William's 14th Birthday

Uncle Ryan was able to stay in town through the holiday weekend and celebrate William's birthday with us before heading back to NYC.  (Fun fact, I was heading to NYC for work, so we flew "home" together!)

We had hoped to get a birthday dinner when Grandma and Grandpa were in town, but volleyball went late on Saturday night so we only had time for takeout and leftovers.  But the four of us snuck in a trip to the teppanyaki on Monday for his official celebration. 

Birthday donuts and presents for an early celebration when everyone was here

He was happy to be spending the weekend playing volleyball!  And he had a big cheering section.  I had forgotten until seeing this photo that they played girls that weekend.   Girls at this age tend to have a more finessed game.  The question is whether the boys are significantly taller or stronger yet.  Usually it is competitive.

Portillo's chocolate cake for birthday celebration #2

Shinto teppanyaki and a dessert charcuterie board

ASCA Graduation

William graduated from 8th grade and was treated to a post-graduation celebration complete with French pastries.  It was a very full weekend with the graduation activities at school, a weekend volleyball tournament (thankfully at his club, so the commute back-and-forth was manageable) and visitors from Kansas (Grandma and Grandpa VanMeter) and New York (Uncle Ryan).   It was a great few days focused on everyone's favorite son, grandson and nephew! 

ASCA - 8th Grade Wrap-up

With All Saints being a Preschool - 8th grade school, there are a lot of "graduation" and special recognition for the graduating 8th grade class as they all get ready to head to their respective high schools.  Two of those are the ribbon mass and the awards assembly. 

Khakis and the 8th grade sweatshirt (William had two so we didn't have to do laundry so often...) are going to be my memory of this past year.   It will be odd to see him transition to a new uniform in the fall and over the next four years.

William was recognized for being on the A/B honor roll and we also got to take home his sports banners from this year.  

In May they also had a field trip to Fermi Lab, a clap out where the little kids (and parents) ringed the blacktop (pictured above) and a Bueller Day in Chicago with visits to some iconic landmarks, an architecture cruise, and a stop at Dave & Busters (not sure the tie in there except fun!).  I can only see William's shoes in this photo.  The black sneakers in the left back....

One of the final photos they do is the kids in the sweatshirts for their chosen high school.   Of his class of ~60, about 20 chose St. Francis High School, a Catholic school near Naperville with around 700 kids (the blue and white sweatshirts).   About 30 (including all the boys from William's math class) chose Benet Academy, a nearby Benedictine Catholic school with around 1,300 kids.   A handful will go to the public high school for their neighborhood (each have about 3,000-4,000 kids) and a few will go to other Catholic or Christian schools.   

Benet Class of 2027

Lucy

We were still hoping we could rescue a dog, and it was almost crazy how quickly we found our perfect pup!   Lucy was being fostered by a local rescue agency where my neighbors had volunteered.   This group takes a Sprinter van to Kentucky every other Friday to rescue cats and dogs from a high kill animal shelter.   They place the dogs with foster families for 3-4 weeks or so to make sure they are healthy, get them through their first rounds of preventatives and for them to be spayed and neutered.   I saw Lucy on their website and was smitten.  Turned out she was being fostered about 10 minutes from us so we arranged a meet-and-greet.   Once we found out our family was a good fit, we scheduled a meeting between Lucy and Rosie since we knew we would be having them together a lot.  All was well, and Lucy has a great addition to our family!  She was advertised as an 18 month of lab-mix who just had a litter of 5 girl puppies.  But we think she's about 3 and a pitbull-labrador-something else.   She's 50 pounds of fun is what she is!

She loves to be inside the pool with us.  She never gets in the water, but she watches the neighborhood - both people and wildlife- as well as forages for snacks among the greenery.

She's really my spirit animal:  her favorite things are naps in the sunshine and being near her people.  She doesn't bark, rarely jumps and is overall just a super chill dog.  Every once in awhile she gets the sillies and races through the house.  And every time she gets her food dish, she does a happy prance.   We couldn't be happier to have her.  

Suki

After six years without our own dog, we decided it was time to adopt.   I had early on said no puppies because I didn't want to potty train.  I spent many months following a local German Shepherd rescue for the perfect for us dog and found Suki.   She was estimated at 5 years old, a quiet girl who had some medical conditions (including mild hip dysplasia), but I was envisioning gentle walks and teaching her to swim in the pool.   Alas, it wasn't meant to be.  We knew she had been returned previously by a family that had 5-6 people who were frequently coming and going,  but were told it was because she needed a "quiet" house and routine.  We're very quiet and only 3 so I wasn't concerned about that.   Not sure whether this was the same behavior she exhibited there, but she was very protective of her kennel and then became protective of William and aggressive toward John.    After a week, we had to return her to her foster, as we didn't feel it would be safe for us to keep her and work through her guarding.   I did see later that she was adopted by a rural couple who had 2 other GSDs and looked like she was fitting in really well.