the boys off at the mall. They were without any adult supervision for about 4 hours.

We used this great app called GooseChase which we heard about from J's colleague's wife. J was able to monitor them from his laptop while he sat at home!

Here they are at the spice store with the manager.

On the top floor of a parking lot at the mall:

Their point total was just over 2000 so they made it into the top tier. They walked to Chick Fil A when they were done. This is what I saw when I came to pick them up.

One of C's friends plays the viola, as you can see.

When they arrived at our house, they got out their instruments and played in the gazebo, which works very well since it is covered and has built in seats. We did birthday cake pretty late.

The ice cream cake started to melt before we got to present it. It was yummy, though.

The boys were playing their instruments until 10:30 pm.They stayed up talking, yes talking, until after midnight. We told them to go to bed at 12:30 am but I don't think they did that. They didn't play any video games!

In the morning we fed them bacon, eggs, and pancakes. The latest sleeper was lying right next to the screen door in the hallway so that was a challenge. The guests were all gone by 10:30 am.



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What's Blooming in the Garden?

bearded iris

We had a bit of a drought earlier in May but that ended and we had a few days of rain. My garden responded positively and now I have some great blooms. The roses are starting to bloom. This one has the most blooms so far.

Olivia Rose

The climbing rose has started to bloom.

These snapdragons make me smile. They are supposedly annuals but they have been coming back for the last 2 years.

Delphinium are one of my very favourite flowers but I've had some trouble growing them the last few years. I'm thankful that this one is still alive.

The next two are clematis.

I'll post again in a few weeks with more blooms.






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Discovery Park Hike

We had beautiful weather today (Memorial Day). I wanted to go to Discovery Park in Seattle since it is a very large park and it is somewhere the boys have never been.

We started at the North Parking lot. We walked through various meadows with wild flowers.

We descended down toward the water on a shady path. Eventually we reached the lighthouse.

The view from this area is fantastic. We could see a container ship and lots of sailboats.

We stayed there for a while and then found a different, less steep path for our return.

I spotted lots of wild roses on the way back.

This is back at the parking lot.

I was thankful that we could go on a hike on Memorial Day and not deal with long weekend traffic.







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Movin' on Up

C moved up a rank in Boy Scouts earlier this year. He was supposed to be recognized at the Court of Honour in January but my father in law died unexpectedly in January and J and I traveled to his funeral in Ottawa. I asked if C could be recognized at the Court of Honour last week.

He got the rank of Second Class. In C's troop, the tradition is that the boy scout pins his new pin on his mom, then hugs and kisses her and then shakes his dad's hand.

These are the Boy Scout ranks:

1. Scout
2. Tenderfoot
3. Second Class
4. First Class
5. Star
6. Life
7. Eagle

C has almost completed the requirements for First Class so I expect that he will get that rank at the next Court of Honour in the fall.

At the Courts of Honour, the boys plan the food. This last time the theme was Mexican. There is always a slide show of photos from recent activities. Merit badges are also awarded. One of the badges another scout received was Fingerprinting but the boy announcing it accidentally said "Finger Painting." We had a good laugh at that!

My older son A asked to come along so that was great. He took the photos.


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Last Band Concert

The school's Spring Band Concert was last week. The "lasts" have begun. Last Mother's Day chapel, last band concert, etc. C has played the trombone since 5th grade. I've enjoyed all the concerts.

C has loved his band teacher - Mr. Herzer (pictured above).

Their most challenging song that the advanced band did was from Pirates of the Caribbean. They received a standing ovation.

What is cool is that some of the boys have formed their own band and they get together outside of school to practice. One of the boys writes and arranges music. They have saxophones, a trombone, a trumpet, etc. C has been teaching himself to play the drums. We got a drum set for free and have added a few things to it.

I really hope this band continues to play together after graduation. The boys are all going to different schools so it will be a challenge to keep them together.Pin It

National Honor Society

A being inducted. The girls behind him are officers of his NHS chapter.

My son A was inducted into the National Honor Society on Tuesday night. There was a ceremony at his school.

What is the National Honor Society? It is a student organization for high school students (grade 10 and up). Selection is based on four criteria: scholarship, leadership, service, and character.
Students have to maintain a GPA of 3.5 or higher. There is a community service aspect. Our son joined some other students back in November for King 5 TV's food drive which was super early one Saturday morning. They were on TV briefly.

At the ceremony, the officers of the NHS chapter each spoke on the four pillars and how they are represented in the Bible.

A was one of only two sophomore boys who were inducted. Wow! The girls behind him are officers of the NHS chapter at his school. All of them are seniors (as it should be) but all of the officers are girls! There were seven sophomore girls inducted but only two sophomore boys. Do you know about the boy crisis?

Well, back on topic, I'm super proud of A getting this. We didn't push him into this. He heard about it and pursued it on his own.


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Easter Weekend in Victoria 2019

We were able to travel to Victoria as a family for Easter this year. Our boys' Spring Breaks didn't line up so our trip was a short one. We left home on Good Friday. Both boys had school that day (odd for Christian schools) but we decided they would skip in order for us to have a long weekend. We took the Anacortes ferry, as per usual.

