The week after Graduation and after the Alex and Zack Graduation Party, we moved the party to Waynesboro.   This time it was a combination Graduation party for Alex and Birthday party for Sam (Sam’s birthday is on June 3rd).  Nana and Aunt Becky did most of the preparations, including a very delicious nacho and barbecue banquet.  Everybody went back for seconds, except of course Sam who managed to put down 4 barbecue sliders besides some nachos.  We had a full house as Uncle Deke, Aunt Kim and Lilly and Annabelle came down for the weekend.  In addition, Cousin Allen, Francee and Meghan all came down for the big day.  Everyone had a great time and it was great to see everyone.

Setting up a return trip in July

It’s not a party until someone brings a gun.  🙂

Test Flying the X-Wing

Alex and Sam getting in some kicks

Snow Boots the party cat

Alex and Zack had their Graduation Party at our house on Saturday.  We grilled burgers, dogs and bacon on the grill.  We also had a big cake and a cookie cake for dessert.  All told we had about 35 people show up for the party, mostly students and a few adults – parents and friends.  After a very long week of preparation the event went off without a hitch and everyone seemed to have a good time.

The calm before the storm….

The seniors

Alex and Zack receiving some gifts… Alex of course forgot to read who gave him the first gift – even though the name was on the envelope.   🙂

The new sofa, before the party… it took 5 of us, sweating and straining, to get this thing in the house. 🙂

As you can see it came in quite handy…

After the party, Gung Gung presented Alex with his graduation present… a very nice Tissot watch.

  The day finally arrived when Alex could move the graduation tassel from the right side to the left side and finally be finished with high school.  The graduation ceremony was held in the Sanctuary and was presided over by the Pastor, the Principle and a couple of the Youth Pastors.
  The event started at 7pm and finally finished up sometime around 9:30pm.  In between there was far too much singing and a sermon that seemed to drag on forever, but finally we got to see all 23 graduates (the most ever for Trinity) walk up onto the stage and receive their diploma.  Of course there was a long line of people they had to hug and most of the hugs were quite awkward – especially for Alex and then the pauses for photo opportunities from the parents.  The students then walked back to their parents and handed over their diploma and a rose for Mom.  Of course Alex forgot to give Mom and Dad a hug and Dad had to call him back before he got too far away – he later claimed to not know that he was supposed to give us a hug.
 Then after everyone received their diploma, there was a power point slide show of all the students – each parent had to submit 12 photos for the slide show. (yes: 23 students x 12 photos each).  We think Alex probably got the most ‘oohs” and ‘ahhhs’ from his baby photos because he was of course a very cute baby. When everything was finally done, the parents and students all stood around outside for a few minutes and mingled.
 After everyone talked and took a few photos, we all proceeded to the after-party in the gym where the parents all had to have a  small table set-up with their child’s memorabilia from school on it.  In addition, their child’s favorite dessert was on another table for everyone to enjoy; Alex chose chocolate chip cookies (everything had to be home cooked and not purchased in a store).  We stayed at the after-party for a while and had some cake and punch and then Nana and Gung Gung took Alex and Dad to Cracker Barrel for dinner – we were all starving.  Sam and Mom stayed and took the table down and went home to relax (they had eaten earlier in the evening).
 We are very proud of Alex – he survived several years of Trinity Christian School and made it through a challenging year.  If he can make it through all of this we know he will be well prepared for anything college may have in store for him!   Congratulations!!

Alex walking down the aisle at the beginning of the ceremony

Sam singing in the choir

Pastor Cash with the opening remarks

Alex’s friend Cole, delivering the Valedictorian Speech

Alex, getting a hug from Pastor Cash after receiving his diploma.

Pausing for photos

Walking down the aisle with the tassle on the left side!

Alex’s friend Zack

Alex’s Graduation Table

Sam didn’t make B’ honor roll this year because they changed the rules so that if a student didn’t make an A’ or B’ on all their exams then they weren’t eligible for the awards.  Sam did however finish out the year with a 95% and a 96% for the marking period.  Another great year for Sam!  Sam did win the Presidential Youth Fitness Award this year – we are very proud of him as this is the first year that he earned that honor!

We celebrated Mother’s Day with a big dinner and a couple of small presents for Mom.  The dinner was a brisket that Dad cooked for the boys, while Mom had some grilled vegetables.  Mom got a totally useless gift but one that she loved – a new Plush Peep!  She also got a new pair of pink headphones to wear when she is working out.

Alex, Matt and Zack all attended the Junior/Senior Banquet a couple of weeks ago.  Obviously it is called a Banquet because food is served and they aren’t allowed to dance.  The event was held at one of the area country clubs and lasted until about 9pm.  Matt stopped by and picked up Alex, even though Zack was Alex’s date for the evening… apparently none of the boys had dates.  🙂   Pictured below is Alex and Matt, then below that is Alex, Kristen and Zack. I’m sure the photo below was not sanctioned because they are actually touching.  🙂

Sam found a new friend, the turtle, walking around the yard the other day.  Turns out he was hiding out in the hydrangea bed.  We saw him again the next day, but he seems to have moved on as we haven’t seen him for a few days.  While Sam was taking his photo he also ran into an old friend, the anole, that was hanging out closer to the house.  Unfortunately, the neighborhood cat caught him the next day and we haven’t seen him since then.  😦

  The Varsity Sports banquet was at Mr. Gray’s church (the school principle) and it was nice evening honoring all the athletes that played Varsity sports over the course of the year. – both boys and girls. Sam and Alex both attended as Sam played Varsity Soccer and Tennis, while Alex played both of those as well as Varsity Basketball.  All the Seniors had a small poster of them playing their favorite sport mounted on a a display wall.  We chose the photo of Alex jumping in the air to keep a ball in bounce in the State Soccer Tournament.   Quite a few people had never seen it before and were very impressed that Alex got that high off the ground.
  We were a little disappointed that Alex didn’t win any awards for Basketball (we were expecting most improved) or Soccer (most valuable player – that went to Zach, who did deserve it). Alex did  however take away the most improved for Tennis as well as receiving the honorary award for being hit with the ball the most times during the season.  Sam didn’t win anything either this year but he still has a few years of Varsity sports and we expect he might pull in a couple by his senior year.  We are very proud of both of the boys this year as they worked very hard on the field and off the field.

Trinity had an end of the year Tennis Party this year after playing just 2 matches (last year they didn’t play any).  Alex and Sam both played this year, but Alex got some special recognition as he was the team captain and the only one that had played all 4 years since the team started (Mr Bradford was the coach all 4 years).  For his contribution, Alex received an oversized Tennis ball signed by the team and apparently Donald Trump, as well as 2 cans of new balls.  The party was pizza and cupcakes sponsored by the Payne family.  🙂