My niece graduated yesterday.. photo essay

Yesterday, I had a pretty busy day!  It was my niece, Mary's,  high school graduation , and my sister had a littlle party at the house for her after the graduation.  We had a really good time, but boy was I tired by the end of the night.. lol.  we all were!   I didn't actually get to go to the ceremony, because, since I live out in BFE and don't have a car, I had to depend on my brother to come get me, and he had to work in the morning until about 9:00.  He's a school bus driver.  Then we had to drive all the way over to pick up my dad, because my parents' car died the other day.. graduation started at 1:00, so there was no way.  I would have liked to have seen her graduate, but graduation ceremonies, in general, are pretty boring.. so I wasn't too upset that I missed that part.  My brother and I went to IHOP for breakfast.. steak and eggs..mmmm.. and then we headed over to fetch dad.  When we got to my sister's house, they were all at the ceremony.. so we let ourselves in to wait.  Somebody let my sister's dogs in the house..she has two golden retrievers.. and they got a hold of one of the kittens, so we had to break up a fight between the dog and the mama cat.. OMG, talk about having a heart attack!  The kittens were all okay though, just a few bite marks on one, and they were kinda freaked out for a little while.  My sister was none too happy about that!  ..but how were we supposed to know her dogs were kitty eaters?  They all like to talk about my dogs and how they are wild or something, but they're really not!  They're pretty calm and mostly well behaved..they would never attack a cat or a kitten that was living in their house.. If they see one on the street they don't know, they might try to take a couple chunks out of it, but they know the difference between "their kitties" and free- range game kitties.  Goldens have a reputation of being so sweet and friendly, but really they're not.  I know several people with them, and they're kinda nuts! Anyway.. I took a few pictures here and there throughout the night, but I didn't take a lot of them.  I didn't get pics of most of the people who showed up for the party, or the food.. there was TON of food.. but we all had a good time.  Here are a few of the pics I did get.

This is Mary, the graduate.  She graduated from the "Paxon School for Advanced Studies".. she made honor roll a bunch of times, and she was 34th (I think..maybe 35?) in her class of over 200.




This is my SIL, Dawna.. helping to get things set up before the party.  She's the new grandma... Of course, we all had to call her and my brother "gramma" and "grampa" .  They Loooooved that..  LOL    That's my dad eating a cracker  ..  LOL





This is Mary's friend..whose name I can never remember, Mary and my sis..



This is Di's friend, Sandra.. Di, with her ex standing behind her.. her ex's uncle Tim in the hat.


Here's the cake.. have to have a picture of the cake  LOL.. it was soooo good. 


My brother, Drew, watching Dawna take a picture of the cake..
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This is my sister's ex..Mary's Dad - Bill.    in the background is her cousin Cory.. and my brother Rick.. Casey's grampa..


This is Di and her neighbor Norma....who is wearing what appears to be a really ugly dress.LOL  but in person it didn't look as bad as it does in pictures.  She looked very nice.  She's a real nice lady. 





Another picture of Mary.. I don't know what that face was about  LOL


This is Mary wearing the little plastic cap off of her cake... she lost her real cap after the ceremony when she tossed it into the air.. but she still has the tassle.


This is a blurry pic of my sis and Mary opening up all her cards.. she did alright for herself,.. especially considering there was probably only 25 or so people there.


Jess and Aj showed up with the baby kinda late.. they had to wait til he got off work.. but they showed up eventually, so we did get to see them, and we all got to see the baby.  After he was done eating, my mom got to hold him for a while, and then I got to hold him until we left..  It was so weird holding a baby. I haven't held a baby that little in a very, very long time.  Everybody I know had their kids in their early 20's.. and that was it..  no more babies.  He and I had a really nice visit though.  I tried to convince him that he should come live with me.. his parents have had him for two whole weeks..they're totally over him by now.. but he wasn't buying it.  Guess I'll just have to do my best to spoil him whichever way I can.  LOL




Here he is visiting with his great gramma.. my mom


my sister made a collage for Mary of  pictures and stuff of her growing up..her report cards and certificates and stuff.. I put it here, but you really can't see what's on it...click it and you can see a full size version of it.. you can see more of what's on it.