Can you believe it? We have a high schooler. Katy had her first day of high school on Monday. They are doing a block schedule this year, so she only went to half of her classes. The best story from the first day was that she got her locker for PE. Immediately put all her stuff (including the combination she was just given) in the locker and locked it. She had to stay late for a little while so they could find her combination for her again..
We went to pick up the girls at camp. Sam is pretty well convinced that he will be going there next year. Once I get the pictures from Katy and Margaret, I’ll post them here as well. I don’t know if Katy washed her feet while she was there.
Katy got back from her trip with the Yonenaga’s to Japan. It sounds like it was better than we could have imagined. She got to spend some time in Tokyo as well as various other places. She got to experience lots of real Japanese culture with Jenna and her extended family. She dressed up as a Maiko (with the white face and everything). She got to stay in authentic Japanese hotels and homes. She ended up in Iwakuni where her Papa Jesse was stationed 40 years ago. Here are his pictures. I know that Katy saw some of the same things on her trip.
UPDATE: More pictures are here.
While Katy was in Kyoto, she and Jenna got dressed up like Maikos. Elizabeth and I saw the pictures and didn’t realize it was Katy and Jenna.
Katy and Margaret had their end of the year piano recital. Luckily, we went to the wrong church the week before and then finally to the right church when we figured out that we were a week early. We knew where and when this time.
Katy had her 8th grade graduation. She managed to be “Principal’s Scholar” because she got all A’s in all 12 quarters of middle school. She was one of about 35 in her grade to get it. We are very proud of her. She worked hard for this. There are also a few pictures from a few days ago when Katy went to the 8th grade dance.
Susan has been taking one child at a time to see the opera in San Jose over the last few months. It is a big day out with the opera and supper at a fancy restaurant and all. Well, she decided to take all 3 of them to see Carmen. They all had a great time and when they got home, Elizabeth was here to meet them as a surprise.
Katy is continuing to love diving. This was one of her last classes for the first level that she was in. She has since moved up to a higher level with only girls 13-18 in it. She really does seem to like it. We found out that there are 2 other girls on the high school diving team, they are looking forward to having her join them next spring.
We celebrated Katy’s birthday. It is hard to believe she is 14. High school next year. We celebrated at the Springer’s.
Grandma Pat and I went to see Katy dive today. She has come along pretty well. Here she is doing a back tuck off the 1 meter board. It looks like beginning in March, she is going to move up into “Level 5”. Basically, that means she will be officially in the diving program as opposed to just in the beginning to dive class.
Correction: Katy has told me she did a back dive tuck, not a back tuck dive.