Abi's 8th Grade Culmination

Aveson's 8th Grade Culmination ceremony was held on a deliciously warm, sunny evening at Farnsworth Park in Altadena. Despite one teacher reading from the ubiquitous Dr Seuss book we had come to dread, it was a fun ceremony and the other speakers were all very genuine and encouraging.

Abi's friends, Aidan and Rhiannon, came to see her graduate...

And what does an 8th Grade Graduate do with all of this newly aquired worldly wisdom and status, you might ask?

Eli's 8th Grade Promotion

Two years ago, I pursued the best setting for Eli that we could get him in Pasadena - Ms Van den Bosch's class at McKinley. Today marked that end of two years well spent. Thank you Ms V and thank you Mr Schiff for all that you gave Eli!

Eli's First Formal

Ability First held their annual Formal the same day as Coronation, so it was a race home that afternoon to get him ready and back to the center by 6:00pm. They ended up having more than enough volunteers already there, so Shaun and I reluctantly dropped him off and went to grab some dinner. When we picked him up, everyone we saw raved about how much fun he had had dancing the night away!

Doesn't he look good??

Coronation Prep

 I had done a scroll for Robyn the Grey, and she liked it so well she commissioned me to do a matching scroll for her husband. Being a true artist, I procrastinated till I had only one week left to finish it - I just barely got it done to turn in at Crown Tourney, conveniently being held in Veterans' Park in Sylmar (about 5 minutes away from the farm). Here are the in-process pictures

A little over a month later these would be presented at Coronation, conveniently being held in a beautiful gothic-style church in Pasadena. But I very naively volunteered to help with the "potluck" dayboard feast they wanted to have, so I didn't actually get to see them presented in court. I spent the day in the kitchen with Aunt Pat, Carlean, and Sherry Courtney - they were angels in aprons that day for me.

 Wrangling the process of getting donations for feeding up to 400 people was nerve-racking, but somehow as the plates and boxes and coolers poured in that morning, it all came together.

We ended up feeding about 300 for the lunch, refreshing the tables several times over about 2 hours with help from Shaun and Uncle Bear. We also provided light refreshments before and an afternoon "tea" with the left-overs. A huge success!