Brady's 8th grade graduation

'Tis the season for graduations, graduation par-tay's & forking over cash like an ATM. While some of you are experiencing your own dna's graduation - we are experiencing graduations of our nephews.

Brady graduated from the 8th grade Thursday night! We had to pry B-rad outta the field with a crow bar, but he made it. He said Brian had asked him the night before if he was going & he said, "Uh, yea. I was pretty much told I had to go." Awww, he does listen...

Waiting for the ceremony to begin, the cell phone game playing was in full effect... Twins anyone?!
Brady in his seat excited & ready to go. Ok, he's ready to go...not really excited... The principal gave a little speech thingie to the kids on the "ABC'S of learning." It was painful to sit through. She went through every.single.letter.in.the.alphabet...

The only person more bored besides us & Brady...

was this dude...

The question I was most asked that night was, "What are YOU doing here?!" My reply? "My nephew is graduating!" "Ohhhhhhh." was the most popular response... It became quite comical! B-rad & I knew A LOT of people there. And their kids were graduating. 8th grade. Gulp. As I looked around the gym at all the faces of people we went to school with, I kept thinking, "I'M not old enough to have a kid in the 8th grade!" UHM-but I am. I'm 35, Brady's 14. You do the math....

And this is why I know it's not in my dna to have kids. Instead of sitting there thinking, "Wow. I could have a kid in the 8th grade graduating. Wouldn't that be swell?" I was actually thinking, "Wow. I'm so glad I don't have a kid in the 8th grade! Can you imagine?!" Sorry, stalkers...it is what it is...

Back to the borrrrring speech. Like I said, we knew lotsa people there & a couple of girls I knew were behind me. The one directly behind me & myself were talking & laughing & making fun of that ABC's speech. (She said she quit listening at C. B-rad said he quit at A. After letter F I said, 'is she doing the WHOLE alphabet?' Then at letter R I said, 'She IS doing the whole alphabet!' Sigh.) Her sister was behind her & she told us to pipe down in the front! I said, "Ok, please don't throw cheerios at me!" (She has a 15 month old & she was giving him Cheerios...) Next thing I know, I feel a Cheerio hit me in the knee.... Nice!

Hey - there's fellow blogger Kiersten graduting! Congrats, Kiersten!

Getting ready to get his certificate! Thrilled, isn't he?

Kinda blurry. Apparently he was in a hurry to cross that stage!

This dude was decked out! B-rad goes, "Check that dude out! Looks like he drove himself here!" Very funny!

Afterwards I offered to take pics for Lora of their family. Then the in-laws kept adding people to her picture & it grew & grew. I had taken the fancy schmancy camera with me. The drawback of the fancy schmancy camera is that no one can really use it. I wanted a pic of B-rad, Brady & I & gave the camera to Stanley. Here's the first one he took...

And the next one... Amateur...

They had added B-rad's grandma to Lora's pic & then added me & B-rad....

But I was adamant & stuck to my guns about getting a pic of just us with Brady. Here we are!

We went out to eat after the ceremony. B-rad & I got there after everyone else. We kept stopping in the gym talking to people! (I told ya we knew like everybody there!) There were like 20 of us in a room at Beef O' Brady's. Man, I felt bad for that waitress!!!

We gave B-rad's mom her mothers day gift finally. She's not been home since before mothers day...don't judge us...

Eric, Erin & the girls came home after Eric got off work so they weren't able to make graduation but they met us all for dinner. Erin sat with B-rad & I so I was able to catch up with her. I haven't gotten to see her the last few times she's been home! Aren't we purdy?!