School Milestones

 

One result of Callie's hard work in all three years of high school came to fruition this spring as she was inducted into the Henry Clay chapter of the National Honor Society. It was impressive not only for her to have this accomplishment, but the fact that so many of her good friends also were inducted says a lot about the company she keeps.

 

The actual induction ceremony quite a formal proceeding and included four speeches, each one addressing a different pillar of the National Honor Society attributes. Each new member had to go up and officially sign the book that has recorded the names of Henry Clay honorees for decades. (The mother of one of Callie's friends was actually able to find her signature from back in the day) Our favorite part of this section of the ceremony was watching the student that was responsible for handing out and collecting the pen used to sign the book. It was quite an operation.

 

At the end each honoree walked away with their NHS cards that they can present if anyone ever challenges their membership. Callie and Hope enjoyed the silliness of it all and went a little overboard when asked to pose with their card by Sarah. Overall it was a great evening and a tremendous honor for Callie.

 

Speaking of honors, just a few weeks later Reese had her 8th grade graduation ceremony. This year it was held in the gym at Henry Clay High School and started out with some technical difficulties which meant we couldn't always hear clearly. Nevertheless, we did get to hear Reese's name called several times because she won awards for highest excellence in Science and highest excellence in Spanish. She also received a special Teaching Assistant award for being a teacher's aide for two years in a 6th grade math class. 

 

We were able to capture Reese as she walked across the shake Mrs. Jones's hand to recognize this milestone. We had also seen Mrs. Jones take a selfie with Reese prior to the ceremony starting. When we asked Reese about it she told us that Mrs. Jones said she wanted a picture for evidence when Reese comes back to teach at Morton years from now. It was a pretty special evening and we are so proud of Reese for all she has accomplished but even more for how she clearly has connected with and impressed her teachers.

 

And once the ceremony was over this group of girls and their classmates were on their way to high school. That is very hard to believe. We have pictures of Reese and Mary in particular from when they were in pre-school together. Time is flying by far too quickly.

 

After we took the honoree out to Orange Leaf to celebrate we realized that we hadn't gotten a good family photo for posterity. So we made Callie take our picture in the living room and called it a night. We now have two high schoolers in the house. Yikes!