Three Graduations

The last week of May we had three of our boys graduate.

Hubba graduated from kindergarten and entertained us with some cute, silly songs about j-e-l-l-o and moving up to 1st grade. He was so happy to have "the right color of hat" but sad to be leaving his class that he loves so much.


All-a-boy graduated from the 6th grade and was chosen to receive the Hope of America award (along with 3 others from his graduating class). The whole 6th grade got to spend an overcast day at the local water park in celebration of this accomplishment. I think his favorite part of graduation was the refreshments at the end.


Coolister graduated from high school with honors. Each graduate handed the principal a jellybean when they went up to receive their diploma in the hopes of filling his pockets. When they were officially graduated the seniors all threw a rainbow of colored bouncy balls instead of their hats - it was quite a sight! That night he had fun with his friends at the senior all-night party which was held at a local restaurant until 4:00 in the morning.

Nice job, boys. Keep making us proud.

Graduation

{cue pomp and circumstance}

I am proud to announce that after 4 weeks of feeling a bit on the geriatric side:



I am still not allowed to put weight on my foot but I feel so much younger now that I'm free of my walker.

I look forward to a future date when I can happily announce that I've graduated to these:


Stay tuned!

One Crazy Week in a Nutshell

Last week was the last week of school, and it was a crazy week. The good kind of crazy, but crazy nonetheless. ElemenoB was invited to her middle school's Honors Night where she received a certificate for maintaining a 4.0 GPA the entire year, as well as an award for Outstanding Performance in SCIENCE! Science, people! And yes, she is my biological daughter. Considering I passed science class by bribing Mr. Beck with a small carton of chocolate milk and 2 chocolate chip cookies from the school cafeteria in order to avoid class any time we dissected anything... she must take after her Dad. Crazy! (in a good way...)

We also had 6th grade graduation for Thumbelina. Here she is after the ceremony with 2 of her friends.
Her teacher also had a class program where she received awards for the "Foot Hall of Fame" (reading a whole bunch of books to equal the height of her foot 5 times over) and the "Soaring Dragon" (completing 13 of 17 goals throughout the school year). Here's my favorite picture from the evening of the class program. It shows you why I considered "Granny" as a blog nickname for this little spitfire. Her teacher and a friend are trying out her unique style of wearing glasses. Kind of makes it hard to see, don't you think? Crazy kid. (Crazy in a good way.)

This week I also registered All-a-boy, Cowgirl and Princess at a new elementary school. It was a strange feeling, walking into a new (aka: different) school and making the decision final that it was where my kids will now be 'starting over'. They have a few friends who will be attending the school as well because of boundary changes in the district, but for the most part it will be a whole new world. I think they'll like it once they get used to it. It'll be a little crazy at first, but crazy in a good way.

Throw in a pack meeting, a doctor's appointment, family home evening, church activities for the teens, a parent meeting to discuss summer plans, a birthday party, summer reading program sign-ups at the library and the regular craziness we face daily and you've got one crazy week!

But hey, crazy is good.

I like crazy. They know me there.

Happy Graduation!

Dana, Trish, Gerb, Debi and Julie (photo by Julie D., I am sure!) at Gerb's 8th grade graduation

No, you are NOT looking at a photo of members of the band, "A Flock of Seagulls". This is my friends and I in 1986, when I graduated from 8th grade. I will never forget the formal peach dress my mother made for me, complete with bows at each shoulder and throughout the skirt, as per my request. Man, I loved that dress. And I remember more than anything that all of my good friends (who were NOT in 8th grade, by the way) came to my graduation. These are the kind of friends that you grow up with, hang out with, and share brains with. The kind of friends that you promised to live close to when you grew up and got married so your kids could be best friends, too.

At this point, I would like to point out Trish. She is standing to my left in the pinkish-red sweater. Guess what? We're living the junior high dream!! Trish and I both lived in Utah after marriage, and our husbands became even better friends than we ever were. I hesitate to say that, but I can't think of a time that Trish and I called each other up to go get a newspaper together. Our husbands did that once. (once!) Trish and I had our first babies exactly a month apart. They became friends - they had no choice in the matter! They even had cute names for each other as soon as they began to speak: My boy was La-La. Her daughter was Na-Na.

Ok, back to my 8th grade graduation. Now, fast forward 21 years. La-la and Na-na graduated from 8th grade on May 23, 2007. From the same school! And their names were next to each other on the program! HOW COOL IS THAT!? Trish and I even got to sit by each other and give commentary on the ceremony. Which was maybe not so good, because I say what I really think when I'm talking to Trish. And we may have giggled a bit too much. And maybe annoyed people. Because deep down, a part of each of us is still in 8th grade.

With a bit of threatening, we were able to get them to stand next to each other and smile so that * their mothers could ooh and aah over how grown-up they are.

Aren't they beautiful / handsome?!







* And so we have a picture to display--fast forward 10 years--at their reception.

But don't tell Na-Na and La-La.