Goodbye, 8th Grade!

Our Favorite Granddaughter has graduated 8^th grade. 

She survived without a GPS for her emotions. Like a butterfly, she has emerged from a cocoon, full of homework and awkward ups, downs, and maybe some screaming.

She has certainly gone a long way, from being a curly-haired, bedimpled baby…

To a lovely princess.

Growing up alongside an older brother…

My brother is a strange creature. He's my brother, which means he's stuck with me forever, like a booger you can’t pick.

Yikes!

Can I trade him with someone else?

Being chummy with an adorable pit bull terrier…

Surrounded by sometimes goofy-costumed family…

And by friends who are just as important as grades—unless it’s a pop quiz.

For sure, school has been pivotal. 

And after eight long years, middle school’s completed...

Where the secret to surviving any class is to always carry a snack.

School was tough, but mission accomplished.

Now, time to celebrate!

First with a He Aloha Kuu One Hanau May Day.

In a couple’s dance, Favorite Grand/D did a surprise ending by carrying her 135-pound partner.

Then the Kapuana Choral Festival where the vibrant voices of more than 300 students from grades 6–8 filled Dillingham Hall with song and dance.

Her favorite song? I Sing Because I’m Happy.

 

Leftmost: Cheesing hard, jamming during bass player’s solo

Left: After concert with friend

Indeed, she came, she saw, she passed…

With honors!

On May 27, Favorite Grand/D will be inducted into the National Junior Honor Society at Punahou during the 8th Grade Awards Assembly.

Per the NJHS Punahou School Chapter Advisor, membership was based upon the following criteria:

Academic excellence that demands the mastery of subject material, an ability to explore concepts, techniques and problems independently, a genuine interest in learning, consistently superior effort, a 3.5 grade point average or better by the end of the third quarter of the 8^th grade year, and excellence in character and citizenship.

Additionally, honorees will have performed a total of at least 20 hours of community service during their 7th and 8th grade years.

Cards sent to nursing home residents for community service

Dear Favorite Granddaughter, you make us very proud!

Now what? 

Next stop: high school and a whole new level of chaos. 

One step closer to adulthood.

Goodbye, homework.

Hello, summer!

My Beau

  Happiness Is... Enjoying Little Things

Gerbils: proof that good things come in small, furry packages. - Anonymous

Beau Bean was Fav Grand/D’s until, somehow, he got adopted by G a couple of years ago. When I told him so, he just ran in circles—guess he was okay with it.

When you’re daydreaming and someone makes eye contact with you

He has luxurious soft sand-shade fur, white underbelly, long and narrow back feet, and a tail that’s half his body’s length.

Favorite time of day? Hands down, it’s chow-time.

He’s like a tiny furry ninja—silent, swift, and always plotting his next snack…

…whether it’s a juicy blueberry (left) or Panda Express rice - huh? wha’??!!...

… or a Queen of Greens Lavish Leaf lettuce (right).

Is a vegetarian permitted to eat animal crackers?

Actually, he also loves Brioche and sour dough bread, Chuy’s chips, Fortune cookie, and banana strings. If he had a diet plan, it would be called All You Can Chew.

I’ve always wondered, though, why he snubs regular gerbil food. I suppose, he thinks meal is just a four-letter word for snack.

Yup, like all rodents, Beau is a dedicated chewer – of toilet paper roll with a few sheets left on, cardboard of all kinds, and brown wrapping paper.

A natural burrower, this little critter keeps busy creating tunnels in his bedding.

My house isn’t messy. It’s just a live-in art installation.

He is a delight to watch when he moves into and decorates a new hideaway (empty square tissue box, in this instance).

Or even when he stands on his back feet with his front paws in the air, angling to get a better view or a better sniff of anything that catches his interest. 

A brave tiny critter, too! He stands up to larger felines who have expressed an interest on him being lunch.

Stand down, Minnie – he doesn’t give a crap of what you think!

Photo: I.T.V. Columbus

Left: Christmas With Beau. Cage bedecked with holiday décor. Right: A Many-Colored Dream House (internet pic only)

Beau thinks he’s a dog.

He fetches my heart every time.

Let me tell you, having him has been a wheel-y good time!

Straight Outta 7th Grade

Let these pics tell the story.

A whirlwind moment captured perfectly imperfect. The blur is where the magic lives.

Congratulations! You’re now officially too cool for 7th grade!

 

Fav Grand/D receives 7^th grade academic achievement and merit award. Gahanna Middle School East, May 14, 2026

I survived group projects. I deserve this Allen Bro’s NY strip.

 

Dinner Celebration. The Barn at Rocky Fork Creek

My Hero… My Mom who can take the place of all others, but whose place no one else can take.

Welcome to 8th grade!

 Where the drama is real and the math is imaginary -

the last stop before high school chaos begins.

 

Goodbye 7^th grade!

Hello, summer!

I don’t sweat. I sparkle. Track Photo, 2026

Feathered Friends

 Happiness Is... Enjoying Little Things

Wherever there are birds, there is hope. – Mehmet Murat Ildan

Birds are my favorite people.

