Graduation Day!

Big day today in the Rio household. Sonny Boy finished 8th grade (they didn't really graduate - just had an awards ceremony), and Princess actually graduated from 5th grade. I officially have a high schooler and middle schooler now. How on earth am I not connected with an elementary school now?

Both the kids finished the year by making AB honor roll one quarter this year. Didn't expect Sonny Boy to get any awards today (very large class), but he did get excellence awards in Life Skills (yes, it is a easy as it sounds) and Phys Ed. I will also say that he did get one of the Achieving Excellence Awards (which is a most improved version) from his homeroom teacher. Not bad.

Princess' graduation was fun. She wore a beautiful spring dress, and they had a very talented graduation speaker even. It turned out that she was the only student in the school to receive the President's Physical Fitness Award - not an easy task. The PE teacher kept telling us how very impressed he was with her. Even Sonny Boy seemed a little impressed and actually congratulated his little sister.

Perhaps I'm not raising great scholars, but they sure are athletic. And I am quite proud of them!

Best Ab workout

My abs are killing me today. Bottom is a little achy too, but I think that is probably bruised. I have not been tubing in 16 years, but yesterday I went with Sonny Boy and his best Friend from Ashvegas down the Oconaluftee in Cherokee. Water was icy (it is the mountains after all), but when one has record setting heat, icy water feels good. Proud to say I did not get sunburned thanks to the 45, but apparently my body is not used to leaning back in an inner tube for 1 and 1/2 hours and propelling my arms backwards for much of that time. And my bottom is not used to hitting unseen rocks constantly. Now that I think about it, my bottom might be a tad bigger than it was 16 years ago. Oh well - fun time had by all!