End of a Decade + 1

Before I dive into the Washington DC & New York trip that the 8th grade just came back from I wanted to share about an end of a decade plus one.

ELEVEN YEARS... That's how long Emily has been attending KHA and this is the day we have been waiting for!!

GRADUATION DAY!!

Preschool and 8th Grade Portrait

This past Saturday was KHA's 8th Grade Graduation Ceremony.

19 students graduated that day

Emily gave the Salutatorian Address to her classmates.

You can hear her address here:

It was amazing to see that 11 years ago before school started, I was having a parent-teacher conference telling her preschool teachers about Emily's selective mute anxiety issues.

And here she is speaking in front of not only her classmates but to the school board, faculty, parents, and friends.

As a part of the ceremony, each graduating student also got the opportunity to read a Tribute Letter they wrote to their parents. Afterwards Christine Ingebretson, FCC's Women's Minister and this class' Bible teacher (for 6th and 7th grades) gave the Commencement Address. She encouraged the students to "Have Courage and Be Kind" as they enter into high school.

You can read parts of her excellent speech to the kids here on her blog: Commencement Addresss

Special thank yous go to Don who videoed and Kenny who took pictures of the ceremony.

And since Emily started KHA in Preschool we, her parents, were given the honor of giving her her diploma on stage.

 Lots of our family came to support Emily:

Her Goong Goong and Popo (my parents)

Her Yeh Yeh and Mah Mah (Matthew's parents)

Her E-Ee and E-Jeung and her cousins Daniel, Joshua and Zachy (my sister and her family)

Her Kau Kau and Auntie Hilda (my brother and sister-in-law)

Her Goo-Jeh and Goo-Jeung and cousins, Marissa and Timothy (Matthew's sister and her family)

Extended family  also came:

Auntie Cheryl, Uncle Don, Mandy and Kyle (my cousin and her family) along with my Auntie Doris (not pictured)

 And close friends...

Uncle Greg, Auntie Carolyn, Cory, Craig & Priscilla

Mr. Michael, Ms Angela and Rachel

Owen Sook-Sook, Grace-Ee, Faith and Hope

We also wanted to honor all her teachers and invited them to the graduation and a lunch. Here are a few that came:

Mrs. Stevenson her Junior Kindergarten teacher

Mrs. Choy her 1st Grade teacher

Mrs. Kao her 2nd grade teacher

Mrs. Scott her 6th Grade teacher

....along with Mrs. Ingebretson, her 6th and 7th grade Bible teacher.. who was also the Commencement Speaker at the graduation!

Some good friends came to cheer her on..

Jessica left after Kindergarten

Shawna (left) left after 6th grade and Jennifer (center) left after 4th grade

Bryan is the only classmate that has been in the same class with Emily for 10 years...

Caryn is Emily's twin buddy

Pairing up for Twin Day for the past four years!

Emily even squeezed into the Band Group Photo even though she did not perform. Too busy graduating and the only 8th grader in Band!

Mr. Bolivar her Band Director for the past 5 years

Congratulations to the Class of 2015!

Basket and Volley...

 ...BALL!

Emily was on the basketball team again this year and decided to give volleyball a try also.
Hey.. it's her last year.. let's make it memorable right?

This season she was able to make 13 points (4 two pointers; 5 free throws and 9 fouls). She even fouled out of a game once.

The girls team went into the playoffs with a 5-5 record and came in third place in the league. At their first playoff game they lost by 2 points against Cornerstone Christian in Antioch. So close yet so far. Literally! The actual game was shorter than it took to drive to Antioch.

 Below were the three key players: Team Leader; Offense and Defense.

 At the Sports Awards Ceremony, Emily was given the MVP Defense Trophy.

With Coach Ralph

I would have never guessed a child of mine would be involved in sports. I do not have an athletic gene in my body and never considered doing any sports. Had no interest. My husband wanted to do team sports when he was little but only participated in swimming in high school. He thoroughly enjoys playing and/or watching basketball and football.. with a little bit of race car driving and snowboarding in between.

