School's Out for Summer!!

We made it! Emily is officially on summer break and she is definitely pleased with the change. :)

Last Day of School

 

The last few weeks weren't too hectic, but there were a couple of award ceremonies (at which Emily received an award for French - her least favorite subject, ironically), a geography project, and final exams. The exams seemed to go reasonably well. As for the geography project, most of it was completed in school, but the at-home component was to make a food from a foreign country and then bring it in for people to try. Emily opted for a Japanese dessert and we made a Japanese strawberry shortcake. 

Japanese Strawberry Shortcake

 

It was a very long, involved recipe that turned out great but also just tasted like an American strawberry shortcake, so much more work for not much additional benefit. It did look beautiful, though, and some of her classmates thought that she bought it rather than made it. The fact that I went to Michael's for a doily and a disposable cake box probably didn't help matters.

Emily has made herself a rough summer schedule that involves reading in the mornings, etc., but I don't think she has actually implemented the plan yet. We need to get her summer reading books so that she actually has something to read in the mornings. Perhaps more importantly, Emily's 13th birthday is less than a week away and we have not yet sent out the invitations - yikes! She has the guest list, but I need to finalize some details before we can send the invites. She would like to have a pool party with a larger group of friends and then follow it up with a sleepover with a smaller group of friends, which is sort of a tricky maneuver to pull off, so we'll see how it goes. Stay tuned!