Baseball, Birthday's, and End of year Bash!

Besides having two kids graduating the last week of May it was also the last week of school for the little kids, the last week of regular season baseball, Matt was working graveyard, and we had family on town.  To say it was a busy week would be an understatement. Before the week got too crazy Grandma and Grandpa took us all to a movie. 

We started out the week watching Chase perform magic at the talent show in front of the entire school.  I was nervous for him, but the show was pretty magical.

We had two baseball games this week.  It was nice that the grandparents were able to be there to see Chase have his best game of the season, and even won the game ball! 

I did my best to make it to most of the end of year parties, but there were a lot!  Chase had his first dance, which I thought as third graders was way to young. I was right.  I'm not sure 6th graders were really into it either.  Chase did bust a move on the dance floor for a few minutes.

I spent one entire day at the school for fun in the sun day.  I was in charge of the bounce house/cupcake station all day.  The kids had a blast bouncing for the short time alloted before they were shuffled to the next fun station.

The kids love the cupcake decorating station.  It makes me want to gag.  Every 10 minutes a new class comes in to slather and top a cupcake with the wildest colors and a bazillion toppings and scarf it down.  I had about 30 seconds between each class to clean up before the next group. They all share the same supplies...ew. 

Lunch was served outside this day so I did make it outside for a few minutes to eat lunch with this cutie and one of her friends.

Besides being fun in the sun day it was also Grandpa's birthday.  Matt took his parents to a baseball game while we were at school, and we gave him a little gift wishing him a "Grill-y" good birthday.

After spending the day cleaning up cupcakes I had no desire to see another cupcake(still don't), sorry Grandpa.  We were going to be having cake the next day for the graduation so I didn't want to overload us on sweets.  He had mentioned growing up his favorite was the hostess cupcakes...so I bought a box of hostess and we lit a candle and sang.

The day between graduations was the last day of school for Chase and Sadi.  They were headed out for the last bus ride with a little something for the best bus driver ever and a gift for their teacher.

Normally I like to put a lot of thought into our teacher's gifts and personalize them but with it being such a busy week we kept it simple with a s'more package.

 Sadi said goodbye to the best first grade teacher, Miss Pluta.

 And Chase said goodbye to third grade teacher Ms. Yentzen.

 Whew!  It was quite a week, and we are really glad summer is finally here!

Time to Party!

After Kyle's graduation it was time to get our party on!  We headed back home with family to celebrate.  I decided to go with a theme, although I'm not sure anyone got it.  This was the inspiration:  "Picture your future".  It was suppose to look like Polaroids hanging up.  It was so hard to get a good picture of it :(

 Matt's job was to man the grill and cook up burgers and chicken.

 Then it was time to "Develop your burger".  Please someone tell me they get the whole theme.

 We were all ready to dig in!

 I got the main idea from pinterest, but added some of my own ideas to it.

There was a "sweet memories" wall that had pictures of both of them through the years and some of those moments they shared together.

To go along with the sweet memories, we had many sweets to enjoy.  Grandma Denning made these cute grad caps with each of the kids school colors, and I made some diplomas to go with them.  A big hit with the kids.

I had also set up a table that had pictures of them in their Letterman jackets and a note telling all of our guests to "snap" a picture with each of the grads and leave them a piece of advice for the future.  There was some awesome advice given.  I plan to put all of them in a book for them to be able to read.

We I had made each of them a going away gift.  Since Kyle has been on the fence a bit of where he wants to go to college I went with a more generic gift that he could use when he moves out.  A laundry basket full of towels, soap, iron,  etc.  I am so mad that I didn't get any other pictures of this.  I had also made a frame with quarters inside that was labeled "In case of laundry emergency break glass".  I also made up my own Laundry 101 label that was pretty funny.  A few of the instructions read:

If it smells...wash it.

Not all colors can be washed together..unless you like pink underwear

The dryer isn't and extra drawer.  When it's dry hang it up

If you picked it up off the floor odds are it isn't clean.



For Kelsey I made a gift geared more toward UNR.  I put in a wolf pack sweatshirt, wolf pack lanyard, Wolfie water bottle, a book about F in exams (pretty funny actually), and a Wolfie hat and pom poms to cheer on the pack at the home games.

 It was a fun day of celebrating and it really took it out of some of us...

 Seriously we partied till they started to drop.

So happy to have such great kids, and glad we were able to celebrate both of their accomplishments with family.

TWO DOWN, TWO TO GO....

GRADUATION X2

We had one day to recuperate from Kelsey's grad night before it was off to Kyle's Graduation.  Kyle's Graduation was Saturday morning.  His graduating class was more than double Kelsey's.  It was a sea of Blue and White.

 He was very excited and very ready.

Their class was allowed to decorate their grad hats (Kelsey's was not).  It made it easy to pick him out of the crowd with his grad duck on top of his head.  I had made him a money lei for part of his grad gift.  It took sooo long to make, but turned out really nice.

It was a great day to celebrate our second graduate.

 We're so proud of him and excited to see where the future takes him. 

GRADUATION

Last Thursday was Kelsey's last day of High School...wow!  I was really excited for her.  I had set up a little picture wall for her that morning that had a timeline of all of her first day's of school from preschool to Senior year.  It was fun to look back at the years of change.

She had finals that day (they really stretched out school to the very last minute) so we set off to drop her off for her very last day.  It was a little surreal and we talked about how we would not be back for another 6 years dropping off kids here...what were we thinking?

