Steppin' Up and Getting Older...

So we had another first...the "Stepping Up" ceremony. Sort of an elementary school graduation. When Troy left 5th grade, there was no ceremony (it was a weird school anyway) and we home schooled after that (and having our own ceremony would have been weirder). To tell you the truth, I was still hung-over from all of Troy's graduation events...but we didn't want Jake to think we didn't love him...so we rallied.


These kids looked almost as polished as the high school graduates. They did a great job forming up, singing, etc.




Speaking of singing...they did 3 darling musical numbers. I'm only including this one, though (wouldn't want to send my laptop over the edge again). The others were "The World's Greatest" from the movie Ali, and "We are the World". This one is my favorite, though. It made me teary-eyed (but without incapacitating me like Troy's number).



They had a Marine Colonel as the guest speaker. I was totally impressed that he came out for this. Let's just say he's single and I know him from the O Club. I never thought of him as the "spend the day with a room full of 5th graders" type...but he did great. I guess you just never know!



This man is awesome! He has been so helpful in getting Jake placed in the perfect classroom. Very supportive and knowledgeable. We were able to achieve our goals with open communication, without the need of going back to an IEP...making Jake's year and a half at Killin ROCK!



And here's the teacher of the year! (In our hearts, anyway.) Mr. Johnson is one of those teachers every kid loves to have. I'm sure Jake will remember him forever. Full of stories and adventures, this man is.



And here's Jake with all of his peeps.



Is he smokin' hot or what?



This was a surprise...Jake was one of the students to receive the Presidential Outstanding Academic Excellence award. Jake is convinced this means the President has seen his name on a list of some sort. He has plenty of time to grow up and learn the cruel realities of impersonal rubber stamps...so I'm going to let him believe.

There was a big combined potluck afterward with all the 5th grade classes. I found out about it this morning...as Jake was headed for the bus...an hour before the ceremony, when he asked if I could make something really quick. Like brownies. Not wanting to show up empty handed, I flew into a frenzy, pulling out butter and sugar. Cliff came in the kitchen and asked what I was doing. When I informed him, he said, "We are NOT going to a potluck on my birthday...I told Jake we'd take him to lunch after." (Oh yeah...I forgot to mention...It's Cliff's birthday today.)



Sushi Go Round is SO way better than a 5th grade potluck. I don't care how good the brownies are. Or if the Filipinos brought Lumpia.



And if Daddy's happy...Mommy's happy!



They had such a gorgeous selection today. Better than usual, even.



Salmon and avocado, anyone?



How about some crab?



The parade of yumminess was almost too much. And we got a good seat, right by the beginning of the belt, so we pretty much had our pick of whatever we wanted.



And what birthday/stepping up lunch would be complete without cake?



Or Udon noodles?

That night, Cliff wanted to go to dinner and a movie with the family to celebrate. We started (in the pouring rain) at Climax cafe:















Mine looks kind of boring compared to everyone else's. It was good, though. But plain noodles and plain rice together was kind of odd.

And then went to see Shrek Forever After....which was pretty good.



Then threw some candles on top of the Stepping Up Potluck Birthday brownies.



How old is he, you ask? Count the candles. Everyone knows 4 + 4 = 44, right? (I can math with the best of 'em.)



May all your wishes come true, Sweetie.

Seminary Graduation

One final event till the graduation marathon is complete and we can all go to bed. Troy managed to get about 30 minutes of sleep in between church and the ceremony (still in his suit, lying on the couch).

I woke up about noon and had to start baking cookies. (Funny how I thought I was going to decorate for the party yesterday morning, then shop for Troy's present, they go to graduation, then the farewell roast, then stay up all night for the grad party...then go to church AND come home, bake cookies, go to Seminary graduation and then, finally...after being awake an on the run for 36 hours, finally get some sleep. Talk about grandiose notions.)

Troy forgot to mention he was speaking at the graduation. I don't know whether he forgot, or just kept it to himself...but he got up there and spoke off-the-cuff in a very touching and humorous way...until he stepped away from the pulpit without closing, said, "Oh Crap" and then closed "Humbly"...in the name of Jesus Christ. (Good save!)

At least it was memorable.

(Mental note: Suggest we not plan Seminary graduation for the day after the all-night grad party.)


Here he is with the goods.



