Senior Picnic, Senior Letters, Senior Ad

Today was another big day for the senior year that's dwindling down, with Senior this, and Senior that:

SENIOR PICNIC

The weather held out for us long enough so the seniors could enjoy a day outside with "American" food Maddie said, like hot dogs and hamburgers, and just a great time of fellowship together.  Maddie said everyone went running towards teh ice cream truck though when it came.  No Spider-man ice cream, but she did have something tasty from the ice cream truck.

SENIOR LETTERS

She got her "orange envelope" today, an envelope filled with letters written by friends, family and faculty too.  A month or so ago, I was getting all sorts of people to write letters to Maddie.  Friends from taekwondo and from church, and of course the relatives too.  Maddie loved reading everyone's thoughtful writings, and she's kept them in a special place.  And yes, we wrote something too for her.  When we got home, all the letters were spread out on the kitchen table as she was re-reading and organizing them.  That was something really nice.  I remember all the frantic work collecting those without trying to give it away what we were doing.  Maddie may have known somewhat, but it is still a great thing all these letters.  Speaking of which, here's one letter she didn't see coming:

It doesn't hurt to ask, so I reached out to the White House to send a letter as well.  And sure enough, we got a letter from the White House congratulating Maddie for her upcoming graduation!

SENIOR YEARBOOK

And here we are at the last school yearbook too.  It's a big thick book, twice as thick as my high school yearbooks, although that may be because there are so many more students.  Maddie found a few pages that featured her picture on them, including club pictures and her senior page, plus a picture of her dressed up for Halloween with a few other students.  There was the "Senior Ad" page though, where parents bought up space for pictures and well wishes.  Mom and I got an entire page for her, and the end result is a really nice collection of pages and a short message.

CAP and GOWN

And yes, one thing she got today was her cap and gown.  She tried that on when she got home, and of course we spent time trying hard not to think too much about what it all means.  It fits nicely, and she'll enjoy throwing that cap up.  She spent a little time thinking of ideas for pictures for Saturday with the cap and gown, so I'll have to be ready for that!

So yeah, there was a lot there.  Mom and I were at the doctor early this morning, finding out more of Mom's current thyroid issue, which she spent a good bit of the day researching later on.  It's nothing to worry about now, although there may be medication for later on.  Meanwhile, if you know Mom, she's doing all she can with supplements and diet to help herself out as much as possible, doing a whole lot of research online.  We trust doctors, but every advantage she can get is a good thing of course.

We were working after that, finishing up KidPak for this weekend, as it is a busy weekend for us - Saturday Maddie is graduating, and Sunday she's walking across the stage at Free Chapel in the main campus.  We'll be there cheering her on, maybe with air horns!

Today Mom had seen a pretty funny interview about the new pope, an interview featuring Father Guido, a comedian from our time.  He was still sharp as anything, and actually pretty funny - so that got us remembering the actor's role in the movie "Atlantis," so yeah, that was tonight's feature presentation!  We sat down to re-watch "Atlantis," a fun animated adventure from a few years ago.  It's one of those timeless movies to me that we can go back and watch again from time to time.  Love it.

Maddie and I did an honest speck of pirating with LEGO Pirates, doing a few levels of that together, and tonight we vanquished the vampires, reading how Granny Weatherwax outsmarted them this time in Überwald itself, right there in their own castle.  We should actually finish up with the book tomorrow, I think.

And that was the day - we said our prayers, and the Plush Entourage went back to Maddie's room to get tucked in.  There are a few new members of the Plush Entourage.  We'll have to introduce them all some time soon here, as they're a big part of the evening, going back and forth from room to room to hear the latest readings.  Anyway, it's time for bed - we brought in all the bird feeders.  Last night, two large raccoons were on our deck, and they broke one of our feeders.  I had to ask them to leave.  They sort of look up at you, and then waddle off.  I'm not getting close to one though - I've seen the movie "Elf!"