Sail Away Graduation Party

This was our second graduation party - the one for all the school friends.  They had about 80 people RSVP on Facebook and we probably had just about that many.  It was fun to have a backyard full of kids.

We also made a fun invite for this party too!

Cali was my big helper and she made this fun boat out of a cardboard box!

 We had fun decorating for the party - especially making the big balloon banner.  Fortunately we had a hand pump to pump all the balloons.  Rachel's mother Scarlet came over to help with it and the cupcake baking!  Lizzy came over on Saturday and helped me decorate all the cupcakes - she was so much help and then my friend Marsha came over before the party and just pitched right in and helped with all the last minute chaos!!

The Italian Soda bar was a huge hit!

We also had all kinds of yummy cupcakes and chips and dips and Cracker Jack and Candy too.  Later on when it cooled down we had a fire and they made s'mores.

We also had a photobooth which was a huge hit.  The kids took pictures all night.

The kids just had fun sitting around talking and playing badmitton on the lawn.

 And there was a lot of hugging going on!

Love my girls.

The Graduation Ceremony

Tessa's graduation was held on Thursday, June 9th at the Chiles Center at the University of Portland.

We went to dinner before hand over in North Portland so we would be close by.  We went to Pause and had a yummy dinner.  One advantage of taking grandma and grandpa with us is we got to use their handicap parking permit and got rock star  parking!

There she goes!  Next time we see her she will be an official high school graduate!

She also had her fans in the crowd.

There were over 600 graduates in her class but it was amazing how quicky they got them in the door and all across that stage.

Our neighbor Tom Quillin is on the schoolboard so he was there that night to help present diplomas - he gave Tessa a big hug!  So sweet!

That darn hat just didn't want to stay on!

The Concert Choir sang so Tessa participated in that.

And she was recognized as a Westview Academic Scholar.

It's official - she did it!

It was pretty dark outside when we came out but we still found a few of her good friends and took photos!
Katy Jo - Rachel and Spiro

And a few more family shots.

Cali and Tessa did a little graduation dance in the parking lot.

One final shot!

We headed home and quickly changed our clothes.  Tessa and I headed over to the high school for the all night grad party.  They bused them over to a local athletic club and had lots of fun activities for them all night.  I chaperoned the first shift and got home about 2:00 a.m.!