SHARE
What a great week for this kid! Farewells and graduation and parties, oh my. Graduation was Thursday night and the weather was just right. Our district holds graduation at T-Mobile park (the baseball stadium) and they rotate graduates and parents through for the graduation ceremonies for all three high schools in the district. Our graduation time this year was 7:45pm. The ceremony was really well done with great student speakers and the chosen staff speaker was fantastic too. (Oddly there is always a speaker from the school district and hardly anybody knows who they are!) They are amazingly efficient considering there were 594 graduates in her class.
Since the ceremony was so late we had to bring some casual shoes and clothes for Ellie so she could hop onto the all night party bus right after. The bus took them to the Hard Rock cafe for a late dinner, a hypnotist show, casino games and dancing. After a few hours the grads all hopped back on the busses and were taken to the Family Fun Center for arcade games and bowling. Sounds like it was a fun night but by the time I picked Ellie up from the high school she was wiped! We poured her into bed and didn’t see her again for six hours!
(I do have a picture of this kid getting her diploma but this one is SO MUCH BETTER! It perfectly captures her personality and says way more about her. Ha!)
On Saturday we had a graduation brunch to celebrate her with family and friends. We chose a brunch because there were a TON of grad parties held yesterday and this would allow her to hop over to other parties when hers was done. Plus, this kid is notoriously picky but she LOVES breakfast food. Winner winner chicken dinner!
We decided on a donut wall, cereal bar, plenty of muffins and fruit and hot chocolate and coffee. We had no idea how many people would be joining us so we had a LOT of food. (So. Much. Cereal.) It was fun to hang up all sorts of pictures of Ellie as she was growing up and it was fun to see all our friends there to celebrate her. We asked for no gifts but there were some REALLY clever gifts including 100 1 dollar bills so she can ‘make it rain in Boise’ and a check for $20.19. Love it!
We are so proud of this girl. She worked hard to graduate suma cum laude (yup, Mom brag there). She’s had a steady job she’s worked at for the last two years and she has really come into her own with a few different friend groups this year. Even though it’s been a crazy year with our living situation (6 months in a rental house in the middle of her senior year isn’t easy. Neither is moving to the new house two weeks before graduation!) she has come through it all with grace and gratitude. We are so proud of all her hard work and we are excited to see the amazing person she has become. Adventure awaits her in Boise and we can’t wait to see what her future holds.
Way to go kid. We love you!