Congratulations, Troy! Way to be dedicated to your faith. Thanks for always getting up willingly (and dragging your brother along, too...what will I do next year without your influence?). What this means for me? It means 4 years of early morning carpool down, 6 more to go!

...And all of the Night

For some reason I thought it would be a swell idea to volunteer to be a chaperon at the all-night grad party. Truthfully, I had been involved with the meetings and fund-raising all year long, and it was just a core group of people involved, so I felt like they really needed the help.

We also had a farewell roast to attend that night, so we went straight from that to the Habu Pit (O Club on Futenma), where the party was being held. Seeing all the ideas that people had, all come together was pretty sweet! Every room we walked through had happy kids engaged in something...




Board games (which kids got CASH for winning)...




Dancing...




And more dancing. There was karaoke, too. (I let the kids have their night, though. It wasn't about me and I'd have hated to own them all. After tonight, though...game ON!)




The biggest hit of the night was "Fear Factor". Weeks ago, in voting for what would be offered at the party, Fear Factor was pretty much a mandate. Troy was confident he had his round in the bag, too. He loves all kinds of gross stuff.




As popular as it was with contestants, it was more popular with the spectators.




For the first round, they had to blow up a balloon and let it pop in their face. I think the first 5 got to advance. It may not seem very fear-inducing...but it was. Some kids couldn't do it.




See that lovely little plate of happiness? 3 giant green olives stuffed with cloves of garlic covered in Crisco. They have to fish the olives out of the Crisco and eat them entirely. The only catch was, they had no idea what they were eating, or what the stuff was they were covered with. It sounds like no problem...but it's the unknown that gets you.




I only include a small clip here so you get a visual of what it was like. The reason it's only 7 seconds long, is at about 8 seconds, the first olive came back up, and I didn't figure you wanted to watch that. The Crisco was his undoing. He didn't even know what it was (I don't think I've ever had it in the house) and his mind got the best of him. If that had been raw octopus covered in whipped cream, he would have been fine...and olives stuffed with garlic? That's a snack!




There was also this awesome music video maker set up in a room with props and such, where kids could make their own DVD's to take home. I wished I had thought to jump in and do my own like these cool grownups did! I guess it was for kids at heart, too.



It was fun watching what it looked like in real life vs. what it was going to look like in the video. That blue screen is magic!




Just thought I'd share some clips with you here. I was unable to import the file in it's original form...so I did a ghetto-style improvisation. Clever, no?




Troy is in this one...and it's a longer clip than I wanted to share here (sorry) but my laptop overheated and shut down three times while I was trying to edit the parts together to make it shorter. As it is, this final attempt required me standing, holding the laptop in one hand, while blowing cool air on it from the blow dryer with the other. I am determined, however, to drive this laptop into the ground, after which I will never purchase another Dell. Ever. But I digress. Anyway...can you find Troy? Wait for it...




Soon it was time (midnight) to load up the buses for the bowling alley...



Where they spent the next two hours eating all the pizza they could hold...



And bowling to their heart's content. After about an hour, kids started drifting to other things...



Like teen drama (He's holding up this sign to his friend who is having a fight with his girlfriend in the corner. So sweet that he's got his friend's back.)...



Re-enacting the musical number from graduation...



And using the temporary hand tattoos to give each other tramp stamps.

At 2 AM, Cliff had to head home to get our other kids tucked in bed, and it was time to once again load the buses to head over to the gym for another 2 hours of fun and games. The kids got extra prize drawing tickets for each of the activities they participated in. The air conditioning wasn't working and it was the middle of the night, but these kids were great participants:











Go Troy!



I chose to help with the game right by this fan, too. I'm no dummy.

After the gym (about 4:30 AM) we headed back to the Habu Pit for Bingo ($100 prizes x 7 games!) and breakfast...followed by the prize drawings for things like...2 computers, iPods, Bose earphones, gift cards, etc. I was practically dead at this point and apparently wasn't alone in this. Kids could barely keep their heads up.

We finished up right before pick up time (7 AM) and waited outside for Cliff to come pick us up so we could get ready for church. We had a long day ahead of us, still.



Josh and Troy picking through their prize bags looking at all the cash they "earned" for showing up to have a good time.

