Elementary Education Internship

Like Rebekah before her, Julianne decided to do an elementary education internship during the first semester of her senior year. But because she wanted to intern in a 3rd grade class and Lilian was in 3rd grade, Julianne decided against requesting a placement at our own elementary school. She thought that might be a bit distracting for both her and Lilian. She was placed instead at a different elementary school closer to the high school...and she loved it! Loved the school that was a bit older in style and age, loved the teacher she interned for and especially loved those 3rd grade kids that she came to know so well.

Christmas Dance 2015

Seems unfair to me that there are back to back girls choice dances...they finish up the Halloween Dance Saturday night and then immediately are trying to come up with an ask to the Christmas Dance on Sunday so as to get the boy of their choosing...the competition is so insane that some girls ask to the Christmas Dance a few days before the Halloween Dance! It's a little crazy. But though Julianne had been asked a few times if she was going to ask Bryson to the Christmas Dance and it became somewhat obvious that most girls were respectfully giving Julianne first dibs on him...she figured she'd better ask quickly just in case.

So Sunday night she made some cookies, put them on a Santa plate with a mug of milk, and a note saying...

     Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas is...

 - a pony

 - barbie doll

                                                    - princess underwear

                                                    - And for Bryson to go to the dance with me.

                                                         Love, Julianne

...and left it on his doorstep.

A few days later there was a knock at our door. On the front porch was a huge present wrapped in Christmas paper. Propped up next to it was her original note along with a My Little Pony and a barbie doll. On the big present a sign said, "Do not open until Christmas....well, okay maybe you can open this one a little early." Julianne opened up the big present and out popped Bryson holding a sign that said "YES" (after he got out of the box and they dragged it inside, she made him get back in so she could take a picture). When she asked him where her princess underwear was he said, "Umm....Santa doesn't bring underwear." haha!

Prep for the dance consisted of shopping for not just a dress (which we found at the very first store and was on sale...score!) but also an ugly sweater. For the day activity they all wore ugly sweaters, baked and decorated sugar cookies, and read children's Christmas stories. Apparently they all had a fabulous time...but I'm still irritated they neglected to take any pictures of the ugly sweaters.

Dinner on dance night was held at our house. Again. (I hosted dinner for Halloween Dance as well.) But with all of the girls bringing various pieces of the dinner, all I had to do was host and make a salad. And of course, it's always a great opportunity to see the kids in all their finery seeing as normally at a girls choice dance, I don't get the doorstep scene.

Funny enough, this picture could be a who's who of the Les Miserables cast from the high school...every single one of these kids was in the show. I mean, we've got Jean Valjean, Marius, Javert, Mdm Thernardiere, Fantine, a lovely lady, a factory worker, the woman who convinces Fantine to cut her hair, a revolutionary, and a policeman/soldier. And afterwards...they not only cleared the table but loaded the dishwasher before they left for the dance! Good kids, all of them.

Julianne came home happily giddy....she and Bryson had a great time.

 A few outtakes:

The Christmas Dance being girls choice, I wouldn't normally have had a picture of the whole pinning of the boutonniere thing...but Bryson's got bumped or something and Julianne had to reattach it after dinner. So I got a picture after all.
We joked around about making them kiss under the mistletoe, took this picture and then sent them on their way...only to hear them come back in a few minutes later where they in fact did do a quick mistletoe smooch just for fun. Lilian ran up the stairs and was rather delighted to catch them in the act.

We were taking some quick pictures by the tree when Lilian wanted to join in for a few. We caught Bryson mid-comment in this pic. My fault, really. I had just told him that Brandon was downstairs watching "Rocky IV"...one of Bryson's all time favorite movies. But I still think it's a cute picture and it made me laugh.