Graduation day was Monday. I spent the majority of the day over at the high school decorating for the all night grad party. As I mentioned last week we turned the school into a castle - complete with golden turrets, gates, and groomsmen! It looked great.
After decorating I ran home to go with the family to dinner. Cali chose Rockbottom Tavern downtown for dinner. Their big soft pretzels are amazing!! Grandma and Grandpa Best joined us.
From dinner we went to the Chiles Center over at University of Portland where graduation was held. With over 600 graduates they did an amazing job of getting through the whole ceremony in about an hour and a half. The band played, the choir sang and there were 3 student speakers. Our next door neighbor Tom, a member of the school board, was on the stand and gave both Cali and Hannah a big hug when they walked out.
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It was drizzling afterwards but we still hung around and took lots of pictures.
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The neighborhood girls had their picture taken together. (One of them, Claire, was missing) These four girls grew up together -and started many first day of school together!
From graduation we headed right over to the high school for the all night party. The kids had a great time - the high school had been transformed and the activities were great. I ran the photo booth and had a photo printer there that I printed the photos off for them.
There was a prize wheel - Cali won a mini-fridge, a cash booth where you stood inside and money blew around and you tried to catch as much as you could, a DJ and dancing, caricature artists, tattoo artists, a fortune teller, huge blow up toys, pool tables, ping pong, a casino, Rockband (think that's what it's called) , a fortune teller, a hypnotist show, lots of food, boxer bingo. I lasted until 4:00 a.m. and the kids were home by 6:00 a.m.
Tuesday was pretty much a daze as all went around sleep deprived.
Wednesday was a catch up day - trying to take care of all the things that had been neglected the last week or so with the craziness of graduation.
On Thursday Cali and I headed to the Washington County Courthouse to go before the judge to make her name change official. When we got there we realized she had forgotten her Driver's license so we had to drive all the way back home - instead of worrying about how much time we were wasting I now worry about how much gas - in my Suburban that was about $20.00 worth!
The judge showed up about an hour late but it is now official - Calista Wilkes is now Calista Mary Wilkes!
Friday Jim and I celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary by getting a quick bite to eat and then going to a grad party and then home to watch the season finale of Lost - pretty romantic!
This past weekend was full of graduation parties once more - I think about 10 of them!
Tessa also had her ballet recital with 4 performances - she is one tired little girl!
Jim attended the baptism of one of his Primary class members and Cali's ballroom class did a floor show at the Paradise Ballroom Saturday night.
This next week is finals week for Tessa - one she will be glad to have over. Now that Graduation is over we can focus on Girl's Camp. Cali and her group are excited about being KIT counselors and Tessa will be a KIT (Kounselor in Training). A very exciting year. I am busy preparing for my Destiny presentation - everyone please pray for good weather!! It has been cool and drizzly all week and we need sunshine next week for camp.
Boy Update: Logan returned to Provo and work Tuesday eveningl. It was wonderful to have him home - things are always a little bit more fun and loud when Logan is around.
He attended the baptism of cousin Ward on Friday night, went to dinner with all the Wilkes adults on Saturday and Sunday he attended a missionary farewell of a fellow Young Ambassador and the missionary homecoming of cousin Marcus and then a family dinner afterwards - a busy weekend.
Clark headed south for the weekend to St. George with a group from his ward. They were going golfing, hiking and hanging out. ]
