High School Graduate

Last month's blog post feels like it was a lifetime ago! Not surprisingly, Abbie graduated from high school on May 17th. Prior to that, there were AP exams to complete, a cap decorating party (more on that in a minute), a senior video event, an awards assembly, and Abbie's graduation dinner.

Jo, Abbie, and Vivian

 

She opted for a small dinner, rather than a big grad party. It's just as well because the whole month of May was packed with other people's parties, so there was definitely plenty of celebrating. In addition to family, Abbie invited her friends Vivian and Jo to eat with us. The dinner was the night before graduation because we knew graduation day would be a busy one. As it turned out, it was even busier than we expected. 

A view of the cap

 

One of Abbie's last minute tasks was bedazzling her graduation cap. Although she had started on it at the party the week prior, she chose a rather ambitious design, which required her to place hundreds of tiny rhinestones individually with tweezers. She was literally gluing right up until the last minute. At one point, she paid Emily $15 to glue for her so she could quickly change into her graduation dress before rushing off to the ceremony. In the end, it all worked out, though.

Pre-ceremony

With some of her classmates

 

The Class of 2024 showing off their caps

It was a very nice ceremony, but the best part came after the ceremony. It is tradition for all the teachers from lower school through upper school to form a receiving line outside the theater. Every single graduate goes through the line and greets every single teacher. As you can imagine, it takes a while, but I think it is worth it. I still don't know what some of her teachers said to her in that line, but it must have been some pretty good stuff because she was pretty emotional afterwards. The whole event went very quickly and then Abbie was gone. The whole senior class changed their clothes and boarded buses for a late-night event, which ended at 2am.

As tends to be the case with Abbie, she has not slowed down a bit now that summer is here. She gave notice at her job, so she is no longer standing in the blazing hot sun selling windows. Instead, she has been very busy enjoying time with friends and even spent a few nights with Eleanor last week. Not surprisingly, not working feels pretty good. LOL.

On Sunday she is going to a concert with Vivian and Jo and then she flies to NYC for a week with Grandma P. When she returns from that, she has a week at home before flying to MN for the rest of the summer. She arranged a job at Starbucks there that starts on June 23rd. When she returns in August, she will likely have less than a week to prepare before she leaves for Rice. Very exciting times!