Graduation

 It is official.  Megan is no longer a high school student.  We couldn't be prouder of her. 

She stepped it up this year and finished with a 4.0. 

The ceremony was different.  Megan spent 3 years of her high school career in an online school.  Steve and I were extremely happy with Connections Academy.  So much so that Jason will be doing his freshman year there.   Because these kids come from all over the state, the ceremony just didn't seem as personal as Anthony's did.  There was no real emotional connection with the teachers or students. 

Steve's Mom and Sisters family traveled to Portland for the ceremony.  My Dad hurt his ribs and couldn't make the trip.  We are looking forward to there visit in a couple of weeks.  Sorry Kelli, you got cut off in this picture.

Megan and Lady Grandma.

The girls

My three babies.  I can't believe that Anthony is 21 and Jason is a freshman in high school.  I blinked and they grew up.

The boys messing around.

The only time I got emotional is when she was walking toward us in her cap and gown.  I am saving all the tears for when she leaves this August.  I can't even talk about it with out crying.  She opened her own checking account yesterday and was telling the clerk about her plans.  I started to tear up, the clerk saw me and she started to cry to. 

Proud Daddy.

 Godparents.

Lining up and getting ready.

Only the  kids from our town decorated their hats. There was 6 of them.

 

Never go on Pintrest when planning a party.

The laptop is running the slide show I put together. 

Graduation was on Saturday and we all got up early Sunday morning to be back in town in time for the party.

Loving the Navy support.

What a ham.

It was a great party.  We had friends wandering through well into the night.

Thanks Hayden.  Anthony's best friend since the 6th grade.  I have hundreds of pictures of the side of his head.  He finally realized that if he would just look and me and take a picture I will leave him alone.  However, we haven't taught Angela the same thing.  :)

Dinner, then s'mores by the campfire later that night.
 

We are going to miss this kid.

Senior Pictures

My second baby.  We are so proud of her.

The End of an Era

I can't believe that after 15 years of playing 3 seasons a year........its all done.  We had hoped that she would go off and play in college, but that was never her dream.

Her dream was to play a game she loved and to have fun doing it.

Having fun is exactly how she finished this season.  The last couple of years has come with some serious struggles, but I am so proud of how she handled it.  

We can't thank Tom and Mark enough for their work with her.  The above picture is Tom, unfortunately Mark was not at this game. 

She may not dream of playing soccer in college, but she does dream of coaching her own team.  She has worked with a lot of coaches, some good and some not so good, and she has learned a lot from each one.  I have no doubts that she will become an amazing coach.  

I also have no doubts that I will be shipping her cleats to some far away navel base.  I always smile at the memory of some kid that said she throws like a girl.  She said, "oh yeah, I will show you how a girl throws."  Then she threw the ball at him.  Hard. 

Shovel Snow

Have I posted this picture before?

This is how Megan shovels snow.  Gotta love her fashion style.

Spring Fever

It happens all the time in school.  Spring is in the air and summer right around the corner.  It happens in home school as well.  Hard to focus when the sun is out and only a few more weeks left of school.

This time of year sees a lot of schools out on field trips.  We are no different.  We don't take as many field trips as we did when Jason was younger.  Yesterday I decided it was time for an outside day. 

We headed to the marsh to look at the birds coming in to start their nesting.  There are Canadian Geese, Mallards and Hawks all over the place.  We saw none of them.  What we did see was always flying away from us.  Why you ask? 

He likes to talk.  I don't ever want to discourage a teenager from talking to me.  He felt like he wanted to open up about what is going on in his life.  He also wanted advice on the drama of being 14.  Who cares about the birds.  It was almost a 2 mile walk and we talked the whole time.  I loved every minute of it.  It meant the world to me when he got in the car and said "Thanks Mom."

Love this kid.

We did get to see this guy.

It was worth it.

So Sweet

This thing is bigger then he is.  On our visit to Costco a couple of years ago Jason fell in love with this giant teddy bear.  Of course I said, ummmm no.  They must only have them around Christmas time.  It was kind of funny when he was shorter, because you would only see the bear and two little feet running through the store.

 

This Christmas season, he came armed with his own money.  "I am buying this and there is nothing you can do to stop me."  Jason carried him through the store on his shoulders.  He got jealous stares from all the little kids.

The stupid bear almost didn't fit in our car.  He has his own space in Jason's room.  He once was kidnapped and held for ransom until Jason got his room clean.  I'll look for that picture to post.  It wasn't easy hiding a 5ft teddy bear but Megan helped.  She is very good at that sort of thing.  

This was what I woke up to.  Both Jason and bear asleep on the couch.  Notice the bear has both his own blanket and stuffed frog.  This is one of the many reasons why my blog is titled "News from the Zoo."  It truly is a zoo around here and I am just the head zoo keeper.

Christmas

I didn't take many Christmas pictures.  I just sat back and relaxed and enjoyed hanging out with the kids. 

I do miss having little kids around.  But having older kids means not being waken up at 3am to open presents.  It was 10 before we got everyone up and moving. 

125 Degrees

Well....maybe not 125 but it sure felt close to that.  Ok......it was 69 degrees but to us Eastern Oregonians it felt like 125. 

It was another soccer weekend and I have the sunburn to prove it.

Proud mamma moment, Megan scored the winning goal.  Here is the picture to prove it.  But I will get back to this.

I know you are asking yourself, isn't Megan a goalie?

Why yes she is.  Notice the tape on her fingers.  She jammed two of her fingers during warm up to the first game.  She ended up having to sit that game out.   We made a trip to the ER, and they are not broken.

She was once a forward, and a good one at that.

No pushing at all going on here.

This game was a tough one.  The girls ended up passing around bottles of Ibuprofen and ice bags.  They ended up winning 3-2.

I have said it before, I love watching this kid play.

It's like ballet.

Here is the kick off.  Megan had been messing around with Noel.  She kept asking her "Does this look straight?"  Then she would fix the grass and move the ball again.  This went on for a couple of minutes.

Back to this picture

I have watched this kid play for a long time.  I knew when she took off running She was going to make a shot.  I was hoping to get a picture of it.  Then 33 stepped in front of my shot.  Ugghhhhh!!! How rude.  If you look real hard at 33's wrist you will see Megan's orange cleat.  That is her foot kicking the winning goal.