We stayed at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel again, even though they have changed their policies and no longer allow anyone under 16 in the pool and spa area. We may not return to this hotel, even though we enjoy it very much, because of this new restriction. The views from this hotel are spectacular. This is the view from our room:

The boys playing cards.

This looks unreal, or photo shopped, but it isn't.

On Saturday we did some shopping in the morning (clothes for the boys) and then in the afternoon we drove along the coast (as per my mom's request) and stopped at many beaches.

One very strange thing happened to us at a beach along Dallas Road. J and the boys were skipping stones. There were some ducks a long way out in the water. J joked about aiming for the ducks. A woman walking by scolded him and said "don't throw rocks at the ducks, they are protected." Good grief! Mind your own business, eh? Why not say (to yourself), isn't that nice, father and son time, out in nature. What a busybody!

My hubby pretending:

Cattle Point:

We discovered one beach and park that we had never been to before (Cadboro/Gyro Park). It has a great playground but our boys are too old for that now. I'd recommend it for families with young kids.

We ate evening meals at Swiss Chalet and The White Spot, good choices for restaurants that aren't too loud. On Easter Sunday morning we enjoyed a very solid sermon from Barton Priebe at Central Baptist where my parents attend. There were props on stage and he used them quite well to tell the story of Peter and his denial and subsequent reconciliation with Christ.

We had some family photos taken at my parents' church. Unfortunately, our photographer cut a head off the best one and I had my eyes closed for another good shot. Here's what we accomplished.

Here's that photo with me and my eyes closed.

We went to the Hotel Grand Pacific for Easter Brunch. The food was amazing. It was a buffet, all you can eat. Breakfast foods, carving table, salads, etc. I loved the chocolate mousse dessert.

We caught the 4 pm ferry from Schwartz Bay (north of the city of Victoria) to Tsawwassen. We stopped at Tim Horton's and then headed for the border. We had no wait at all. We literally didn't stop until we spoke to the agent. That has never happened to us in 20 years of living here.

We didn't get rained on at all during our time in Victoria. Another thing to be thankful for.

I'm so thankful to spend time with my parents.

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Solo Getaway to Whidbey Island

Fort Ebey Beach

My boys' Spring Breaks did not line up this year so we weren't able to go away as a family. However, we will be spending Easter weekend in Victoria. I decided that I needed a break so I went to Coupeville on Whidbey Island for two nights.

I stayed at Anchorage B & B. You can see photos (inside and out) here.

I left at 12:30 pm on Friday afternoon and was able to catch the 1 pm ferry. I arrived at the B&B about 2:15 pm. After checking in, I walked about the town. Coupeville is about the middle point of Whidbey Island. I like Aqua Gifts where I purchased a pretty card to send to a friend.

I stopped for a cup of tea and a lavender shortbread cookie at Lavender Wind Farms. I had dinner (a lamb burger) at Front Street Grill in Coupeville.

I took this photo at sunset.

I'm actually pretty proud of this photo. In the evening, I read one of the many books I brought along.

Saturday morning breakfast at the B&B was at 9 am. A little later than I wanted since I don't really sleep in. My hosts served a delicious crust-less quiche with chicken sausage after yogurt and fruit cup to start. I chatted with the four other guests at the table, two couples.

It was very windy on Saturday morning. It reminded me of Victoria weather. I searched out thrift stores in Oak Harbor. I visited an antique store called Oldish stuff and then Island Thrift where I found a few goodies.

Next I went to Fort Ebey State Park beach and spent an hour or so there.

I saw seven seals in the ocean. My photo was taken without a zoom lens so I had to crop it, in order for the seals to be visible. You can probably see 3 seals in my photo. They weren't far from shore.

I went to a large thrift store in Freeland where I bought a robins egg blue sweater/cardigan. I made a quick stop at Bayview Gardens. They have a famous laburnum flowering arch which will be blooming later in the Spring.

I walked around Langley but most shops were closing since it was now 5 pm. My favourite shop in Langley is Flying Bear Flowers. The smell (of all the fresh flowers) as you open the door is amazing!

I sat outside for a while, enjoying the sunshine, waiting to get into the restaurant. I love magnolia trees and spotted this one.

While walking along, I saw this little guy in the grass in front of a B&B.

I ate dinner at Saltwater Fish House in Langley. I had fish and chips and strawberry mousse for dessert.

The fish was battered just to my liking and the mousse was incredible!

I didn't like driving 30 minutes to get back to my B&B so I wish I had planned that better. Langley is in south part of Whidbey Island. I walked a lot that day so I was pretty tired and slept well.

Sunday morning I got up at 7 am and was on the road at 8 am. I just missed the 8:30 ferry but got the 9 am one. My B&B provided yogurt, a pastry, and a banana for me but I need something more substantial in the morning so I got a breakfast sandwich from Starbucks. I came back in time for 10 am church.


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