Graduation Trip Post

Well, 'tis the season of graduations.  We were excited to celebrate the graduation of the son of my (Chandra's) good friend.



It's funny, how Hisano hasn't changed at all,



But, her boy, Kousei, has grown immensely!   It was so hard to believe that he is now 6 feet tall and going on to college.  It seems like yesterday when Hisano and I were in college and then she got married and had this little baby boy.  What happened?!

It was fun to see our kids getting along and playing games together.  Her other kids had grown up so much, too!

We had a great time playing games together with them that Saturday night.  Then on Sunday morning we enjoyed going to their church for a special Memorial Day service.

It was an honor that they asked Jay to sing and play the piano.

Frankly, it ended up being quite a miracle that he was able to sing, because on the night when we started heading down to New Mexico, Jay started coming down with an awful cold.  But, somehow God gave him a voice and he got through the whole song without coughing, once.  Then, we headed back to their house for lunch.

Then, after lunch, Jay relaxed for a while, as the rest of us went to their local zoo.  It was really fun to see Penny and their daughter, Seika, connecting as friends.  It was fun to watch them trying to feed the camel tree branches.

Penny was having so much fun that she just kept running everywhere we went.

Perhaps the girls had a special bond, knowing that they are both adopted.

But, for some reason, it just seemed that they really got along well, which was so nice to see, because I had forewarned them that sometimes Penny can be extremely shy and have a hard time opening up.  Here the girls were approaching a zookeeper, who was explaining to them all about this parrot who likes to eat buttons off of his shirts.

Seika's favorite part of the zoo was the tiger, whom she had seen when he was a newborn cub about 4 years ago, when they first moved to Clovis.





















Birthday and Graduation Parties

We just had a very fun event to celebrate, as you know.  We celebrated Penny's graduation on May 16th!

But, we waited to have the party, later, when more of my (Chandra's) relatives could make it.

We had a very busy and fun graduation party weekend starting with my parents and one brother arriving to help us get ready for the party, which was held on June 6th.  Here are some pictures of everyone getting ready.  First of all, my dad helped by replacing the passenger seat in my car with one he found for me at a salvage dealer, since the seat broke back at Christmas time.

He's such a handyman!  He also fixed our downstairs toilet, which was great for all of our out-of-town guests who were staying at our house!  We also had another man come and fix our leaky sunporch roof just days before the parties.

Also, our very kind, former nextdoor neighbor graciously gave us some of her lawn furniture, since she sold her house and moved to a smaller apartment.  That was very nice to have for all of the extra company!

One of the things she gave me was an old beverage cart.  I just spruced it up by cleaning it and covering up the old, rusty surface by spray painitng it with Rustoleum Metallic spray paint.  It fit perfectly in the corner of our sunporch, where I was planning on serving our punch for the party!

Unfortunately, I never took a picture of the punch, which was very delcious!  I loved the idea I got from pinterest to freeze the ice in the bottom of a liter bottle, so that it comes out in the shape of a flower.  And I added blueberries to the ice, so they'd go into the punch, as the ice melted.  It was a real hit with lots of people going back for more.  The punch recipe was very easy.  It had frozen o.j., canned pineapple juice, banana blended in and 7-Up.  We made it up ahead of time and kept it in gallon jugs in coolers of ice, so that it would be ready to pour into the punch bowl on the day of the party.



 Then, we celebrated Penny's 20th birthday with our relatives and Penny's friend from HSE.

I baked some of the cake for the graduation party ahead of time.  But, then I had to go back to work.  So, my mom finished baking the rest of the cake and helped out with decorating it.  We love how it turned out!

It looks like Grandpa couldn't wait to try some of the cake!

My brother, Brian, and Penny helped out a lot with decorating for the party.  Here they are hanging balloons and streamers.

The day of the party, they also had to hang up many bows that had fallen down overnight.

So, here was the garage, all decorated and ready for the guests to arrive...

It was so nice of our neighbors to let us use their helium tank to blow up some balloons!

And here was the cake, just waiting to be cut up and eaten by the guests....

And here is the lovely graduate with her cake, before it gets all cut up and eaten.

Then, she was quickly back outside to play with Brian and watch them set up the badminton set in the front yard, as well as the croquet set in the backyard.

Then our guests began arriving.  We were so glad that they all got along so well and seemed to enjoy the taco bar, punch, cake and ice cream and other food that we served.  I made my own seasonings for the beef and chicken taco meat, so that it would be gluten-free.  That way all of my guests were able to eat the food that we served.  Well, except for the cake, of course.  Sorry, Mom!  You got to make it, but never taste it.  Fortunately, Penny and her friends seemed to really enjoy playing lots of games together.

 We were so glad that we could spend such a fun time with our friends and relatives, celebrating Penny's graduation!  And we are so proud of her many accomplishments by completing her high school education.  It's been a very fun adventure, especially since we home schooled and got to share in the journey together.

It was a great party and the fun just continued into the next days and week.  But, that will be the next post!  Thanks for visiting our party!