Victoria's Turn

Graduation celebration #2---Victoria.
Sandy made her celebration dinner before the Baccalaureate Mass on Monday.

Sandy ordered Chick-fi-la nuggets and made all of Victoria's favorite side dishes: buttered carrots, corn pudding, pasta salad and honey glazed Sister Shubert rolls. She made the little diplomas by attaching white card stock to a roll of Mentos. They made cute party favors.

Sandy did a good job of making both graduations special---and completely different.

When I was shopping for Victoria's graduation gift, a young---20-something girl was helping me. She said that "Alex and Ani" was all the rage with young people. In fact, she was wearing about 6 of them. Even though I consider myself to be "up" on the current trends, I had never heard of this designer. The bracelets are meant to be worn with as many as you want all stacked together. Each one is different and comes with a card explaining it's meaning. I was a little nervous about them, but as soon as she opened the package, she shouted excitedly---"Alex and Ani!" What a relief! During her Baccalaureate Mass, I saw one of her friends that appeared to be wearing some, so I was really glad that Victoria knew what they were. Now that makes gift giving easy---at least for a little while.

 She got a Kate Spade purse from her parents. She's one happy girl.

 Gosh, even Victoria is nearly a head taller than me. I swear, I'm shrinking.

Victoria's last day of school was Field Day. The day before, when she got in the car after school, she started the typical kid complaining---"I don't want to go to school tomorrow. None of my friends are going." Kids always say stuff like that. I was proud of Sandy when she resisted my response (and that of my parents before me) "If your friends jumped off a cliff, would you follow?" Instead, she calmly told Victoria that she was going to school and that was that. All evening, Victoria complained. She was none too happy the following morning, but since we were there, she put on a brave face. When we picked her up after the day, she admitted that 3 of her friends were there after all! Kids still think parents are going to fall for the "ALL my friends are..." line. She even sort of admitted that she had fun---just a little! Victoria can be a hard nut to crack! You can't help but love her spirit!

Sandy told us that the same year Mitchell graduates from college, Victoria will be graduating from high school and Elizabeth will be graduating from 8th grade. That will be a marathon year!

They are growing up way too fast. I want it to stop! I'm not done with them yet!