Culley's Corner: May

It always surprises me when I take big events out of the month and do separate posts on them, and then I realize there's still so much that happened in that month besides! May is no exception.

Senior year started getting real when the requests for baby pictures, tributes, and ceremony invites started coming. I had to dig up some old dance pictures for the recital program, and oh my cuteness.

I mean…come on.

Sof lost another tooth.

The countdown to the summit started at cheer. They had a calendar of all their practices prior to leaving, and they crossed them off as they went!

Since the Summit was after the normal season, we had the end of season banquet before we went.

Each girl gets a certificate of achievement for the season.

There were 3 special awards that were voted on by the team. Lexi received the MVP award, and we were so proud. Being a good teammate is so much more important than being a good cheerleader.

It was a year of ups and downs, but there’s lessons in everything and we’re thankful for this season of learning.

The girls have made such good friends through this program. One of the girls Sof used to cheer with, left the cheer program to pursue dance. Wouldn’t ya know it, her studio was competing at the same time as Adrienne’s one weekend! The girls got to reunite, and we got to cheer Isabella on in her duo!

Dance has been such a big part of our life, and it felt surreal to think it was going to come to an end.

It was an amazing season. We were so happy to have Livy join company and spend this year with Adrienne. We were sappy about it every time!

Sof is a cheerleader with a dream to be a gymnast. I get her to the gym twice a week before school because she loves her 3 minutes of time on the cement balance beam.

It’s always a treat when Daddy is home to walk to the bus stop:)

We had a send off for the girls at cheer. Friends and family were invited to come and see the girls perform their Summit routine one last time before they head off to the real deal!

Adrienne participated in a ceremony to induct the new class of juniors into the National Honor Society.

The biggest thing to happen in second grade at our school is the bird unit. Sof was obsessed. She can still name just about every bird she sees. I don’t even think I like birds. Our first day back from Florida was the big culminating bird assembly and activity day. The kids were told to dress like their assigned bird ~~because the school hates me and is laughing at me.~~ Some kids chose a cardinal or a chickadee. Awesome for you! Just wear red or f’ing yellow. Woo-hoo! My kid chose the hummingbird which is the bird world’s version of a gypsy. Like every single weird color in that damn thing. Thank God for Target and Aunt Anne.

Sof told me later that only the male hummingbirds actually have the color on their chest. Eye roll. As if bird day wasn’t enough, we had to have “special person” day at mileage club. My kid doesn’t even like doing mileage club, but Lord have mercy if a special person doesn’t show up.

You can believe it was some serious TGIF by Friday.

We arrived at Adrienne’s last regional competition that weekend. The last time we would see the girls compete locally. We still had recital and nationals ahead of us, but it was still another last. The senior dance ended up with a perfect score and first place in the competition. It was literally amazing.

Before this competition we were told that all the senior kids and their moms were going to have a picture taken. So I asked several times during the day when this would be happening. It was Saturday night and I had a dance to get Lexi off to, and we had an offer to meet up with some friends later. I was waiting to commit to any of it until I knew when I’d be done at dance. I was told they were just going to do individual pics because it was too difficult to get everyone together. So Adrienne and I had ours taken and I made plans to leave after her dances were done, but before awards.

I went home and got Lexi off to her dance.

Feeling like my mothering duties were done, we met some friends for an evening out. Adrienne soon called me to inform me that EVERYONE had stayed for awards. That the senior dance won everything. And that they did take a mom daughter picture after awards. In hindsight, had I known that’s how it was going to go down, I might have skipped the night out and went back to competition. But I didn’t, so whatevs. The good news??? Em was still there(cause her kid can’t drive, so she has to stay the whole time just like I did when my kid was that age). As the group got assembled Adrienne ran to find Em and they jumped in the picture. Right in the front. #worldsokayistmom

On another note, that night we went to this cute little all MI-made- products-small-menu place. It was there that I discovered a new drink I loved, that became my summer drink of choice. So see, silver linings. Sometimes we have to sacrifice important milestone pictures with our children in order to get to a new level of sophistication for our palate. (I should probably trademark that hence Hallmark get any ideas to make a greeting card) PS. That picture was prominently placed in the recital program. Full page color. (insert eye roll)

I’m happy to report I was in attendance for the entirety of Adrienne’s senior honors banquet. I cannot tell you how impressive this ceremony is. These kids have already accomplished so much and are now off to do great things!

School days were feeling like a drag by the end of May. But this girl always has a smile in the morning.

Memorial day weekend came a not a moment too soon. We kept it pretty low key. John and Jill came over one night to hang out, and before you knew it was midnight and our kids were asking us to watch a play.

Lexi had a Foodstirs box she hadn’t used yet. She let Sof help her make rainbow cake pops to bring to a BBQ at Scott and Liz’s. They were a lot of work, but turned out so cool!

It was an awesome day to be poolside.

Mark was able to get tickets to the LPGA again. We went with Anne and Rick and it couldn’t have turned out better for Anne and I. They apparently started early because rain threats, and we didn’t know that until we got there. Rick and Mark ran off to catch the end, and Anne and I sat at the clubhouse and had lunch.

We went back to Em and Steve’s afterwards to hang out for the evening. Sof and Natalie were happy because Anne was running a blanky hospital. All the holes were fixed!