Congraduations to the Cannonball

Starting school at Chestnut Hill.  Sept. 8th, 2015.

Well, it's the end of yet another era here in the Hough clan.

Sure, it's the last day for Midland schools (Yours Truly still has another f***ing week to go, FYI.)  More importantly, however, our oldest - the infamous Cannonball -  graduated from Elementary School today, and is all slotted to head into the trenches of Middle School come September.  She's been a Chestnut Hill Chipmunk since starting 2nd Grade there back in the Fall of 2015, when we first moved back to Michigan from Florida, and has absolutely loved the school, her teachers, and all the friends she's made there.

Getting some celebratory Tim Horton's for breakfast.

That being said, she's still pretty excited about starting at Northeast Intermediate (or is it Junior High or Middle these days?) in the fall.  A little terrified, sure enough, as the prospect of sharing hallways with nearly-adult-sized 8th graders is pretty daunting.  8th graders are frickin' mongoloids.  I speak from experience.

Anyway, Yours Truly unfortunately didn't get to attend her graduation ceremony:  I was down in crap-hole Ohio at Cedar Point, chaperoning yet another school field trip with my own 8th graders.  Kris had the day off, so I made sure she took along my SLR and documented things to the best of her ability.  Sadly, the video files she recorded of the ceremony itself were too large to upload here (thanks again, Blogger), but she took enough pictures to give you all a pretty good idea of how the day went down.

So here you are, folks:  the last hurrah of the Cannonball's Elementary School career. . .

Awaiting Ms. Danielle - one of Kris' friends - who was willing to trim and style Alayna's hair for graduation.

Kris and Alayna sparred back and forth over how she was going to wear her hair today.  Alayna - surprise, surprise - wanted her up in a high ponytail (her go-to), but Kris wanted it down for once so Danielle could do cool stuff with it.  In the end, they compromised on this.

Ready for Graduation.

The end of Elementary School. . .

The ceremony was held in the new cafeteria, as all the other events have been over the course of the last year or so since they've redone the school.  Kris video'd most of this ceremony, and snapped a few zoomed-in and blurry pics like this from time to time.

Man. . . how excited are these frickin' kids?

Kris' vantage point.  I would've sat closer, and more to the center, but hey. . . beggars can't be choosers.

Alayna, flanked by grandmas.

Mom and Cannonball.

I have no idea who this kid is. . .

. . . or this one.

See all the tears?  These girls were all bawling like babies after the graduation ceremony.  These are some of Alayna's running crew.

With Noah, Christina, and Moccarah.

With Jazmine and. . . some other kid.  I can't keep track of this girls' friends.

Alayna, Christina and Maddie.

And one with the principal, Mrs. Renfro.

Abby and Jackson, Danielle's son.  These two have a couple more years of Chestnut Hill to look forward to.

Alayna and her third-grade Reading Buddy, Viv.

After graduation, Kris took Alaynas' friend, Maddie, and Abby's friend, Ella, how to that Tiki Pineapple joint I mentioned before for some celebratory frozen yogurt.

Cost a small fortune, rest assured:  it's priced by weight, and the combined poundage of candy and toppings these kids put on their frozen yogurt rivaled my car, so I'm told.

School days behind them.  Bring on Summer.

- Brian