Graduation II and Birthday II

Memorial Day weekend found us travelling.  Austin's graduation was Saturday night in Shelbyville.  His high school is Martha Layne Collins High School (she is our state's first and only female governor and my first choice for interim President of Georgetown College), such a beautiful school.  We spent the afternoon at Angie's playing cornhole (ignore the U of L cardinal on the boards; we did) then went to the graduation.  The puppies came with us to Shelbyville, but Michael didn't.  He wanted to stay home and be with .... guess who? .... Stephen. 

The next day was Mom's birthday, so we (sans puppies) went to Morehead.  We ate at Melini's (delicious tiramisu, canoli, and cheesecake) and then walked to the university gym, where Michael and Carola had a fascinating conversation about the banners and structures?  Michael also got to shoot ball on the gym floor with two MSU basketball players practicing on the other end. 

Once we got back to Mom's, we played horseshoes.  No one beat me (only because I didn't play).  Mom looked great in her orange shirt, and her home remodeling projects look fantastic.  Especially the tile in the bathrooms!  Happy birthday, Mom!

May

I still can't believe Elizabeth is thirteen (or that her hair grew so much in one year).  She and I went to the Peter Pan ballet for Mother's Day.  The flying was amazing!  Well, I thought it was but apparently not everyone did - the two year old girl seated next to us said, "I see the string.  It's big string.  They can't really fly."  I admit, the cables were enormous.  Regardless, I loved my afternoon with Elizabeth.  We had an absolutely exquisite meal together at the Fayette Mall Food Court, and we got some shopping done.  It was wonderful. 

Meanwhile, Steven and Michael went to Shelbyville to be with his mom, sister, and sister's family.  The puppies went with them and could hardly move once they returned.  I reminded Steven to take a photo for the blog and somehow only Angie ended up in it.  She does have a lovely backyard.  Speaking of backyards, one morning we had some visitors in our own - ducks!

The end of the semester brought many lunches with friends, including Doug and Lisa Eddy.  I spoke at the graduation banquet and received the Christian Service Award during baccalaureate services. It was an emotional weekend, as I genuinely like so many of this year's seniors.  But I'm ready to spend the summer with my elementary school and 7th grade graduates!

Speaking of graduates, I loved going to Michael's 5th grade graduation ceremony.  It is hard for Michael to believe he won't be walking those halls any more or seeing those teachers again after six years at that school.  I had a rough time after having my last lunch with Michael this week (parents do not have lunch with their children in middle school). 

His graduation ceremony was beautiful and as always, I was so proud.  I loved the group photo during the reception, but when some of the guys (not Michael, of course) started squirting the parents with Capri Sun drink containers (see group photo 02), I decided I was ready for the maturity that middle school surely brings.  :)  We celebrated as a family at a Mexican restaurant that night.  Elizabeth's friend Emily was with us and they insisted on sitting at the far end of our table; were we supposed to be offended by that?! 

The month of April

Elizabeth loves to listen to music, as we all know.  You can imagine she was more than thrilled to attend the Taylor Swift concert a few weeks ago with her friend Emily.  Not just because she loves Taylor Swift (and her 11 costume changes), but because the mystery opening act was Ed Sheeran (does he even look like a rock star?).  As Steven remarked, she was on Cloud 09 for days. 

 

Steven and I, on the other hand, love to listen to her as she performs - so we were thrilled to go to her spring chorale concert.  It is amazing how good middle schoolers can sound. 

Michael continues to play travel soccer; this weekend he has four games, two of which are out of town.  He's awesome with powerful legs, and he is looking forward to playing for the middle school team in the fall.
Thank you for all my birthday greetings.  I loved receiving the cards, phone calls, and gifts.  :)  The best card was Laura's, in which she wrote, "I can't wait to see you this morning and just hang out!"  So all day I waited for my visit from my sister, so excited to know she was flying all the way across the Atlantic just to hang out with me.  But the entire day came and went....no sister.  In spite of that terrible disappointment, I had a wonderful day.  Steven, Elizabeth, and Michael took me out to Galvin's for dinner and I did not do any grading past 3 p.m.  Also, some students broke into my office (with the help of another faculty member's key) and decorated it.  Their card was written on a huge tri-fold board.  :) 

Chicago

 My first airplane trip in about four years went well!  I was able to attend the Midwestern Psychological Association's annual conference in Chicago.  I went to absolutely fascinating, enlightening presentations, lectures, and poster sessions.  I presented my research, too.  Best of all - I got to hang out with Robin much of the time.  And I got to see Richard, my beloved fellow psychologist friend from Yale.  I hadn't seen him in perhaps 15 years.  It was splendid to be away from campus for a few days - I even missed one of my finals.  Yes!  But I was ready to return home after my couple days away, ready to see my family again, especially because it was Elizabeth's birthday weekend!!!

