One exhasting week.......

....and tomorrow is the grand finale: COMMENCEMENT!!!! The week started on Sunday, with the Baccalaureate Service at St John's Church in Winslow...then yesterday was class night banquet and awards....and then tomorrow evening at Colby College is our wonderfully classy commencement! Above, two of our National Honors Society volunteers get ready to serve a room full of hot, thirsty seniors some deliciously fancy fruit punch out of a fountain!! Fun!! Yeah!! Punch!! Even!!

I thought that last year, when I advised the junior class, and ran the prom, that things were busy. NO WAY. Senior year is wayyyyy more busy. You are in charge of all the little minutia that is involved with getting these kids successfully out of WHS. You deal with LOTS of money, lots of piddly little problems, lots of dress code issues, and many many other things.

I hired Amici's Cucina, this FANTASTIC Italian Restaurant in Waterville, to cater our affair. Chicken Broccoli Pesto Penne...Baked Ziti....Caesar salad that would raise the hair on your head....great stuff all around!!

Have I mentioned how HOT it has been since Sunday when this whole 'week' started?

Here's some kids last night at class night.....I taught every senior in the building (with the exception of 5 who took AP English and didnt have me for English, speech, or creative writing)

 and some more kids last night, waiting for the awards ceremonies to begin. You may remember Molly, in the blue dress at the front, who often babysits for the kids, and more importantly is Callum's valentine and birthday sharer!

One of the things I KNOW I am going to have trouble with is the sentimentalism of having my kids graduate high school to leave for the Naval and Air Force Academies (haha). I get emotional because Callum's final TEE BALL game is coming up for crying out loud! To that end, one of the things I have a greater appreciation for is what the parents do for their kids at class night: They have a 'parent chorus,' and they sing songs for their children....and, as you can see, they have a TWO sided 'pic on a stick' where, on one side, there is a baby picture of that kid....and on the other side there is that particular kid's senior picture. Kind of emotional. Shut up! It is!!

And speaking of emotional,  here we are (co advisor Lori and I) addressing the seniors at the end of the affair last night. Tomorrow, as elected commencement speaker, I will give my speech/song....so I had better go work on it!!

After tomorrow's festivities, I will go home, have an iced cold beer, and hopefully watch the AMAZING Boston Brooooons take a 3-0 leads against the Penguins. GO BRUINS!!