Back in January I started thinking ahead to Owen's graduation. Since he's the first one to graduate it's all new and we didn't have any sort of plan in place. It all came together fairly quickly in my mind. I decided that we would have a small ceremony at church with family and friends. I wanted to create a slideshow with a bunch of pictures of Owen growing up. I knew I wanted him to play the piano for us and then give a short speech of some kind. Nothing too crazy or too formal, just a fun night to celebrate him and his accomplishments.
One thing that really made this whole experience less stressful for me was asking for help. I really wanted to do a slideshow, but I could not figure out how to get the music paired with the pictures and I did not have it in me to figure it out while also dealing with all the other things on my plate. So I reached out to a couple people at church and one of them said there son would be able to help. Tyler was awesome....he did a fantastic job and it seriously took such a weight off my shoulders. The other areas were the tech stuff at church for the night of. Bruce ran the slides and Bobby ran the sound. They also recorded the graduation which was such an added bonus that I honestly didn't think of until the week prior when my SIL asked if it would be recorded. Joanna a friend from church also didn't hesitate to help out in the kitchen when it dawned on me the week of that I wouldn't be able to be in the kitchen slicing up cake while also being in the sanctuary enjoying my son's graduation. The other thing that was freaking me out and don't ask me why....was the balloons. I knew I wanted a bunch of balloons at the welcome table, but it was just one of those things that I was really concerned about. I think it was because you can't really get them ahead of time. You need to pick them up the day of and I had way to much going on the day of to be worried about getting those. So I reached out to my parents and they gladly took that off my plate helping me to breath easier.
Owen's graduation night was on Friday, May 30th at Riverview Community Church. The day before we went to Costco to buy a bunch of desserts and drinks since we were going to have refreshments afterwards. We dropped them off at the church and put them in the frig so they'd be ready to go the next day.
I got a couple of these cute 2025 cakes, but had to get a picture of them with Owen before the ceremony because during the ceremony Joanna was going to be slicing all the cakes up and putting them on plates to make it easier for people to just grab a piece.
Right when you walked in the church there was a table set up with Owen's picture collage...which I funnily enough didn't actually get in any pictures...balloons, a box for people to put cards in, his Words of Wisdom book and then the programs. Justine spent a good bit of time arranging the programs into an 18 since Owen is 18 years old. I had originally asked for just bunch of balloons, but Ga-Ga & Pa got two.
We did move the balloons over to the window to use as photo props, but our family is too big so Jackson is basically completely covering up one bunch of balloons. :)
So proud of this guy and all his hard work!
It was definitely not all sunshine and roses for him and I during his 5 years of homeschooling, but I wouldn't change it for anything.
I love how Ga-Ga matched with the colors of the balloons.
Papa & Miss Ruth celebrating the graduate!
These two matched the color scheme as well.
Owen will all the bruhs!
A few months back I realized that I didn't want to be the MC for the night. I wanted to sit back and enjoy the ceremony. Josh...Owen's piano teacher seemed to be the perfect person for this job so I texted him and he was all for it. Their relationship has been so great because Josh is a fellow homeschool graduate himself.
Other than the welcome table with the photo collage and balloons I didn't really plan on many decorations. On the day of the ceremony I was kind of kicking myself for not thinking of anything else and that's when it hit me I have all those birthday pictures I had taken each year I should do something with those.
It's kind of amazing how it all worked out. I just happened to have 6 matching black IKEA picture frames that hold 3 pictures each which adds up to 18 individual pictures. It's honestly like I planned it that way, but I absolutely did not...happy accident for sure!
At first I was going to put them out in the lobby on the dessert tables, but that made them too crowded and I was worried that people would bump the tables and the picture frames would fall over. Then I thought it would be nice to have something on the stage and I could evenly divide the picture frames and have 3 on each side. It ended up looking really nice and it didn't cost any additional money since I already had everything!
The whole night ended up being wonderful. I told my dad later that it was an informally formal event and that was just what I wanted. I didn't want it to feel stuffy and stuck up. I wanted it to be real and fun and lighthearted. I wanted people to laugh and have fun because we were celebrating!
As for guests we invited a bunch of family and friends. It's not really normal that you get to attend the actual graduation ceremony so I had to let people know that it wasn't an open house it actually started at 6:30pm. We did end up starting a bit later since everyone was having such a fun time visiting.
I didn't get picture of everyone that attended, but I think it was around 45 people total. It was so awesome!
Lots of people complimented me on my dress, but the funny thing was I had no idea what I was wearing until I went in my closet to change around 4:30pm that night.
Josh opened the ceremony and then we watched the slideshow. It turned out so good!
After that Owen played a few songs on the piano.
He finished with an Angry Birds duet with Josh. I love listening to him play.
After that it was my turn to get up and say a few words and present Owen with his certificate of graduation. I honestly had nothing written down for what I was going to say until that morning. It was so unlike me, but it worked out great. I didn't stress over it at all. I just knew the words would come to me and they did. I wrote them down and made sure to keep them short and sweet. I almost started crying, but I caught myself.
Michael created a certificate for Owen since his actual diploma wouldn't be mailed until all his tests got validated by Lighthouse Christian Academy.
I was too quick with handing over the certificate and then walking off the stage so we had to have a redo picture after the ceremony.
Months back I told Owen that I wanted to throw him a graduation ceremony and that he would need to give a little speech. He did not like that idea one bit. Thankfully he took a speech course through school and it really helped him gain confidence. He still refuses to gesture....see the hands in the pockets, but overall he did so well and people even commented so. It was a great opportunity for him to thank all the different people that helped him get to where he is now. He also got to talk about what's next for him.
He has zero desire to go to college...maybe trade school of some kind is in his future. As of May 27th he's been working full time at a Water District near us as a Seasonal Maintenance Worker. He's been power washing and painting fire hydrants and doing other maintenance work like weeding and maintaining outbuildings for the district. It's his hope to get hired on with a Water District full time after this seasonal job is over.
Micah Storer took this picture of me while Owen was speaking. I didn't really cry just got a bit misty eyed. Michael and I are so incredibly proud of Owen!
After Owen's speech it was time for Pa to come up and talk a bit and end the ceremony with a blessing and pray over Owen. It was terrific!
After the ceremony we had a few different desserts in the lobby with some water bottles and sparkling water. It was so fun hanging out and visiting with everyone. So many people took the time to write in Owen's Words of Wisdom book. Such a gift and such a wonderful night!
Here's the recording of the whole night...I'm so glad we have this and it's the first time ever I haven't felt like I sound like Minnie Mouse in a recording. :)
A couple days later on Sunday, June 1st all the graduates were honored in front of the church. From L to R it's Pastor Tim praying over these awesome guys, Owen, Max, Norland, Liam and Luke. Out of these 5 guys 3 of them are going in some sort of military service. So proud of all of them!
A few days after that on Wednesday, June 4th we had Grad Night at Youth Group. Only 2 of the 5 guys come to Youth Group on Wednesday nights so the celebration was for Owen and Liam. We had pizza, cupcakes and cookies and Pastor did an interview talk show with the guys up on stage. It was fun getting to hear their answers and get a further glimpse into their minds.
Such a fun time celebrating all their amazing accomplishments! Onto the next chapter!
