August bank holiday - Edinburgh
Little did I know that the weekend we chose to visit Edinburgh was the Fringe Festival!! What a fantastic visit we had - Harry Potter Tour, shows, climbing Athur's Seat, Josh making his stage debut, it was a great weekend!
2016-2017 offered the opportunity to resettle fully in London. Jonah - senior year, Ally - sophomore year both at ASL, and Josh began his first year at Halcyon in 6th grade.
Mom took up yoga teacher training and then began looking for work. Dad continued to be pulled in all directions at TR. Finchley remained the family mascot.
Where to start?
The school year started off without incident and all three seemed to settle in nicely. Ally took a school trip backpacking into the French Alps near Chamonix. Amazing photos and with her swim pals Lauren and Anna P. Jonah's alternatives took him to Italy. Lucky for Jonah, he had JD and Jagger on his trip. Now those three can create a dynamic of FUN that certainly made for a memorable trip. I'll let Jonah give you the details!
Josh - 6th grade at Halycon London International
Josh went off to a week at a PGL type centre with the 6th and 7th graders from Halcyon. He had a fantastic time and came back having made lots of new friends particularly with the 7th grade boys. Josh continued to play soccer with Kinja (Wed and Fri practice and Sunday matches), school Tuesday 8-9am, and Swiss Cottage Thursday evenings. He also kept on rockin his guitar lessons with JanMichael and his saxophone lessons with Paul. He joined the after school ensemble at Halcyon and enjoyed music as a group. We heard incredible accolades from his digital music teacher throughout the year and feel that Josh has some special music within!
Mom began substitute teaching at Halcyon the past spring and continued to do so throughout the year. Much of the time helping invigilate exams such as SAT and ACT exams with special accommodations for students and also the IB exams. What a privilege it was to be at school on the day of the student council elections, because Josh put himself out there for the role of treasurer and made a small speech in front of the ENTIRE SCHOOL. Mom was very proud of him that day and he certainly seems comfortable speaking in front of groups. Well done Josh.
Josh's closest friends this year were Ben, JJ, Swann, Conor, Daniel and Freddie; also Willem and Sam and Cosmo from 7th grade.
This year Josh fell in love with scootering - skateboard park style scootering. He would love to spend all weekend at the local skate parks and now masters heading over to the outdoor or indoor parks all on his own on the bus 31! He also buses to school all on his own every morning and afternoon and take the tube to soccer on Wednesdays and Fridays!!
Josh LOVES his iPad and enjoys Clash Royal and a ton of other games.
But perhaps the most impactful part of Josh's year was joining the Boy Scouts. He quickly became keenly interested and enjoyed attending the weekly meetings. He also went on several camp trips with the Most Amazing Dad. Highlight of all was the trip to Normandy France, where Josh discovered he is amazed and sorta obsessed in a good way with WWII.
Ally - 10th grade
Balancing swim practices and school work coloured Ally's year, along with maintaining her Instagram account and keeping continual tabs on her friends via chatting, video messaging, FaceTiming, Snapchat and all other sorts of social technology connections.
Megan, Josie, Riley, and Kat were her closest friends, along with swim pals and this spring Graham.
Chemistry proved to be an interesting undertaking and dominated the study hours. English, Pre-calc, Band, Spanish 4, World Civilizations, Health and Phy Ed rounded out the course load.
Ally's enjoyment include hanging with her friends, going to get FreakShakes, anything involving food - making cookies, decorating cookies, baking cakes!! Also they like to go around London and take photos, view street art (Leake Street), go shopping, and visit markets.
Ally rocked her school swim team! She also continued to make a splash with her club team and qualified for the British Nationals in two events 400IM and 200 IM and will also do the medley relay.
She was awarded two WorkX week-long "mini-internships" with ASL, first at General Mills and secondly with GTB advertising.
JONAH SENIOR YEAR!!
Jonah started off senior year by joining the Cross Country team, a choice for which we were so proud! He had some great races and prepared himself well for the winter swim season. Unfortunately he ended the season a bit short (refer to the Italy school trip above) but nonetheless we were very proud of him!
JD, Jagger, Ned and Jonah became the best of pals this year and what a great group of young men. They think for themselves and are bold enough to speak against the majority. Olivia and Jonah spent as much time as possible together, studying, going out to eat, to movies, walking the dogs, hanging at each other's houses - continually together really!!
Jonah's school work continues to shine when he puts in the effort and sometimes takes a hit if he doesn't. He's got it in him and we know he can soar when he sets his mind to it!
At the end of the year he began to take an interest in weightlifting and working out - with JD at ASL. And cooking breakfast! The boy who never ate breakfast! And perfecting the art of macaroni and cheese!
