"when you leave here, don't forget why you came..."

..Thus spake Adlai Stevenson, in his wisdom, to a little group of graduate students upon their highschool disembarkment.

I am pleased to announce that my sister, Olivia, has also "disembarked" forever from highschool. Though she isn't quite leaving...yet. :]

Olivia has been homeschooled since the third grade. My mom and dad decided that they didn't want to do public school, and they didn't want to do private school (which was what we were doing), so...homeschooling, it was! It was a big step, and neither of my parents thought it would turn out the way it did. But, in the end, everyone fell in love with it, and we would have it no other way. :]

Last Saturday, we were able to have Olivia take part in a formal graduation ceremony for homeschool grads, held at the OCEANetwork homeschooling conference.

It was a lovely ceremony; around twenty-one other graduates, each with a short biography and slideshow read/played as they joined their parents upstage, and were presented with their diploma by their father. It was much more special and personal than a regular graduation, and I am so glad we found out about it!

Afterwards, we all went out to eat at Chipolte's. The best restaurant ever...their burritos are ginormous! And I ate the whole thing...

o.O

Later on that week, family and friends joined us for a graduation party celebrating this goalpost. It was a daisy theme, and turned out so lovely, with the help of some dear friends. The lovely Miss Lisa from Simply...This. That. And The Other. lent us most of the decorations, and her sister Laura was the mastermind behind the party. Without these two, it would have been just a little boring event {and not nearly as fancy}! ;)

Miss Laura got all of these little pots for the balloons. So cute!

These water jugs are Miss Lisa's. Aren't they so adorable and vintage?? She also made the above "welcome" sign. She is so creative..you must stop by her blog! :)

..We just threw a white tablecloth over some borrowed tables, added some freshly picked daisies (which are abundant around here), and voila! A lovely table. :)

These are lemon cupcakes with strawberry frosting...made a week in advance, and frozen! We got the recipe from Miss Lisa...delicious!! Olivia made these, and I arranged them on the pretty cake tower (also from Miss Lisa)... ;)

My uncle is actually a florist, so we were supplied with several lovely arrangements for the occasion!

With the help of friends and family, there was a loaded table. ;)

Mark made a pretty creative sign for parking... ;)

..After milling about for awhile, eating and talking, there was a time for sharing about Olivia. My dad read a letter he had written to her. <3

..Getting applauded for no reason..;)

A lively game of soccer was started to keep the boys entertained. ;)

..It was an altogether lovely occasion, which we could never have pulled off without the help of many, many good friends. :]

~~

In case you are wondering, Olivia is going to be pursuing a B.A. in English online for the first two years, and then may be transferring to on-campus somewhere local. So, we are definitley not losing her yet! <3