Owen: End of 5th grade

Owen was a class representative for SCA and was able to participate in a few special activities during the year, including the Veteran's Day assembly and Earth Day assembly. For Earth Day, each SCA member created a costume out of recyclable materials. Owen was pretty excited about the costume he made from boxes!

We've joked that Owen needs to learn how to eat pasta before taking anyone on a date to an Italian restaurant. I was feeling pretty guilty about the kids never having been to Olive Garden so we used the opportunity to have Owen practice his pasta-eating skills ;) 

Another tooth gone!

We didn't know what a typical 5th grade graduation was like since Willow had a drive-thru graduation during COVID. It was a nice ceremony with a few songs performed and lots of recognition given out. Owen took it very seriously whenever the teachers mentioned dressing their best for graduation. Gramma took him out shopping to find a nice collared shirt and he picked out his tie as well. Chris can't believe that he's related ;)

We get a kick out of Owen's nostrils flaring any time that he's trying to hold back a smile. It's hard to ignore your family when they're in the 2nd row!!

song #1

song#2

song#3

Owen enjoyed learning to play the ukulele in music class. It's actually what helped us convince him to try band in middle school instead of "interest block" (art, home ec, computer, etc.). 

Check out the slideshow the teachers made of each student's pictures!

Time to celebrate with some yummy snacks!

3 of Owen's closest friends:

Nana and Grandpa hated to miss but were in Minnesota at the time.

A little flashback to Kindergarten:

That shirt is filling in fast!!

Two big graduates in the same year! On to middle school and high school next year! Eek!

From Kindergarten:

To 5th grade graduation in the blink of an eye!

We've had a great lineup of teachers for elementary school! Check out his first day pictures, teacher pictures, and school pictures!

Spelling Bee

 Owen competed in his school's spelling bee, which was only for 5th graders. He wasn't too interested in practicing with me beforehand but I did make him a couple times ;) I was grateful that my principal let me slip out to attend and both sets of grandparents were able to be there too! Chris was at work so I kept texting him the video each time Owen was up to the microphone. He kept going and going and suddenly it was down to two! It was a double-elimination and his competitor misspelled her second word right after Owen misspelled his first...making him the winner!! 

He went to the county's spelling bee a few weeks later. He was competing against 5th-8th graders!! I tried to convince Willow to participate in her school's spelling bee because if she'd won, she would compete against Owen! She couldn't be convinced though ;) 

The participants....all looking pretty terrified!!

Unfortunately Owen misspelled his first two words but we were so proud of his bravery! And we all learned a new word....cirque!

Check him out!

We celebrated with a donut before returning to school :)

Veteran's Assembly

Owen often takes quite a bit of convincing to try something new. Running for SCA was one of those things. I tried to give lots of examples of opportunities that Willow had as part of SCA when she was in 5th grade as a way of enticing him. Thankfully he was persuaded and was voted to be Class Representative for his class. As part of SCA, he was able to be a large part of the school's Veteran's Day assembly. The 5th graders sang the songs for each branch of the military, then sang "Proud to Be an American" with one of the 5th grade teachers on guitar. We were excited that Gramps, a veteran, was able to come watch the assembly!

Can you spot him in the blue shirt in the back row?