Future Plans

 

Happy Birthday!

 to me!

Nicholas had recently had his turn at Grandma and Grandpa's so they made me this cookie.

I happened to get a lot of gifts this year, the kids had each gotten me some small things.

I threw this dress onto an Amazon wish list when my mom asked me for birthday ideas and I'm super happy with it!  First day of School outfit, taken care of!

Thanks everyone!

Last One

And coming in dead last in the race to get out of school...Samuel!

Gone are the days of UNL getting out in early May.  Samuel says they added a three week course during Christmas break so 2nd semester is pushed back a bit.  But he's home now!
 

Made It!

They made it through all the graduation fun and then had to go back to school for three more days!

But they made it!

Ready for sophomore year!

Ready to be an 8th grader!

 

The Last First/Last Day Split

 This one hurts my heart a little.  

Week O Fun 2nd Edition: Sunday

Despite my worries about Thomas's party that either no one would come because it was Mother's Day or everyone would come and stay and eat a lot because there were no other parties, the party was great.

People did come and stay and eat a lot but thanks to my great family, there was enough food.  I "deployed the aunts" and asked all the ladies in my family to bring something again.  Everyone brought a big batch of whatever appetizer they wanted (or four, again, in Pat's case) and we had a great variety of tasty treats.  Thomas made a nice display of his things, Philip put together a great slide show, my mom made a fun cake and Nicholas brought things for the kids to play.  Beth brought her confetti cannon which was super fun, and maybe showed some guests a different side of the Vrana family.  Julia made an appetizer and Jeremy cleaned and set up the hall before hand so it was a family affair just like last year.  

We used the weird half Thomas to trick people when they walked in.  If you don't remember the story, this is what I got when I ordered a big head of him earlier in the year because the big head manufacturer said they "couldn't crop to just the head."  Some of his underclassmen friends asked if they could have it because they wanted to take it to lunch at school the next day.  I decided I could let go of it!  😊 The actual big head is somewhere in the decorations...

In hindsight, I'm glad Fr. Kennet found the confetti cannon hilarious.  He even wanted to push the button.  There are other priests I know who it would have made anxious about clean up.  The kids loved sweeping up the confetti so clean up was actually not a problem.  For my future reference, I bought two pounds of confetti (1 pound each red and yellow) and we used about 2/3 of it which was setting the cannon off every half hour or so.

It was a great ending to a fun week!

Week O Fun 2nd Edition: Saturday- Graduation!

Saturday was Graduation Day!  Lynn helped me finish up my appetizers that morning and we headed to graduation after lunch.  The night before Fr. Lee told us his bet was 38 minutes for the ceremony.  When he stood up to give the last address I realized he could very easily win that bet by making his comments however long he needed to hit 38 minutes.  It was close.  The official timer said 39 minutes. 

Class of 2023

Getting the diploma!

Fan club afterwards!

Congratulations Thomas!  We are so proud of all your hard work in classes and dedication to your activities during high school.  I know you will do well in college, especially since you'll be learning about things you are very interested in.  I think construction is a great pick for you.  Best wishes for your future!  (And as soon as you learn a little more about construction, I have some projects around home in mind...)

We hit five parties (I think) after graduation and had a wonderful time.  I enjoyed not having Thomas's the party the day of again this year.  Last year graduation was not Mother's day weekend, which is actually unusual so picking Sunday was easy.  This year when I saw it had cycled back to Mother's day weekend I debated having the party on Sunday or not.  In the end I decided I have lots of Mother's days and he only has one graduation.  I got really nervous when we started getting invitations and no other BN parties were on Mother's Day.  That meant either no one was coming or everyone would come and stay because there were no other parties to go to.  Thank goodness for a family that is good at food and willing to help!

Coming in Third

 In the race of last days was Nicholas!

He did in fact, get the traditional crepe paper trail.  And I reveled in only having one to do.

There's getting to be more and more people around the house!

Week O Fun 2nd Edition: Friday

Friday was my day to finally get it together and make my appetizers for Thomas's party.  Correctly.  I was a little gun shy so I did not double the brownie recipe and not surprisingly, when I put in all the right amounts, the brownies turned out just fine.  My Grandma Carlson probably watched me and thought "I told you so, when you follow a recipe exactly, it works."  Yep Grandma, you're right.  I correctly made double batch later and between the good ones and the iffy ones, there were a LOT of brownie bites.  I also made spinach dip bites.  Why all the bites?  Because I bought two 24 cup mini muffin pans of course.  Everything around here will be mini until the novelty wears off!

