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:

Happy Birthday Joshua!!

My little guy Josh turned 6 on May 14th. I can't believe how fast he is growing up. Joshua had a very fun-filled day. His day started off with a trip to the state park to fish with his Uncle Bill (who is visiting from Pennsylvania), his Dad & his big brother before school. He didn't catch anything but he sure had fun trying. After fishing they came home and Josh had just enough time to eat a Happy Meal and off to school he went for 2 1/2 hrs.
As Josh arrived at school all of his little friends were there to wish him a happy birthday and to share in the excitement of his party that would be happening later on in the evening. Josh's friends were chanting Joshua, Joshua, Joshua, it was too cute. Josh was the big man on campus that day. We took him and a few of his friends from school and church to the Mini Grand Prix for a night of rides, driving kiddie cars, games & of course cake and ice cream. We all had a blast!! Happy Birthday my sweet boy.

Trying to catch some catfish

Uncle Bill helping him out

Daddy, Josh & James

Heading back to the car

Josh with some of his friends from school

At the Grand Prix. They gave Josh this cute shirt that says "driver" on it

Getting ready to race

The mini roller coaster

A bunch of us on the roller coaster

Enjoying some pizza

Is that a cute cake or what?

Happy Birthday to Josh!

Homeschool Formal Night

Every year our home school group EAGLES, puts on a formal for the teens. My husband and I have been the Teen Coordinators for the last two years now with this being our last year. I am so proud of all of the youth. I will miss them all so much. I can't believe how much they have all grown up. These are amazing kids. I can't wait to see what God has in store for them in the future.
The evening started out with pictures, dinner at Bucca di Beppo (a yummy Italian restaurant), a trip to UNLV to see the Music Man and then a surprise limo ride to an after party that one of the Mom's planned out for the kids.

James and his sweet girlfriend Alainnah

Posing for the parents

The sun was so bright that day

Here is a group pic of all of them

At the restaurant



The chaperon's. You can't see me since I was taking the picture, lol

At the theatre

surprise limo ride

Inside the limo

The limo driver took them down the Vegas strip and dropped them off at the after party

The limo driver was about 45 mins late picking up the kids from the theatre. Not cool. By the time the limo got there the kids pretty much figured out what was going on. We peeked in the limo and noticed beer and champagne was in there. The limo driver came up to us parents and asked if there were any minors riding in the limo. HELLO, MCFLY!!! IS ANYBODY HOME? Of course there were minors, all of them. Then he asks us if there were any chaperon's riding in the limo with the kids. We told him yes and then he says "Well, you guys can have some beer, but not the kids." Too funny. By the time we all arrived at the after party it was around 1am so all we ended up doing was making a smore on their fire pit and then off to our homes we went to crash. It was a great night for everyone.

Blogger Slacker

Oh yes, I have been such a blogger slacker. I have enjoyed reading everyone's blogs, but I just haven't posted anything on mine lately.
I have a lot going on, so I definitely have the material for you. I even have a bunch of pictures waiting to be downloaded.
Sorry for the boring blog, it will return to full force soon, very soon :)
Have a great day!!
I leave you with one cute little boy that I love and adore.