Speaking of campus, we had our end of the year reception for our 42 graduating seniors (our department had more majors and minors than any other department).  Michael graced us with his presence and even brought Stephen along for the fun.  Regan's daughter Camryn is the other child in the photo. 

Teenager in the House

Elizabeth is a teenager.  Wow.  I just shake my head.  How lucky we have been to know her for thirteen years!  She debated as to what kind of party she wanted - a hotel sleepover with a few friends, a pampered spa day with one friend, or a less elaborate party with many friends.  In the end, because she has too many close friends from which to choose, she decided to simply delay the decision and wait to have her "real" party this summer.  So on her actual birthday, there weren't balloons and streamers and screaming girls, just her family, which I'm sure she much preferred.  Ha ha ha. 

Elizabeth got to pick whatever she wanted to eat all day, so she decided on muffins and a bacon/egg sandwich for breakfast; a grilled cheese with no fruit or yogurt (she normally has to eat those if she has grilled cheese) for lunch; Jamba Juice at the mall; O'Charley's food for dinner; ice cream cake for dessert; and unknown quantities of unknown kinds of junk food as snacks throughout the night, long after the parents had gone to bed.  I do know there were marshmallows, white chocolate chips, and plenty of barbeque potato chips involved because I saw the crumbs under blankets later.  :)

The ice cream cake was  a huge hit with everyone in the family, even the puppies.  Notice how quickly they imitated Steven at the table.

I chaffeured Elizabeth and her dear friend Emily around central Kentucky for clothes shopping.  First Georgetown, then Frankfort (where they found nothing except dorky Derby hats, perfect for a very cute photo), then Lexington. 

Elizabeth is beautiful and bright and lovely. We are proud to be her family.

Points and pies

Mom sent me an e-mail this week saying she was looking at Michael's photo in the Lexington paper.  His photo was in the paper with the Scott County Wildcats basketball team, who won the state AAU Division II championship.  Go Wildcats!  Some very close games and then some not at all close games during that tournament.  A fabulous way to end the season.

Meanwhile, as part of a fund raiser for the Children's Miracle Network, I agreed to be pied in the face.  One of my favorite students paid $55 to pie me.  I didn't wear the hair net or the full body garbage bag covering which was perhaps not the best decision as I had to teach after receiving the pie and began to smell like souring dairy products.  I will try to attach the video (may not show up in internet explorer, try mozilla instead) that the student sent me afterward.  I kind of got the last laugh, as you'll see.

Sports weekend

 Michael played both basketball (in Georgetown) and soccer (in Cincinnati) this weekend.  The best part of the Georgetown tournament was that the team won; they went undefeated, 5-0, in spite of the fact that Michael wasn't there for three of the five games.

The best part of the Cincinnati tournament was that we got to hang out with Robin and her family in between the 2:30 and 8:30 games.  (The worst part was that Steven had to work, so he couldn't go.  Stephen spent the night with us the night before and drove up with us, so it was kind of the same.  Get it?  Stephen and Steven.  Ha ha ha.)  I love, love seeing her and her family.  Michael had a great time, too - he was upstairs with Jake and their friend from Ukraine, Anastasia, the entire time doing I'm not sure what, but we could hear laughing, so we assumed all was well. 

Elizabeth chose to stay at home, after spending the night at her friend Emily's house.  She spent hours reading One Direction "fan fiction", which is a new genre.  Fans of celebrities write fiction that feature the celebrity or celebrity group, post them on-line, add chapters periodically, and wait for fans to read their stories.  Elizabeth devours the stories that feature the five-guy band.  I love it that she spends so much time reading, even though some of the topics are rather dark (murder, stalking, etc.).  I want to protect her from the topics, but she's 12, so it's already out there in her brain.

And here are precious photos of Niki and Zoe.