Last Saturday Jeff & I were at Woodland UMC for Charlie’s graduation party – I cannot believe this child has finished high school. The pictures I got of him with others just didn’t turn out that well, but here are a few of the cute, cute decorations Jenny had put out for the event. Every table had a framed picture of him with those tissue paper & cardboard decorations. This was his first formal picture sitting. Truthfully, he still has those same eyes. I loved it then and I love it now.

Jenny had saved all of the name cards from his cubbies over the years, and used them to decorate the posterboard of pictures. She reminded me for years that they had hung on his bedroom door, so when they took them down, she saved them after that. So precious.

The Charlie shrine: BMX, his Christening Bible, Boy Scouts, Cross Country, his puppy and his trucks. So, so many memories.

Week before last was our Forever Young – our old folks group from church – and friends’ annual beach trip. Our favorite place to eat is Captain Benjamin’s Seafood Buffet (truly, it has everything imaginable on the buffet), so it is always on the agenda. For the first time ever this year I rode the bus, and so got to hear the lady from Captain Benjamin’s climb on there & do her welcome speech. They do have just incredible decor in the restaurant, and I learned from her that they actually have a model ship builder on staff. This past year, though, instead of building another ship, he concentrated his attention on the new display honoring Vietnam Veterans, showing all of the different kinds of helicopters that were used in that conflict. It really was pretty amazing.

Here’s one of many, many examples of his work from years gone by…

Saturday our day started out with Jeff & I heading over to Rustic Roots, where Charlie works, in Rock Hill for the big opening of the treehouse in their front yard. It really was very cool, although Charlie was not working that day. Jeff actually climbed up inside it and said it was very cool – had a loft & a fire pole & some little built in furniture. You have to look pretty close to see Jeff standing out on the balcony. There were tons of kid in there by the time we left – I am so happy that the day was so successful.

Late that afternoon we were at June’s dance recital. They just did an amazing job. So proud of her!

Friday evening Jeff & I were at First Presbyterian Church in Gastonia to hear Clara and the Choraliers’ final local performance of the year. This week they head to churches in Charleston and Beaufort to present the same show. As always, it was incredible. And with the acoustics in the church, it just blew me away. So proud of these kids.

Afterwards, with our star 🙂

Jeff got a couple of pictures while he was outside walking around checking if there was any storm damage last week, and getting limbs picked up out of the driveway. We are loving the new bench he just made a couple of weeks ago.

It’s been almost a year since Adam finished up 8th grade at Sullivan Middle School and was named Male Student Athlete of the Year, and just this past Thursday Jeff & I got over to see his name on the banner hanging in the gym there. That was very cool. The football team was having a meeting in the gym, so we got to talk to his former coach a bit, and that was fun. We were proud all over again 🙂

This is the puzzle I started on last month when Jeff was in Indiana. It was harder than I thought it would be, so he got home long before I finished it up :-). Pretty, though, I thought.

Friday night I headed to Augusta to spend the night with Sherri and Gary, and then early Saturday morning we hit the road to Athens to see their granddaughter Lynleigh in her only dance competition of the season. During the Parents Showcase before the first competition she cracked her pelvis, so this was the only time she got to dance all year. She did a wonderful job – all of the girl from her studio did – and her three dances all received Platinum awards. For one of them, she was the one who went up to get the award. It was so exciting and we were so proud.

Our star after the show was over. So precious.

Last Thursday was Mason’s final chorus program as a Clover Middle School student – he says his last ever, as he isn’t singing in high school. It was kind of emotional for me, with him being our youngest one. They did a great, great job. He is on the back row, far left.

Got this picture of our sweet kid afterwards…