School's out for Summer

Joshua's last day of school. I can't believe my baby is finished with Kindergarten. He is growing up way too fast. It was a wonderful year with an excellent teacher. Mrs. Bailey did an excellent job with all of the kids. Joshua is reading at a 2nd and 3rd grade level. I am so proud of him. Happy Summer!

Josh was so excited to be the first in line on the boys side. This picture was actually take on the 2nd to last day of school.


Here are the kids on the last day of school playing musical chairs

Josh eating an ice cream sundae

All of the kids lining up for the awards ceremony. Their teacher asked them to cross their arms and put their finger up to their mouths. She has them do this whenever they are supposed to be quiet. It looks like only two of them heard her, haha.

Some treats I made for all of the kids in Josh's class. Me and my friend Koko went to the party store and picked out a bunch of things to put in their treat bags. The tag says "Have a great summer" on one side and on the other side it says "From Joshua and Jayden"


Eating pizza


First grade will be here before we know it. Have a wonderful rest of your Summer everyone!

Graduation Party

James and his best friend Taylor shared their graduation party together. My sweet friend Michele (Taylor's mom) offered her beautiful home for the party. It was so much fun. Everyone had a great time. Congrats grads!!!

Michele and I made picture boards of the boys. We had autograph books set up for their friends and family to sign

This was part of James' board

Here is the other side of his board

Me and James

Josh headed straight for the hot tub with Taylor's sweet little dog Buddy. This dog is so neurotic about his ball. If you could hear what he was thinking right now it would be "ball, ball, ball, ball." LOL!

James and his cousin Leighanna

James, Tommy, and Taylor

Me and my sis-in-law Tari

Our friends and DJ's James & Brady. This was a gift to James from them

Dance, dance, dance. The woman on the left is Beverly. She is like a second mom to me. She got the kids dancin'. Go Momma Bev!!

Emily, James & Calvin. Calvin was James' photographer for his senior pics and band pics




Me and my niece Leighanna

When the DJ's left the room for a few minutes Richard kept things running

Some of the kids/teens in the pool

Ending the night off with a little graduation cake


Thanks for being patient with me and my blog posts. I am slowly but surely catching you all up on things.

Graduation Day

My boy graduated! I still can't believe it. James is such a wonderful young man. I am so proud of
him.


I will never forget his face or what he said during the summer after eighth grade when we told him he would be home schooled. "What? I'm not going to be in high school with my friends!" It was devastating to him. I felt bad, but I knew we were doing the right thing. As far as James was concerned, we were for sure going to ruin his life. We asked him to try it for 1 yr. and then we would decide as a family on what to do. During his first 3 yrs. of home school we used the ABEKA dvd program. Wow! If you can get through ABEKA, you can get through anything. Talk about tough, he had quiz's every day and tests atleast 2 times a week. He worked his tail off from 7am until 3:30pm, on a good day. During his junior year his grandmother (my mom) came to live with us. She has a lot of health issues and needs my constant care. Richard and I couldn't give James the attention he needed and you really couldn't afford to get behind with this curriculum. For James' senior year we decided to change curriculums. We used Bob Jones and a couple other text books Richard found. James did very well. He graduated with a 3.5 GPA. James will go to community college in the fall for a few semesters and then off to a university.
If you asked James during his high school years if he liked being home schooled, he would tell you no. He would have gone to public school in a heartbeat. He knows that this was the best for him though and during his speech on graduation day he thanked us and described home school as being a "sweet deal".

Happy Graduation James!! We love you so much.

Pomp & Circumstance, here he comes

The graduates preparing for their speeches

James getting ready to give his speech

Here we are presenting James with his well earned diploma. It was so hard not to bawl. I kept it together though, as hard as it was.

Richard giving the commencement speech. What an honor for our family.

The graduates just finished turning their tassels & throwing their caps

In the reception area getting ready to chow down

This was the fruit and veggie table, yumm!

I just had to take a pic of this dip, it was so amazing.
I think it was marshmallow creme and cream cheese.

After all of the hugging and chatting with family and friends,
this is what was left of the cake. I wish I could have gotten a pic
before it was half eaten ha,ha

The food is disappearing

My handsome guy


Stay tuned. My next posts will be the graduation party!

I have some catching up to do

I know, I know, I have some serious catching up to do.
I just uploaded 225 pics so stayed tuned.

Here's a teaser for you while you wait: