These are pics of all the stuff we did before the graduation ceremony… setting up grads’ tables, practicing, and taking family pictures.
Dawson’s table
Joel’s table
Carl’s table
Ian’s table
Zack’s table
the cake
McNew family
Smith family
Cummings family
Raney family
the extended Cummings family
Zack is the only one of the boys who went to “real” school. He did one year of preschool at the church I grew up in. He even had a graduation ceremony!
So before I do his high school grad pictures, I wanted to do a flashback to 1998…
The night before graduation, we had a catered dinner at the church as a way to celebrate our sons and to “send them off into the world” with a blessing.
To make the meal even more special we added crab to the menu. This crab was to be caught by the graduates themselves on a fun crabbing trip with Walt and Dena Wood. It was a fun day, but they got totally skunked! Not ONE crab! Thankfully, we were able to keep seafood on the menu thanks to the generous donation of crab meat from the Woods’ freezer!
Our friend Andy and his catering partner Ben, also gave us a generous gift of free catering! The food was delicious, but the program was so special!
Each family got a turn to speak a blessing over their son as he graduated.
Some families just had the dads speak…
Carl and Joel’s grandparents
What a powerful way to kick-off this momentous occasion in the lives of our sons!
After dinner, we cleaned up and made them practice…
At this year’s church picnic we celebrated Zack’s graduation. God blessed us with another year of no rain, good times, good food and wonderful friends!
And thankfully, Walt had his camera… :o)
Our kitty disappeared about 7 weeks ago. My friend’s cat had kittens just two days later. Sunday we brought home a new kitten.
Our friends named him Tank. The boys like the name, but I really prefer people names for my pets. I think it stems from my baby need. I give them all the names I love. I really want to call him Phineas (or Finn for short) but the boys are stuck on Tank. They think it’s a “cooler” name than Finn. Maybe I’ll just call him Finn anyway… ;o)
He is a pretty cute and playful kitty. In fact, he’s a VERY playful kitty! He plays hard and sleeps hard. He loves climbing, chasing toys and pouncing! I love his pretty pale apricot color!
the chair at my desk is his very favorite place to nap
Introducing him to Max has been interesting. Tank is unafraid of Max and Max has NO ability to play nice!
Tank prefers to play with Max through the gate across the door…
All that wrestling wears Tank (Finn) out!
I’m such a sucker for a baby!
The weather was just too gorgeous this year to not spend Mother’s Day on the river! So we did…
The water was quite calm and there wasn’t much breeze but the water was FREEZING! But it didn’t stop the boys from going in… But then, they are CRAZY! LOL
passing ships provide great waves for the tube!
Chris made himself a bit of shade and Will just did what Will loves to do best…
It was a very happy and sunny Mother’s Day!
