5TH GRADE PROMOTION

Today was the promotion from 5th grade for our oldest son, TJ. I hate graduation ceremonies and even skipped my own college grad ceremony, but I will say this one was nice. The things that were said were genuine and not drawn out. The teachers and our principal seem to genuinely love these kids and their jobs. It was cool to see our son finish this season of his life well.

During the promotion, TJ was given 3 things that were unique to our son:

1. He received the student of the year award that he received from the Mason’s about a month ago, but this time in front of his peers. That was sweet.
2. He received a gold award from the state for getting an A- or better GPA in 4th and 5th grade and scoring at least in the 85th percentile on a state test in either math or reading comprehension. So proud of him. I didn’t know this was coming.
3. He was given a chance to share with the parents and students that he had made good on his campaign promise to help his school turn their trash into cash as a school treasurer. This year, every day TJ went first to the janitor’s closet to take out the recycling cans and put them in the lunch area before going to class. Then every day, before going home he’d return them to the janitor’s closet. Then every Friday Shannon brought home the recycling from a week of school with TJ. It then went to the bed of my truck and then to the recycling center with he and I and occasionally the rest of the fam too. In all, TJ recycled $200 out of the trash. He gave the school a new microphone and all 600 kids got a “ice cream push up” for dessert on campus one day. So proud of him.

Afterwards, we were all going to lunch to celebrate and TJ wanted seafood. We eventually decided on Joe’s Crab Shack in Pacific Beach. He and I shared a big ol steam pot of shrimp and crab and such.

We then capped the day off by doing the last bit of recycling= another $27 for the school and $108 we had collected through our church for Uganda this summer.

Here’s a pic I snapped of our boys at lunch. If you look close you can see that jake’s hand is on TJ’s shoulder. I love these 3 boys. I love it even more when the “brothers” look out for each other. I hope and pray they grow up to be the good friends they are now.

Here’s a collage of TJ’s day. (Bottom far right is TJ with the principal, Mrs. Kehoe. Next one in is TJ with his 5th grade teacher, Ms. Yamaguchi) Oh.. and I’m the balding dad- my hair is leaving me rapidly these days. I’m gonna shave it all off soon.