No matter what yesterday was like, they always start the new day with a song.

Feed The Birds. A swarm of common MYNA, red-crested CARDINAL, Java SPARROWS and WILD CHICKEN gather on a sun-warmed grassy area. Monkey pod leaves rustle as ubiquitous PIGEONS glide effortlessly along the coastline, and small FINCHES flit between flowering plumeria trees. Photo: V.E.V. Waikiki Beach: Hawaii

Variety of endangered birds including the NEGROS FRUIT DOVE (bottom left) are conserved while breeding endangered species. Negros Forest Park

You’ll have a lot of respect for a bird after you try making a nest. – Cynthia Lewis

The WHITE TERN, also known as the FAIRY TERN, is a small, graceful seabird that is native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world.

It is predominantly white in color, with a glossy, smooth plumage that is almost transparent in the sunlight.

A pair had built a small simple nest made of twigs and other debris, barely large enough to hold the single egg that was laid on an umbrella tree branch. Colony Surf Grounds: Waikiki, Hawaii

Good morning, world! I’m youth. I’m joy. I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg.

 TERN CHICK Fledging. The egg had hatched after around 21–22 days.

Downy chick is now fledging, meaning awaiting feathers and wing muscles to be sufficiently developed for flight.

Leftmost: Colorful bird cages filled with sunflower seeds, millet, and cracked corn await backyard feathered visitors.

I caught a glimpse of happiness, and saw it was a bird, fixing to take wing. – Richard Peck

Above right: AMERICAN ROBIN, the quintessential bird with its warm orange breast and cheery song, makes an early appearance at the end of winter. Photo: V.E.V. Columbus: March 2026

Right: In the stillness of winter, the bright red male NORTHERN CARDINAL with black around its face, red crest and beak is a beacon of hope, here pecking on scattered millet from a wind-fallen birdcage.

Above, rightmost: In the soft call of the MOURNING DOVE, we find echoes of love and loss. Photos: V.E.V. Columbus: March 2026

Left: Trio of ceramic birds, clockwise - TOUCAN souvenir, Costa Rica. Gifted mini BLUEBIRD by Fav Granddaughter (can you spot it?) on top of canister school project, also by FG; foreground. Mexican whistling bird

The bluebird carries the sky on his back. – Henry Thoreau

Right: Closeup of mini BLUEBIRD (less than an inch long from beak to tail)

Leftmost: White-glazed Mexican CERAMIC CHICKEN on foreground

Left: Birthday air plant gift from Second Daughter in CERAMIC BIRD vase. March 21, 2026

Faith is the bird… that sings when the dawn is still dark. – Rabindranath Tagore

 Lonely BLACKBIRD, perched in leafless maple tree branch, sings a song of solitude, echoing the heart's quiet yearnings. Columbus, March 2026

Pair of CANADA GOOSE has come back to signal spring. 

With a distinctive black head and neck, male bird stands as sentinel on church front. Columbus, March 22, 2026

Keep a green tree in your heart, and perhaps the singing birds will come.

 Have a glorious chirpin’ day!

Rats!

Rats! The Story of the Pied Piper, a musical by Dave and Jean Perry

Featuring the Gahanna Middle School East Seventh Grade Choir

May 7, 2026

You had me at "a long time ago." - Anonymous

Fairy tales are like reality TV - full of drama, questionable choices, and a lot of magic.

Rats! is all that, but in a most adorable way. It was told like never before - a fast-paced, 35-minute musical with charming seventh grade choir characters singing fun and clever songs and delivering witty dialogue.

Plus, as doting parents and grands were concerned, it featured our Fav Grand/D as one of the show's narrators and chorister.

Why don’t we let the story, though familiar to most of us, come alive as we listen? Let the door open to imagination and wonder through the magic of storytelling.

A long time ago… a time before airplanes and cars and buses and trains…

 … a time before TV, CD players, computers, and video games...

there was a quaint little village in a green valley next to a gently flowing river.

Artists came from around the world to paint pictures of the valley with its river and village because it was so beautiful.

 And the name of the village was Hamlin.

Alas, Hamlin was overrun with rats, and the citizens were in a tizzy…

We’ve got a rodent problem.

… until a mysterious Pied Piper appeared, solving their dilemma for a small fee.

The Pied Piper: the original influencer, but with a much more rodent-friendly audience. If the Pied Piper had a podcast, it would be all about 'How to Attract Followers... and Mice!'

We know the rest of the story. 

The piper led the children away when the townspeople refused to pay. 

A lesson to learn: Pay up or else!

But as all fairy tales end (at least in this play version), all ended well. The children were returned after the villagers paid several times the original payment in gold.

We love fairy tales.

They express the truth in a way that speaks to the heart. Rats! teaches us through the Pied Piper that sometimes, the best way to solve a problem is to just play it by ear.

Though ultimately, life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.

THE END

All solo pics: V.E.V. Columbus, 2026