All Done and Just beginning....

Here we are at the end of another great year. For most of the world, the year is only half over, but in my world...and for almost all of my life...I have measured years by the school calendar. You can ask me about any time in my life, or my family's life and it will be defined by what grade I was in, or what grade the girls were in. So...another year done and with that comes our top 10 Rahn events that closed out our last few weeks:

1. Mother's Day

Pedis for all

2. Nice Weather 
The weather was finally nice outside and Don took full advantage of no rain, no snow, and warm!

3. Katie's Chorus Concert
 Katie finished her first full year of Middle School Chorus and was chosen to do the sign language interpretation of a song for the end of year concert.

Katie is back row, third in from the left

4. Memorial Day weekend 
A beautiful weekend with perfect weather. We spent a day at Mom and Dad's community pool and also the top came off the jeep for the first time.

5. Katie's artwork
Katie created a beautiful art project at school and it was on display in the library.

hot pink, with her new bangs...

6. Carleigh 8th grade awards
Carleigh had her "end of middle school" awards ceremony. We are so proud of her, she received the Presidential Academic Excellence Award for maintaining straight A's throughout her middle school years.

Carleigh and friends after the awards

7.  Carleigh English Project
At the end of eighth grade, the English students have to create this BIG project where they demonstrate their growth in reading and writing in a creative and different way. They have to come up with a metaphor to explain their growth and then weave that metaphor into their demonstration. All of the projects are then displayed for the parents and visitors to come and see. It was VERY impressive!

At school

Carleigh with friends during the demonstration time

8. Katie fake birthday
Due to our crazy end of school year plans, we had an early birthday celebration for Katie with our family. Her real birthday isn't until June 30, but we wanted to catch Rosie and Gwen before they headed to France for a few weeks.

9. The last day of 6th grade and 8th grade
Katie is very excited to be a seventh grader, and Carleigh is ready for high school. I don't think I am, so it's good that she is the one going. :)

ready for 9th grade

ready for 6th grade

10. Ana's Going Away Party
One of Carleigh's best friends is moving away. Ana and Carleigh quickly became very close through the musicals and their time at Blue Ridge, and Ana is moving back to Spain. Carleigh had a going away party for her, the first "real" party that she has hosted. 25 rising Freshman in the backyard and on the deck. It was a huge success and Carleigh was on top of the world!

Ana is in the middle, seated

 So...now what? As the title of this post said, "All Done and Just Beginning." That would definitely explain our household right now. We are winding down our school years and gearing up for some fun summer adventures and lots of new adventures come September! Don is excited to transition from elementary school to 6th grade Science next year in a brand new building, with a great new principal. Carleigh is excited to begin her high school career at Loudoun Valley High School. Katie and I will be together in 7th grade at Blue Ridge, though I have already arranged for her to "be as far away from me as possible." She will have teachers on the other team of 7th grade, so as not to give us TOO much together time during the day. ;)

But first...we must get our Disney Fix! In 5 days we will be heading to Orlando and boarding the Disney Fantasy for a 7 night cruise to the Western Caribbean!! My mom is coming with us, so we should have LOTS of fun stories to share!

Stay tuned for the Rahn family adventures during the summer of 2014!!