Graduation 2014

John graduated from Eugene Ashley High School on June 14 2014. It was a pretty emotional day for me. They started playing the pomps and circumstance graduation march and the graduates started filing in. It was really neat and everyone was cheering and clapping for them. We were running late [as usual] and thank goodness my grandparents were here, saving us seats. Andre went to park the car and I took the kids in and thankfully found them pretty quickly. A lot of the graduates had already filed in and it was hard to tell who was who. I was frantically searching for John and couldn't find him anywhere. I remember thinking I wouldn't even know how to tell which one was him and then he walked in. There was no mistaking it- I knew it was him. I could barely contain myself, I was screaming and cheering, and half crying. We made it! He graduated and he was awarded the President's Award (for his GPA). 

The ceremony was very long of course and I think I was a little on edge the whole time. I wanted them to call his name and have it be official! He finally got his chance and walked across the stage, I was trying to take pictures and cheering at the same time which is probably why all the pictures came out all blurry of him on the stage. We had 9 boys graduate this year from our ward and 5 of them went to John's school. 

Trask Coliseum

He's the last one in line

An official graduate!

He is directly in front of the girl in the black gown (sort of diagonal I guess)

Leaving the ceremony

Some of his biggest supporters

Him & Grace

Les grandparents

Ashley high school graduate!

John & Joe Wood

Spencer Conn, Joe Wood, Jacob Yankey, and John

Those are 4 of the 5 boys that graduated from our ward together. It was an insanely hot day and after graduation we went to Halyburton Park and grilled steak, chicken, and hot dogs and had pasta salad, fruit, and graduation cake! My grandparents drove out here from Utah and my aunt Ann, and cousins Esther and Matthew flew in from Utah. Ann, Esther, and Matthew were not at the ceremony but they joined us at the park for celebrations. It was an incredibly memorable day. John plans on going to UNCW in the fall and will probably stay with us until school starts.

So proud of my boy.

Kael's party!

I am officially partied out. It has been exhausting having three parties back to back (Ava birthday, John graduation, then Kael birthday) but next year...NO PARTIES!!! Kael had such a good time at his party so that makes it worth the effort. He had a "safari animal party" and we had lots of activities for that. The kids decorated safari hats, got their faces painted like an animal of their choice (or superhero, whatever they wanted really), and there was a bubble station, ball toss games, frisbee, and a bounce house. WAY too many people RSVP'd, literally about 58 people (kids and adults included) so I really started panicking, but so many people didn't come so it worked out and it ended up great!

I'm mad this picture turned out so dark. Guess I'm not at the professional level yet.

Kael with his cheetah face!

The bounce house was fun! The only thing is that the slide got way too hot. We tried pouring water on it to cool it off, but the kids were burning their legs going down.

Ava with her tiger face!

Ava and Megan (Bagley). They are both tigers.

For some reason some of the kids started making really morbid requests...skeleton, exposed blood and facial nerves (say what?!?)

This is Kael's friend from school, Logan. I think he blew bubbles the entire time.

Kael and Jackson

Kael with Maggie. He was afraid to go down the slide! Can you tell?

Safari cupcakes!

He was not embarrassed at all. He loves being the center of attention!

Kael's other friend from school, Katie Bell (on the right) and her sister Maddie.

Party favors!

The kids got to take home a pair of binoculars. I wasn't sure if they would like them or not but I guess they all loved them!

His party was out our church building, outside at the picnic shelter and field. So many of his little friends came it was really great. Kael requested donations for the animal shelter instead of gifts (his idea completely) and so many people showed their support by bringing bags of dog & cat food, animal toys, dog treats, etc. I am so grateful that people share their love of animals!!

Ava's birthday party

Ava had a little birthday party with all her school friends this past Saturday. It was a super busy day! We had Kael's baseball game, then Ava's party, then John's graduation party at the church. I felt completely wiped out by the end of the day. We did Ava's party super early this year (May 31st) because I wanted to do both hers and Kael's party before school got out and these were the only two free weekends (last weekend and this coming Saturday). So we went for it! She had so much fun and lots of her little friends came and she is very lucky to have such good friends. Bruce and Beckie Arne who are friends from our ward let us have her party in their amazing backyard! People kept complimenting on how beautiful my house was! I said, "Oh thank you!" Hey, I can pretend can't I?

So this cooler looked way more awesome online. But the kids seemed to think it was pretty great.

Everyone loved the "hot tub". It was the same temperature as the pool.

Ava and her VERY special friend, Jackson.

Everyone loved the water slide. Even some of the parents were brave enough to go down!

She said she was embarrassed when everyone was singing to her. But she also really liked it.

Ava has always been a water baby so I think this was her dream party. She could have easily stayed there for hours longer. It was such a great time and we hope everyone else had fun too!

*One more side note before I forget. It was overcast all day long (her party started at 1:30) and the clouds kept looking like they might rain. It was dark and then it got windy and I was so upset because we have always had the worst luck with Ava's parties. Literally her first birthday we had a very small gathering with family and friends and it poured rain the entire day so we had to move the party. Every year since then it has always rained and been terrible weather the day of her party. It stayed overcast but it was at least warm until about 2:15sh then all of the sudden it got bright and sunny! I honestly said a prayer that morning, I didn't care if it was overcast just no rain! And then not only did it not rain but it turned out to be a beautiful day.