Graduations…

We’ve had four graduates in our family this year.

First, our nephew, Elliot, and my cousin, Emily both graduating from high school this year.

Elliot was the one who made DW an uncle. He was born when DW was in college at UF and every year on his birthday, Uncle Devin always says how he remembers going to meet his nephew between classes. Four years later, Elliot made me an aunt. He and Taylor, both called me “Aunt Annie” almost immediately after DW and I started dating. I loved it so much and it has been such a joy to be a part of their lives and watch them grow up.

Proud Uncles & Aunts

It happened so fast and none of us can believe Elliot is officially a grown adult. I guess we’ll always see him as that precious brown eyed little boy with the sweetest smile you’ve ever seen.

My cousin, Emily, is the youngest of my first cousins. She was the baby and she was born years later than all the rest of us, so she was EVERYBODY’s baby from the get go. She is sunshine everywhere she goes and she has one of the most positive and upbeat personalities of anyone I know. I love that about her. We got to be at her baccalaureate service with some of our family, and we loved getting to be there on one of her big nights.

AB also graduated…from second grade & JBES! She moves up to the big school next year and she’s super excited. I think second grade has been the best school year for her so far. We’ve been so lucky and had wonderful teachers all of her years at JBE, but 2nd grade seemed the be the absolute best fit. Plans were changed for the 2nd grade graduation and each teacher ended up having to have it in their classrooms.  

AB had an entire cheering section, because we have always been “THOSE people.”

It’s exciting to be moving up to WES next year, but I know AB will sure miss JBE. The second grade parents can buy a yearbook page for the “graduates,” so of course we did.

After “graduation” in the classroom, we could check out our kids, so of course, we did that, too. We took Emma with us and took the girls to lunch to celebrate.

Mamie was our last graduate, who’s ceremony was on the very last morning of school. The Pre-K graduation was super cute and her class sang “Countdown to Blastoff.” Mames had a cheering section, too and we were all so proud of our Pre-K girl. 

There’s always a bittersweet-ness about graduating anything. Life goes by so fast, and the older we get the faster it seems to go.

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”

~amw~