So he was especially proud of his first born daughter, when she tried out, stayed and played on the KHA basketball team for two years. Plus winning the MVP Rookie Defense Trophy (last year) and the MVP Defense trophy (this year) proved that whatever she put her heart into.. she did it well.

And she had her feet to show for it.

She had blisters on her toes everyday from wearing her first pair of basketball shoes. I went through a few blister packages as I taped up her feet every day throughout the whole season.

Since she did so well in basketball I also encouraged her to play volleyball. It looked much easier than basketball plus you don't need to run as much and your feet won't hurt.

She tried out and made it on the first string team.

Strong and focused, Coach Brad says.

 Had to get her her first pair of knee pads!

 I've never been in a sporting goods store so much in my life!

 So proud of her coming out of her comfort zone!

How Do We Get to DC?

All 8th graders at KHA get the opportunity to go on a 8-day sightseeing trip to Washington DC and New York to learn about our Christian heritage of our beloved country. It's a pretty pricey trip but we get the whole year to raise monies for it.

We start fundraising in August before school starts.

Festival of the Arts

We rent out a booth at this annual city-wide event in town and sell food. It was a long hot day!

Matthew grilling away.

Friday Snack Shack

Emily's last shift at pizza duty forever! Here she is serving her sister.

Every Friday at school, the 8th grade sells snacks and lunch. Parents run the Shack and the 8th grade students volunteer for pizza duty (distributing of lunch to the kids).

Cookie Dough

We sold cookie dough.. I oversaw this project and made $1,897.

Fall Family Festival

I was in charge of tickets and the money.

We hosted an all church and school event to the community to celebrate Fall on Halloween. We served dinner and had stations for face painting and glow in the dark items.

Emily serving chips to meal purchasers.

Wreaths & Spirit Wear

Emily's classmates promoting Christmas wreaths and spirit wear in carline as kids were being dropped off to the school in the mornings.

Evening of the Arts

At Evening of the Arts where the school showcased musical and drama performances along with art and crafts, we served dinner again.

8th grade dads grilling away for the dinner!

Talent Show & Silent Auction #1

The Talent Show is an annual highlight for KHA where parents gather to watch their children perform their self-created acts. We served a formal sit-down dinner where we cooked a 6 course meal.

All the 8th graders were servers and were formally dressed to work the occasion.

After 5 hours on their feet, they all said they did NOT want to go into restaurant service.

Open House and Silent Auction #2

Our annual Open House is open to the public where family and friends can come see all the accomplishments the students have been working on all year.

I again was in charge of ticketing and the money!

We had a Dessert and Popcorn Cart that strolled the hallways for visitors.

And we had a huge Silent Auction

Our parent, Ivy, solicited donations from over 200 vendors! Her biggest donor was Disney: 4 Hopper passes!

Each family was asked to donate one basket towards the Silent Auction. We personally put together nine baskets.

Basket #1: Facebook Fan Favs (generously donated by our FB friend, Jay P.)

Basket #2: Rockin' Everything Reeses (graciously donated by my dear friend Lisa P.)

Basket #3: Creative Craft Collection

 For Silent Auction #2:

Baskets 4-9 for Open House

 We had some great friends and family who helped put these baskets together for us:
- Family Fun Night was filled with games, video and food from my sister;
- Hawaiian Paradise was filled with Hawaiian soaps, lotions, chocolate macadamias and a massage gift certificate.
- Book Bonanza (by church friend Carol. H) was filled with books, a Barne & Nobles gift card and a Kindle Fire!
- Videogames "R" Us was donated by our good friend Mark F.
- Car Care was donated by our Pastor Mario from our Spanish congregation (who also owns an auto shop)

We worked a total of 209 hours and were able to raise all of Emily's trip fees. Praise the Lord!