I should explain, Project Graduation is a national movement, whose purpose is providing one heck of a drug-free, alcohol-free, blow-out bash on graduation night, that kids WANT to come to, so that they don't go out and make their own "fun". That is why we fund-raise and plan all year. The kid's volunteer hours are kept track of and they are paid for those, too. Prizes are purchased and donations are solicited. This came about due to tragic graduation night deaths as teenagers discovered too late they really are not invincible. It's a wonderful program, really...and I'll be involved in it with each of my kids. Attendance is usually very high here (75-90%) because kids want to be with their friends...and a LOT of work is put into it to make it totally fun.

The funny part is, Mormon kids are used to "drug-free, alcohol-free" because all their parties are this way...and they are also used to having to volunteer their time to plan and carry out any party they are involved in...so the idea that they were paid in cash and prizes to be here was really odd to these two. Josh said he almost felt guilty. I don't think I sensed any guilt coming from Troy as he counted his cash, though.

I survived, and am SO glad I have a year off until it's time to start planning for Patrick's party. I did not, however, make it to church. I thought I'd just shower to refresh myself and keep on going until I could catch a nap. Evidently, the last time I pulled off an all-nighter, I was a lot younger. All the shower did was shut me down. I just "hit the wall", crawled to the phone to call in sick...and then to bed. (Mental note for next time...just let everyone know I won't be at church the next day and arrange a substitute for my class.)

Kubasaki High School Class of 2010

I don't even really know where to start with this post. It's a long one, and probably only of interest to family. I have to say, though...this was the most incredible graduation ceremony of any kind I've ever attended. Kubasaki High is such a special place. Everything looked so lovely...the white lights, the greenery. Just beautiful.


We were so lucky to have a quintet from the III MEF Band come play for us. The prelude music was lovely, and it added so much to have Pomp and Circumstance live instead of canned.



The kids all did great with their entrance. You could tell they practiced ad nauseum. Another benefit of such a small class...individual walks down the aisle instead of a huge gaggle at once. Troy told us where he'd be passing by (they were coming down both aisles) so we picked our spot accordingly.



This is the whole lot of them on the stage. I love that they were seated on the stage instead of the front rows. I was able to admire all of them during the ceremony.



And here are the proud administrators and guest speaker. She is the head of DODEA and came from Washington DC for this. I enjoyed her speech very much...and the coolest part...she herself was a military brat. Awesome.



OK, this is the part of the ceremony which was cruel and unusual. My emotions were already completely raw...but I was holding it together. I had forgotten they were doing a musical number at all. Troy mentioned it in passing, but I never asked what it was...so when I saw the senior choir members lining up in front of the stage, and the show choir members joining them, I got excited. I pressed the record button on the camera before I even realized what they were singing. As soon as I realized what it was, I knew it wasn't going to work. All the shaking? That's the suppressed sobs racking my body. I finally had to just turn it off (knowing it was being recorded anyway) and pull out my tissues.

Except...I did not realize how far away it was being filmed...the poor quality of picture and sound. Not that anyone owes me anything, but I assumed when they said it was going to be recorded and posted on the website, it was going to be recognizable.



Oh well. I included it here anyway, because you can at least barely hear them and vaguely see them. Just turn up your speakers all the way. (Just uploading these clips made me start crying again. I think this song will be ruined for me forever now.)



I'm pretty sure this was during the Principal's speech. it was really good. They were ALL really good.



Again, not the best quality...but you can tell it's him.



And they took time to allow every single parent to take pics of their grad when the diplomas were presented. I love these guys!



This is the part where they told them to turn their tassels. SO cute!



And I got this shot too late for the hats to be seen up in the air =( ...



But here it is live.



One final shot of the jubilation...then the grads left the stage and we had to wait to meet them out in the lobby so we didn't block the aisles.



I got to him first and squeezed and cried all over him (no pics...I still had the camera). Then the kiddos all gave him the candy leis we made for him.



Patrick said, "Here you go...but you know I'm just going to eat this once we get home."



LOVE these kiddos.



Finally, Dad gets his turn.



Man, I love these men!



Maybe this should be our new formation? It works.



Troy with his football coach. What a great guy!



And with the Senior Class President and of course, best bud, Lofty. The rest of the pics are family (obviously) and whoever Troy wanted pics with. We couldn't get everyone (it was total craziness) but did pretty good.



(yes...this is Lofty's smile.)




Congratulations, Troy! You have worked hard and we are proud of you and are so excited for your future. We love you!


Next stop....all-night grad party! Will I be able to hack it as a chaperon? (What was I thinking?!)