Happy Birthday!

My mom and Nicholas made me a nice cake and Jeremy took me out for sushi later in the week.  He also bought me a fitbit.  I've walked 10,000 steps 7 of the 9 days I've had it!  Apparently it is working as a motivator.

Yummy!

In May I always have to remind myself to enjoy the quiet summer time.  Those days with some of the kids still in school and little for me to do feel slow but then June hits and we're busy!

This year I used the time to try a new bread.  It's called Babka, this particular one is pecan, and the dough has to go in the fridge overnight, hence why I've never made it before.  

 It was as tasty as it looks!!

First Project of the Summer!

 Marble run.

Planning

Gluing

Playing

It was a hit!

One Last Split

This one hurts my heart just a little bit.
 

They're *Finally* Done Too

It's a little annoying when everyone in your family is out of school and you have 4 days left but they made it!

Senior year starts now!

And Freshman year, here she comes!

Graduation: Week O' Fun- Sunday

Boy was I happy after graduation when other families were scurrying off to get parties going and I was just leisurely enjoying the afternoon.  I loved our decision to have the party the next day!  It turned out there weren't very many parties on Sunday so people stayed longer which was fun too.

Because of parking issues and a distrust of Nebraska weather in mid-May we decided to have the party at the church hall.  I farmed out a lot of the party responsibilities and it worked out really nicely.

As we attended parties last year I noticed all the moms pushing pulled pork and saying "Eat more!  We have way too much!"  But everyone is full from party hopping so I decided maybe appetizers were the way to go.  Samuel didn't have an opinion on what we ate so I called my sisters and aunts and mother-in-law and they all brought an appetizer (or 4 in Pat's case!).  Julia also helped with the appetizers by making pigs in a blanket and meatball bombs.  Our family is good at food.

Grandma Susan made a nice cake as always.  There was none left over, unlike most graduation parties.  I didn't get a slice but that's okay, some of it was red inside and I didn't want red teeth!!

Philip was in charge of the slide show, although despite me asking 100 times if there were pictures of Samuel with people, not just by himself, there were approximately 250 pictures of Sam alone and 50 of him with people. Samuel and I did some adding and editing and the slide show was great.  All those pictures from the blog that I said were going in the senior slide show?  They made it in!  :)

Nicholas was in charge of kid entertainment.  He made a 33 item list.  My favorites are the two naps!  He says they didn't do half of it, but from what I heard the kids had a blast.  There was a big game of baseball going when I went outside.  Baumans, Vranas, Kabes and Shoenecks are enough kids for two teams, boys against girls!

Samuel was in charge of the display.

Jeremy and Thomas helped haul things and put up the decorations.  Lots of other family helped set things up too.

I took screen shots of funny Samuel stories that are on the blog and printed them to put on the tables.

And here is the one photo I took during the party:

It was a fun party!  Thanks to everyone who helped!

We're so proud of you Samuel, congratulations on all your achievements in high school!  I know you'll do even greater things at UNL.

And that wrapped up the Week O' Fun.  Same times, same places next year?

Graduation: Week O' Fun- Saturday

Saturday was actual graduation!  The ceremony was nice, Neumann prides itself on graduation not being super long and it wasn't.

We had family over for lunch beforehand since the party wasn't until the next day.  It was nice to get to chat with everyone.  Then we were off to graduation.

Neumann (along with many high schools) has eliminated class rank, so all the kids with a 4.0 grade point average who were also in National Honor Society (6 of them) voted amongst themselves for who would speak.  Carlee Zwick spoke at the beginning of the ceremony and Samuel spoke at the end.  He did a nice job.  Lots of people were surprised that Samuel was funny and not just dry.  Strong Carlson genes.  We'll see how the video turned out.  I asked Julia to tape it so I could just listen and she switched from portrait to landscape half way through (insert angry face here).  

Diploma in hand!

Did you mention how many football coaches you had?

Most of the fan club.

Always a wrestler.

Class of 2022!

Then it was off to classmates' parties!  We hit four parties, which was 11 kids!  We saved Gokies' for last so we could hang out with friends at the end of the evening which was fun as always.

Graduation: Week O' Fun- Friday

Friday was get ready for Sam's party day and the last day of school for Nicholas and Philip.

All done!

First day/ Last day split

Philip is done with St. Wenceslaus!  On to Bishop Neumann!

On to 4th grade for Nicholas!

We had our traditional crepe paper trail for the last day.

Status of the day:

Julia and Thomas needed a morale booster since they still have 4 more days of school.

I got a preview of Sam's diploma too.  It's fun that Fr. Lee is the one who is graduating my kid.

Later that evening we started our weekend of partying by going to Katie Sousek's and Teresa Quinn's grad parties.  No cooking this weekend for me!!

Graduation: Week O' Fun- Thursday

Thursday's Week O' Fun activities were district track and the St. Wenceslaus color run.  Thomas did not compete at Districts but Samuel threw shotput and ran the 200.

It was super hot for the first time all season but thankfully shotput had a little shade to hang out in and then we watched some discus in the shade too.  After a four hour wait we watched Sam run.  And I thought wrestling had a bad watch your kid to time there ratio!

Sam didn't make it to finals in either event but both the boys and girls teams were district champs!

Roll Cavs!

Since Sam didn't run in the finals we got home in time for me to take Nicholas to the grade school color run.  He had decided the day before that he would like to go.  We hadn't been before and hadn't registered ahead of time so we got there right when registration was supposed to start.  We had plenty of time.  I got recruited to spray kids with color which was fun, and I got to talk to Jenny Abler for the third time that week.  That probably about equals about half the times I've chatted with her in all the years Samuel and Zane were in school together, and they've been together since Kindergarten.  (Not that I don't like her, they just live kind of far away from us so I don't run into her.)

Nicholas had a marvelous time.

Jenny mentioned they were picking up Chinese for dinner, which I thought sounded like an amazing idea.  And since the new owners of the restaurant are still working out how to speedily fill orders along with a monster rain storm that blew threw, Jenny and I got to chat for another half hour.

The boys got stuck at Neumann for a little bit due to the storm but they used the time to shower up so it wasn't so bad, we needed the rain anyway!

Graduation: Week O' Fun- Wednesday

The Week O' Fun continued Wednesday morning with the baccalaureate Mass.  The seniors received their academic awards and then there was a lunch for them with their parents. 

The two medals he's wearing show that Samuel graded summa cum laude and was part of National Honor Society.

That evening we had the Fine Arts Award Banquet.

Thomas lettered in band.

Samuel also lettered in band.

He also got the Ideal Bandsman award that is given to a senior each year for being a good leader and example to others in band.  Teresa and Zane also won special senior awards.

Here are all the seniors in fine arts.  Notice the super spiffy cutouts that are a long standing senior band/show choir tradition.  Jen's is still at Steve and Raleen's house, Jeremy thinks he didn't get one for some reason.  Prize to the first parent who convinces their kid to take that thing out of their house.  They look cool but what are you supposed to do with them?!

Congratulations on another great band year Samuel and Thomas!