I also made 4 batches of my homemade Dots and a sausage cream cheese dip that Thomas requested.  But not all on Friday.  Some of that was Saturday morning.  

Note to self: I put a note on my phone with what everyone made for the party, how much and what was left over.  Find that note, Self, when it's time for Julia's party.

Friday was also Nicholas's last day of school. 15 minutes before he arrived home I remembered to make the crepe paper trail.  Thomas helped a little since the wind made it extra challenging.

There were lights for his bike tire at the end.

Julia and Philip got some encouragement to make it through the last three days.

That evening we went to some parties and Lynn and Augustine spent the night since they went to Max L's party and didn't want to drive back up for graduation on Saturday. 

Week O Fun 2nd Edition: Thursday

Thursday's fun was District Track.  We headed to David City to watch Thomas throw.  He made finals for the first time of the year so he was happy.  His PR throw was 39 feet 5 inches.  Good job Thomas!

The boys ended up winning districts and sending four guys (I think) to State.

The girls won districts too and sent a whopping 12 girls to State and then won the state title!  Congratulations girls!

After districts I took off to take Julia to the orthodontist and then she and I got our nails done!  Jeremy had given me a gift certificate for Valentine's day with enough on it to take Julia too because she's always wanted a manicure.  We thought it would be fun to have pretty nails for graduation festivities.  We didn't take any pictures though because it's hard to take pictures while you are getting a manicure!

2nd One Out

Thomas was the second one out of school.  His last day of classes was the same as mine but then they go Monday for grad practice and their final field trip. Tuesday seniors only go if they have things to make up, then Wednesday is the Baccalaureate Mass and parent lunch and they are out officially after that.

 

Week O Fun 2nd Edition: Wednesday

Wednesday was Thomas's official last day of school.  All there is for the seniors is the Baccalaureate Mass and lunch with parents afterwards.  

Thomas received an award for having the highest grade in Modern Literature.  He was moderately impressed.  Apparently there were only two seniors plus a handful of underclassmen and he felt he was easily the smartest kid in the class.

When we got home from the lunch I tried again on the brownie bites.  This time I correctly doubled the butter but did not double the eggs.  Another disaster.  And by this time I was running short on ingredients.  😠

Then that evening we had the Marathon Fine Arts Banquet.  No, marathon is not in the official name but boy oh boy was it long.  Way longer than the sports awards night even if you allow fine arts an extra 45 minutes for everyone to eat.  Thomas received one award, his band letter, which took about 20 seconds of the 3 hours.  Oh, and he got the nifty stand up of himself.  Everyone else seems to think this long standing tradition is so cool.  I think, "What the heck are we going to do with that after we put it out at the graduation party?!"  

(Side note:  Sam is moving into a townhouse this fall.  I am totally smuggling his little band stand up into his house so it's out of mine.  Don't tell him.)

Thankfully Julia also participates in Fine Arts so we didn't just have Thomas's 20 seconds of recognition.  She received her drama participation award and her awards that the One Act earned in their competitions.  Since the musical is not competitive there weren't any awards for it (Thank goodness!  That would have added on another half hour!) but the cast and crew did get to stand and be recognized.

She also got her band participation as well as being chosen as one of the "Freshmen of the Year" for band! There's always two, Gabe was the other one.  Nice job Julia!

It was a nice night even if it was spectacularly long!

Week O Fun 2nd Edition: Tuesday

On Tuesday Thomas only had to go to school for band and track practice.  They are unfortunately at the beginning and end of the day respectively.  But in the middle he and I went party grocery and decoration shopping!

We ventured to the south part of Lincoln and got all of our errands ran on that side of town, including meeting Lynn and Levi for lunch.  There was a party store I'd never been to near where we ate at so we tried it out.  It was every bit as good as the one Sam and I went to last year and much less picked over because it's in a little strip mall in a weird shopping area.  Mental note for in three years!

Didn't get a pic of the shopping but here is Levi enjoying the fire station themed sandwich shop.