We spent the rest of the day preparing for that night.  Before we knew it she was walking out proud with her class.  She was ranked number 7 in her class and so was right at the front of the pack.

The ceremony I thought was great...except for the Valedictorians speech which was plagiarized (I am quite sure she will never live that down).  And when they called Kelsey's name we were all cheering for her.  Chase was especially loud with this air horn.  It was LOUD!

 Sadi was ready to blow her bubbles at the grads. 

She was also recognized as one of 7 honor students and received a medallion, and also received an honors diploma.

 She was one of 17 students who also received the presidential award and pin.

 Were so proud of our Grad and all of her accomplishments and awards.

We were very lucky to be able to share this night with lots of family members who made the trip up to be there for her.  Thank you Grandpa and Grandma Llama,

Nana Goodale,

 Uncle David,

and Grandma and Grandpa Denning.  It meant so much to have you all there to support her in her accomplishment.

I am so proud of my girl and all that she has become.  She changed my life course, and I am lucky to be her Mom.

After saying goodbye to all her friends it was time to head back home for some celebrating.  It was pretty late so we decided to keep it simple with a cake.  I had this cake made for her that read:  Congratulations, Your future is calling.

As she read it there was suddenly some music playing...her theme song.  But where was it coming from?  She thought maybe the cake was going to explode.  I had to have her read the cake again...again the music started.  Finally she discovered the music was coming from inside of this centerpiece....

It was a new i phone!!  She has been begging us for an i phone for well...years.  We decided such a big accomplishment deserved a big reward.  I think (I hope) she was thrilled.

Congratulations to a smart beautiful girl!  We are hoping that in the future you choose to wear the right shoes (bahaha...inside joke).  We love you!

Senior Awards Night

Thursday night was senior awards night for Kelsey.  We knew that they were going to announce her scholarship that she had already received from Ronald McDonald House Charities and she was hoping to win another from a different scholarship that they were announcing that night, but we had no idea what a night it was going to be for her!  It was AMAZING.  Up first was her Ronald McDonald scholarship,

followed by winning the Kiwanis scholarship, Booster scholarship, Central Lyon Youth scholarship, UNR pack pride scholarship, Millennium scholarship, and UNR Grants when totalled up amounted to $13,000!!

I was not prepared for how many times she would take the stage (more than any other Senior student).  At one point I leaned over to her and asked her if her feet were tired.  Once all the scholarship awards were done we thought she was done as well...but it didn't end there.

She was recognized as being a fourth year honor student and qualifying for the top 10 percent of the class and ranked 7 in her class, one of only 8 students to make honor society awards, excellence in art, and earned a fourth year bar for academics.

Done?  Nope.  The teachers in each department vote one girl and one boy for each academic department for student of the year and was awarded a special plaque.  This was probably the most exciting and unexpected moment for Kelsey she won for both Math and Social Studies!!  This meant more to her than any amount of money ever could.

As a parent sitting in the audience my heart was swelling with pride maybe proud is not a big enough word to describe it.  At the end of the ceremony many teachers and parents were joking with her that she should have just taken the stage and sat with teachers since she was up there so often.  I think as much as she is looking forward to being finished with school she is going to miss many of these great teachers:  AP History teacher Mrs. Kruger who gave her a summer reading book written with some of the best advice I have read.

AP English teacher Mr. Roher who told her she was really the front runner for the English award but they felt like since she was receiving so many others that they thought they would award someone else.

Spanish Teacher Mrs. Lazada who really made Espanol fun including pulling off a Spanish flash mob at the last school assembly.

 And finally with principal Mr. Logan who in all her high school years never had to visit his office.

She really cleaned up, and I am so happy that all her hard work has finally been recognized.  I think for her as well this was validation, she was noticed for all her time and effort.

Congratulations to a girl who really earned it.  Graduation here we come!!

Feeling Loved

Yesterday was Mother's Day and I was definitely feeling loved.  It started at 5:45 a.m. with Chase trying to wake Dad (who had just gotten home from work a few hours before) to make me breakfast.  Chase really does get excited for ANY holiday.  Matt sternly awoke to loudly explain he was not getting up.  I tossed and turned until right before 7 when I heard the microwave beep..and beep..and beep again.  I thought maybe I had fallen back asleep and Matt had gotten up but he was still beside me.  Then I figured Chase had gone and woken Kelsey up to make breakfast.  I continued to hear beeping and banging of cupboards and I was a bit concerned until the coffee maker started because I knew Chase did not know how to work that.  I still found it odd that it was so quiet (because normally Kelsey would be arguing with Chase).  Then down the hall carrying a tray with breakfast on it was Chase...ALONE.  He announced to Dad proudly "I didn't even need your help Dad".  To which Matt practically sprung out of bed in a panic.  I had coffee (strong) and pancakes (a bit on the cold side) but such a thoughtful breakfast from such a thoughtful boy.  Matt was a bit upset because he had planned to let me sleep in and had been out the night before shopping for breakfast but he quickly got over it when he saw how proud Chase was.  The girls got up a bit later and I was showered with the most precious gifts.

Chase wrote me a stick poem and made me a flower.  Sadi had made a flower pot/card, and I got a new silhouette which I love.  They also gave me some new shower gel and lotions.  I was teasing Kelsey that she didn't make me a card and while we were talking Sadi slipped out and came running back with a card that she "found" that Kelsey had made me and must have forgot.

 Of course it had the exact words written in that Kelsey would say...

 Of course the real gift of Mother's Day is these precious kids that I am so lucky to  call mine!