And the Winner Is . . .

One of the end-of-the-school-year events at the girls' elementary school is an awards program, attended by the faculty, the entire school body, and any members of the public who wish to come. Several evenings ago, the teacher of one of our daughters phoned our home to let us know that our child would be receiving an award, in case we might want to attend--but we were to keep it hush-hush since none of the students would be told of their awards in advance. A couple days later, another daughter's teacher phoned us for the same purpose, and this morning the third child's teacher phoned.

With all three girls receiving awards, Susan and I knew we had to attend (she got her principal's permission to leave school for part of the afternoon). But how could we do it without raising the girls' suspicions and alerting them to the fact that they'd be winning awards? Well, as it turns out, the school ends the awards program with a "graduation ceremony" for the fifth-graders (who will attend sixth grade in a different school building next year), so there was our excuse: we had to attend for Suzanna's fifth-grade graduation!

It was awfully fun to be able to watch the girlies receive their awards. And it was fortunate that we got front-row seats for optimal recording of the event. Enjoy these highlights:

Here is Abigail winning an award for perfect attendance. Her sisters had no hope of winning this award due to their surgeries (remember this and this?). [The award announcer/distributor is Mrs. Meduna, the girls' principal.]

Here is Abigail winning the President's Award for Educational Excellence, which came with a copy of a congratulatory letter from President Obama.

Second-graders were not eligible to receive the President's Award (too young), so their teachers came up with an equivalent award (Outstanding Student) so that they could recognize deserving children in their classrooms, too. Here is Hillary winning that award. (Our neighbor and Hillary's best friend Madeline is seen receiving the award, too, in this clip.)

Here is Suzanna winning the President's Award for Educational Excellence.

Here is Suzanna (and Madeline again) winning the Golden Rule award. In the video clip, Mrs. Meduna explains what this particular award is all about.

Here is Mrs. Meduna announcing the fifth-graders' "graduation."

And here is Suzanna "graduating"!