Graduation Party!!!

We just had to have a party for our first child graduating high school.  After all, one down and three to go!  We let Lauren choose the date and she wanted to have it on her birthday which was yesterday.  We got the house decorated, food either made or ordered, and the cake ordered.  The cakes from BJ's are really good and that's what she wanted so I ordered it 2 weeks ago.  Yesterday morning I get a phone call and they proceed to tell me that the size that I ordered wasn't available.  Really?  I mean I did order it weeks ago.  I know they don't make the cakes at the store, they get shipped in and all BJ's does is decorate it.  So how could they not have my size?  After much back and forth they finally offered to give me two smaller cakes which would equal the size of what I ordered and not charge me extra for it.  Gee thanks!  Might not order from BJ's anymore.  Anyway, here's her two cakes...

And because I just can't let it go, the graduation cap on the cake was actually supposed to have been white so they messed up there too. On a positive note, I did get lucky with her picture because technically they aren't supposed to use a copyright picture which that one was but they did it for me anyway.   Though I'm not supposed to tell anyone so let's just keep that between us  :)

Lauren's party started at 3:00 so two of her friends came over earlier in the day to help decorate the house.  You'll see one of those decorations later!

Babies are fun so just had to get a picture of Jordan.

Behind Megan's head are pictures of Lauren throughout the years that I clipped to ribbon and hung by the fireplace.

Not only did I have to have a graduation cake but also a birthday cake.  This was a strawberry bar cake, also from BJ's.  Mmmm, also a very good cake.  So she gets ready for everyone to sing to her.

Behind Lauren (where Paul is looking) is a candy bar that I set up for all her guests to fill a bag and take with them.  I used candy in her school colors which are black and yellow and threw in a little pink to make it pretty.  There's also bee decorations hanging from our chandelier, that's because her school's mascot is the yellowjackets.

"Happy Birthday to you..."  Not everyone was in the dining room at this time.  There were many more people downstairs and outside.

Here's how the girls decorated our mailbox! There were helium balloons tied to it also but it looks like they've already popped in this picture.  With the streamers I guess we didn't even need the balloons! 

There were games set up in the backyard, a beanbag toss and ladderball.

Zach tried his best to hang with the big kids but look where I found him fast asleep, downstairs on the couch.  Lauren and her friends were right outside the door hanging around the fire pit. 

Oh yeah, speaking of outside.  Remember that door that Zach broke?  That's the door that led to our backyard and the fire pit.  Luckily for us when that door was replaced a few years ago it came with a 10 year guarantee.  We would have to pay for a new door but the labor would be free to install it.  Well, I don't know if that's lucky or not but at least we wouldn't have to pay for both.  So the guy from the company that we bought the door from came to look at it Saturday, the 22nd and was going to order a new door for us but it would take 2-3 weeks.  In the meantime it was okay if Paul took out all the broken glass from that one pane so that's what he did.  When he was done you couldn't even tell that the door was broken!

 

Okay, door issues over, onto other activities.  I set-up a homemade photo booth downstairs that you could do whenever you wanted.  Here's Lauren with the friends that helped her decorate.

Kristin, Megan and Kelly had a little fun with it.

Zach must have taken at least a dozen different pictures.

Paul and I really wanted to get one by ourselves but our little monkey boy just had to get in the picture.

Finally, no kids, we were able to get a picture of just us.  Maybe I should blow this up and hang it above our fireplace!

By midnight all the guests were gone, the fire pit was put out and the clean-up was left until the next day.  I think Lauren had a good party and our first graduation party was a success!

Yikes!

Zach didn't think that if he threw a rock off the deck that it could break glass.  Well guess what?  He was WRONG!

Lovely isn't it?  The only good thing is that it's double paned and it only broke one pane of glass, not both.  The really stinky news is that Lauren's graduation party is in a couple days and we now have a broken slider leading out of our basement.  A slider that probably lots of people will be going in and out of. 

There's never a dull moment around this house...

Father's Day

We celebrated Father's Day with a cookout.  The kids played downstairs...

Paul, of course, had to grill!  Do you like his superman cape?  That was sort of the theme this year :)

They're all supermen!  The cups they used all had mini superman capes on them. 

Zach enjoying his dinner on the deck with the guys. 

Maybe one of these days I'll learn to grill so Paul doesn't have to.  Nah, that probably will never happen!  He has his best shot of getting out of the grilling with Kristin taking over. 

Kristin at the beach

Kristin was able to enjoy a little beach time with her friends.  She spent the last few day in Dewey with her friends. 

I love pictures like this!

Pump it Up Party

Zachary's t-ball coach celebrated the end of the season by having a Pump it Up party!  Now that's a nice coach!  It was from 7 to 9 and for almost an hour and half the kids had fun bouncing around in two different play areas.  Here's about the only picture that I took of him, this was from the first bouncy room.

