Thankfully, we made it through another week, and this one seemed to fly by just as quickly as the others. The warm spell has broken and it has been a little chilly.
We did have one change to our normal routine: Wednesday night was the parents vs. kids softball game. The weather was beautiful, and we had such a great time playing against the kids. And of course, the parents came away with the win!.
I’m still working my schedule of four 10-hour days with Fridays off. But for the second Friday in a row, I ended up spending a good part of the day sleeping, which definitely makes me question the whole point of working the extra hours for a day off if I’m just going to sleep through most of it anyway…. we shall see how this goes.
I did manage to make a little use of my Friday off by getting my car inspected since we’re planning to sell it soon, and then running a few errands before coming home and taking a nap.
Friday night brought Senior Sunset at the high school, along with the end-of-year trip meeting. The graduates will be heading to Disneyland Paris the day after graduation, and I’m so excited for them!
After the kids were settled at the sunset event, Matt and I headed to the annual Böblingen Street Food Festival in town. Neither of us was especially hungry after snacking at the school, but we did grab some drinks and a chimney cake to share while sitting by the lake. It was such a nice way to end the evening.
Saturday morning, we actually had a break from baseball and softball. It worked out well because Matt and I still had more errands to run as we prepare to trade in our car. We started the day with a test drive of a new car and discussion at the dealership, and excitingly, we decided to buy it! First things first, though; we have to sell the one we currently have. So our next stop was a used car dealership to get an initial appraisal and offer.
When that was done, we quickly went home to change our clothes since it was the Stuttgart High School Senior Banquet that afternoon.
We were so proud that Brooklyn was awarded the Presidential Education Award for Outstanding Academic Excellence. To earn this award, students must maintain at least a 3.5 GPA and score within the top 15% nationally on the SAT. Only about 20 graduating seniors received the award because many students had either the GPA or the SAT scores, but Brooklyn achieved both, and we couldn’t be prouder of her hard work and dedication. She was also awarded a scholarship from the Stuttgart Spouses’ Club to put towards next year’s tuition.
The banquet lasted more than two hours! Honestly, there were just so many awards to give out; and I’m not talking about participation awards. There were numerous national honors and scholarships awarded throughout the afternoon. Most impressively, six students received appointments to U.S. military academies, which I think speaks volumes about the school. Only about 3,600 students across the entire country receive these appointments each year, and six of them came from Stuttgart alone.
After the awards ceremony, Matt and I met up with some friends at the Sindelfingen Street Food Festival. Fun fact: the Sindelfingen festival is actually the original, while the Böblingen festival is the copy; but somehow Böblingen’s felt much bigger this year! We grabbed some delicious food, enjoyed a few drinks, and finally headed home for an early bedtime. After running around all day, we were completely exhausted.
We had plans on Sunday, but instead we ended up laying low because the weather was gloomy and we were all just too tired. We had a lot to do around the house to get ready for upcoming guests, but we managed to squeeze it all in before finally relaxing together on the couch for the evening.
Gilcrests Abroad 