Graduation Party

Saturday night we co-hosted a graduation party for the graduates. The graduates are the 8th graders (Cody's class) and the four 9th graders. The first part of the party was at our friend Emily's house. There was the trampoline, fuseball, ping-pong, eating, and dancing to the DJ on the rented dance floor.

Emily has a daughter, Maddie in the 8th grade and a daughter Helen in Seby's class. She was going to be at the party so we just had to bring Seby & Zane along for the fun (Emily also has Jack, Maddie's twin brother, and sister Caroline - they attend a different school). Seby & Zane were quite excited because the plan had been to leave them at home with a sitter.

Here are Seby & Helen bouncing on the trampoline. In the pink shirt is Caleb, a close friend of Cody's. He has had a few sleepovers here and we are all quite fond of him. Seby & Zane adore Cody & Graham's friends, the ones that are never bothered by them rank high in my book.



The kids had the many different activities and just hanging out. The party was for the 8th & 9th grade graduates and the 7th graders. It is close group of kids and we just had to include everyone. Here are Cody & Graham hanging with some friends.



Seby was so excited to just be around these big kids, but to have them let him really hang with them was quite a treat. According to Seby (and backed up by Graham) he "kicked butt" playing ping-pong. Here he is playing with Nelle, who today I learned from her mother is going to marry Graham. I have yet to get more information from Graham about all this!



This group of kids were so great. We weren't sure how this big party was going to go, especially with bringing some younger kids along. But they all were so great with the younger guys. I love this pic of Seby playing fuseball with the BIG kids.



Zane was so eager to dance and was just thrilled beyond belief to have Tori (a 7th grader) dance with him. I was "chaperoning" the back of the house when I was told I just HAD to go up front to the dance floor to catch some pics of Zane and Tori dancing.



I guess I missed a great shot of the two of them "slow dancing" - Tori on her knees the whole time! Too cute. I told Zane that this was really Tori's party and to not demand all of her attention. Of course she insisted that he could dance as long as he wanted with her. Too sweet.



Here is Cody with his good friend Louis.



Louis has had many a sleepover and playdates at our house and somewhere along the line has been nicknamed "best friend" by Seby & Zane. Here are Seby, "best friend" Louis, Graham, Caleb & Cody hanging.



More hanging out by Nelle (or should I say future daughter-in-law?), Louis, Graham & Rosie.



After the party at Emily's the 7th graders were picked up by parents and we then brought all the 8th & 9th graders back to our house for a late "party" and sleepover. We "transported" them by bringing a carload at a time back to the house. By about 11pm we had them all here and had them watch the classic "Airplane" outside projected onto the carraige house wall. Luckily we were able to find enough chairs/benches/camping pads for them all the cozy up and watch the movie. After the movie they all made smores than off to bed!



Luckily I had "girl duty" in the house, they all passed out quite quickly. Slade had "boy duty" out in the carraige house - the boys were all up on the second floor with Slade sleeping on a couch on the first floor. I think they finally quieted down around 2:30am.



In the morning we made pancakes and more for a breakfast feast and more hanging. They were all so great together and it was really a treat to have the party for them. We had to "rope" off the newly laid sod with CAUTION tape, it had only been laid down a few days before. But luckily with all the pavers and the parking pad without any cars, there was plenty of room without the grass area.



We realize that we might just have to do this party again for Graham next year when he graduates the 8th grade, so it was a good training ground to see what it would be like. Luckily it was a truly great group of kids, due in a big part to their Montessori schooling, I just have to include the school's mission statement: "Lake Country School is an urban-based Montessori community whose purpose is to help children prepare themselves for life. We seek to mirror and embrace the rich diversity of the city. We foster independence, critical thinking, respect and responsibility to self, to others and to the earth." We look forward to many more years here in this wonderful community.