After spending time in both bouncy rooms the kids ended the night by having cake in the party room.

If this had been a birthday party the birthday child would be sitting in this chair.  At this party all the kids got to share it

It was a fun night which marked the end of his t-ball career.  Next year he moves up to sluggers!

Last Day of School Lunch

This years restaurant we chose was... Taqueria Moroleon.  I was in a little bit of a Mexican mood when I picked that one out!  This is the first year that Lauren didn't join us.  :( 

So of course we had to send her a text.  :)

I can't remember what everyone got.  I know Kristin had a salad with mango in it.  Megan and I had something similar, I think mine was the Lunch #2 special.  Zach just had a soft taco with fries.  We thought this place was just okay.  I don't know if we ordered the wrong things or if the chef was having a bad day.  Everything on my plate just tasted bland and that's saying a lot because I generally prefer things on the blander side rather than spicy.  My chicken enchiladas I make are way better than anything I had today.

 

So I send Lauren a text that she's missing our end of school lunch and she sends me back this picture.

It was senior week at the beach so that's why Lauren didn't go with us.  (Lauren is the one on the right.) I think she got the better deal!  I would have preferred a warm, beautiful, sunny day at the beach over the mediocre food we got.  Maybe next year we'll just have to have lunch at the beach.

Last T-ball Game

This is the last t-ball pictures you'll see ever because next year he won't be in t-ball anymore.  What's the next level... sluggers?  Or something like that.  I don't know, I'll have to look that up later.  Right now let me just show you the pictures.

 

Well maybe two years of t-ball has helped him.  He doesn't seem to play in the dirt as much as he used to and at least in this picture he looks ready to field the ball.

I love the look on his face as he's running.  The boy can run!

The team gathers in the outfield because now it's time to hand out trophies.

Zach now has 2 trophies to display.  The one from last year and then this years.  This is my baseball playing boy!

Field Day

I love field day!  This year each of the activities was named after a country.  Zach's class went to the sack race first.  I can't remember what country it was named after so I'll just call it a sack race, which is really what it was.  

This activity was called Sushi Roll Relay Race and it was from Japan.  The kids had to race in teams to be the first to roll up their sushi (blanket with various odd and ends placed on it.)  It was a cute idea.

I really thought I would remember what the names for all these were so I didn't take pictures of the signs.  Big mistake!  I have no idea what country this represented but it was an egg relay.

This game has been a favorite through the years.  Once again the kids are in teams and must one at a time use a cup to scoop water and carry it to their bucket. 

The challenge is that there are holes in the bottom of the cup!

This was a torch relay.  Zach's team finished first both times they played and I believe it was all due to how fast Zach can run.  :)  The country was USA. 

One station was a break time where they could use chalk to draw and also get some water.

I loved watching this game.  Basically you try to grab other kids' flags while avoiding yours being taken.  I love the picture because Zach has no idea that his flag is about to be taken!  They could get their flag back by doing 5 jumping jacks.  Zach did a lot of jumping jacks!

Tug-of-war, a classic, the country was Australia.  The first time they played it was the boys versus the girls and the boys won.

The teams were mixed up and once again Zach's team won.  In fact, Zach's team won every time they played.  What's the common denominator?  Zach!  His strength won it for his team.  :)

Once again I don't remember the country but it was another relay race where you hop to the cone and back. 

Even though the kids were mostly in teams and doing relay races throughout the day there were really no "winners" at the end of the day.  Actually I should say "everyone" was a winner since we're talking about elementary school kids.  Of course my kid just outshined them all!  :)

Lauren Graduates!

Lauren's graduation was held at the Bob Carpenter Center on the UD campus and she was given 8 tickets which was perfect to have our family plus both sets of grandparents come to watch.  Lauren obviously wasn't included in that count and Kristin had to be there with the band so she didn't need a ticket either. 

 

The band played while everyone was being seated then of course they played the graduation music as the students process in.  

I must say I picked our seats pretty good as we had a good view of Lauren. 

 

Time for her row to get their diplomas!

They call her name and she proceeds across shaking everyone's hands.

With diploma in hand she makes her way back to her seat.

Awww!  My baby girl graduated!

Time to turn the tassel.

Lauren didn't throw her hat in the air like some of them.  She held onto that thing.

I was pleasantly surprised that the whole graduation lasted only an hour and a half.  They march out while Kristin and the band play their music. 

We meet up with her afterwards and get some pictures.

It takes Kristin a little longer to come out because she had to put her instrument away. 

The happy graduate!  I'm so proud of you Lauren!!!

 

Whew!  One down with only 3 more to go.  :)