When we got home I wanted to make brownie bites for Thomas's party.  I  proceeded to make a disaster instead by incorrectly doubling the butter for the recipe.  I put in a half cup too much in two double batches.  Sam tried to do the math so I could fix them after I baked the first batch and figured out what I'd done but it only sort of helped.  😞😣

Later that evening we had our second event of the day, the band concert.  All the bands sounded great!

Philip and the junior high band performed nicely.  From our angle you can only see the top of his head while he was playing.   See the short little blonde guy in the trumpet row?  That's him.

Julia did a nice job and although she didn't have any official solos, she was the only one on 2nd flute so there were a couple spots we knew the harmony was her.

Thomas did a nice job for his last concert.  We all know he will never touch a trombone again in his life but he did enjoy being in band.  Mostly.  The band will miss this large group of seniors.  

 Next year we'll swap out Nicholas for Thomas.

Freshman friend

I think these four started out on trombone.  Well, maybe only one of the twins?  We have known Jordan and Dawson literally their whole lives, Jeremy has worked with their dad for almost twenty years, and it was my goal to be able to tell them apart by graduation-I failed miserably.  Anyway, Dawson does drums now and Jordan switched to tuba.  I have a 50/50 chance of having gotten that right.

The seniors again.

And with that, day two was over.

Week O Fun 2nd Time Around: Monday

Monday is a slower day in the Week O Fun.  The seniors have graduation practice and go on their Senior field trip.  They went to see Jesus Revolution and then ate at Pizza Ranch.  It's also Drive Something Different to School day (Is that the real name?  If it is, it's accurate but dumb.)  We don't have anything cool and Grandpa Steve has gotten rid of both his tractor and motorcycle so Thomas convinced his friend Adam to bring his ATV to the fairgrounds and then Thomas drove it to school.

Week O Fun 2nd Time Around

Last year I dubbed the week leading up to graduation as the Week O Fun.  There's just so many fun things to do!

Not listed the 15 parties we went to for 18 kids! (We were invited to 25 this year!)  Since graduation was Mother's Day weekend this year the parties were more spread out.  We went to four of them the week before and five of them the week after so only six of them (plus Thomas's) fell during the actual Week O Fun.

To revisit Samuel's Week O Fun follow this link which will take you to May 2022.

First One Out!

 I have to admit, it's not one of my best qualities.  I LOVE to brag about being the first one out of school!

Look at these adorable treats I got from a kid whose mom is especially good at gift giving!

I'm ready for summer!!

May the 4th

Our local bakery made these cute donuts for May the 4th.  The kids liked them a lot better than the blue milk last year.

I thought she was brilliant because it doesn't look like they are much extra work and she was selling a LOT of them!

Athletic Awards Night

Covid killed the banquet part of the night.  But it was two hours as it was, I can only imagine how much time eating would have added on!

Thomas lettered in Football, Wrestling and Track and received four year participation awards for each of those sports as well.

He was one of only five four-year three-sports athletes in his class.  And to think he was regretting doing track.  He wouldn't have gotten the nice shiny certificate.  ;) 

The senior boys.

The football team.

And, just in case we don't have enough pictures with the wrestling trophy, here's one more!

Each coach comes up and says some things about the season.  Coach Braunsroth always says nice things about all the seniors as well.  This year he was wearing an eye patch and quipped, "I haven't seen my prosthetic eye since I showed it to the seniors.  I think Cade has it!"  One mom leaned back looking horrified and asked me, "Do they really have it?!"  No.  Obviously she doesn't know Coach well enough to know he would never tolerate them having it that long.  Also she probably didn't know the seniors see the eye on the last day of practice which was back in mid-February.  It made me laugh really hard.  (He actually noticed something wasn't right when he showed the seniors and then had to have surgery.  He's wearing the eye patch during recovery.)

You've had a great athletic career, Thomas, we're so proud of your accomplishments!

Running as Fast as He Can

Turns out Philip is pretty good at track.  We think feeling the need to keep up with his older brothers may have contributed to his speed.  ☺  He threw shot and disc a couple times but mostly he has been running the 100m, 200m and won a spot on the 4x1 7th grade relay team.  Usually 7th and 8th run together so he comes in in the middle of the pack with lots of 8th graders ahead of him.  It will be fun to see how he does next year!  

He runs the third leg of the relay so good luck figuring out which one is him in this photo!

The last couple meets only allowed the top three kids from 7th and 8th combined to be entered in each event so he won't run because there are other kids ahead of him.

Good season Philip!