My Baby Has Graduated!

She's definitely not a baby anymore! Dear, lovely Katie.  It's hard to believe she has graduated from high school, and yet-- it seems like she's been finished for a year already.  She finished 12th grade/freshman year in college with flair... on the Dean's List in the fall for 3.88 and on the President's List in the spring for 4.0 (and that's with 15 credits and doing her quiz memorization on top of that!).Because of her terrific grades, Blue Ridge has given her a scholarship for next year.  

We had an open house for her on Tuesday evening, 6-9pm.  Boy, was it exciting!!  (and nerve-wracking)  During the day we had a fairly extensive downpour, but it cleared off when we were driving to the park at 4pm.  Arrived and started setting up when we got a sudden storm which blew and dampened our supplies.  Then we dried things off and took a break.  Decided it might actually work out so we quickly finished setting up, esp once people started to arrive at 5:55!

The party was a fantastic success!  About 100 people came, many of the ones who have loved and supported Katie and our family over the years.  Mom and Lea Anne (who drive all the way from Ohio for this!) did a ton of work with serving food, dad and Chad did a lot of carrying and setting up, Don and Anita did a lot of decorating and buying balloons and baby carrots (since I had mistakenly cooked our first batch), Jenna, Claire, and Micah even helped a bunch.  Some church friends of ours live near the park, and they helped us out with a few items as well. 

We just feel so blessed!  Blessed that we have so many wonderful family and friends, and blessed that the party went so well.  I know God worked out that dry area for us because there were storms all around. 

AND, it ended with a BANG!  A hailstorm around 8:40 had us all huddling in the middle of the pavilion-- hail is LOUD on a tin roof!  We won't forget Katie's party. :)

Artistic Katie painted this sign and the one way down below.  She also had the idea of doing her cupcakes in the 2016 shape.  She frosted them and they looked professional!

Before the hailstorm, many kids and young people enjoyed the park area.  We had tennis and sand volleyball available, but the rain just before the party sort of dampened those ideas.

Can you see the hail below?  There were maybe 25 of us left at the party, and most of us enjoyed the excitement.