Harley's 8th Grade Graduation Banquet was Friday night. The kids have been planning the celebration for months, and they did a fantastic job. The food was yummy, the decorations were beautiful, and the celebration was perfect – short and sweet!
Harley's step-mom, Brenda, offered to pay for her to have her nails done, so we made time to do that Friday afternoon. She has never had them done before, so she thought that was pretty awesome.
After getting home, we started on the hair. The hair. Oh my goodness she has so much hair! It took forever to curl her hair, and just a few minutes to put it up. This happens to be a successful Pinterest project for us, as that is where she found the hair do and I managed to replicate it pretty well.
This picture was actually taken between the banquet and the dance, while she was getting ready to be delivered to the dance on the back of her dad's motorcycle.
Apparently, they made quite an entrance because they arrived at the school just as the high school track team was returning from a meet. There's nothing quite like a couple of rumbling motorcycles to catch the attention of everyone within a half-mile radius!
She is such a beautiful girl, and her whole personality shows through in her smile! Love her!
She walked with her friend, Andrew.
Mr. Koehn, the Ag teacher, was their featured speaker. The basic pretense of his message was that this group is the legacy of Cove High School for the next four years, and they have the freedom to make it what they want it to be.
Miss Reagan. She sat directly across from me, and I snuck this picture out of her. Completely unposed, relaxed, natural, and beautiful!
As I was trying to take pictures of Harley and Andrew after the banquet, Zach, Brant, and Matthew decided to photobomb them. I love this sequence of pictures (even the last one that is out of focus) because it represents all of them so well!
This is Zach. He is Harley's best friend, and he is also our neighbor. We LOVE him! He is funny, witty, sarcastic, and a perfect complement to Harley's smart-alec humor. We call him creepy neighbor.
This is Harley's dad, Scott. They absolutely adore one another!
Scott, Reagan, Harley, and their step-mom, Brenda.
This is our family. When the girls and I were faced with the option of moving in with my parents while I finish college, I was very thankful, but filled with trepidation, as well – it had been 20 years since we had all lived under the same roof. It has turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made. The girls have gotten to have had such a close relationship with their grandparents they probably would not have had if we had remained living in a different city and/or house. They have become part of the intimate circle of "our" family, and we all love it!
My girls and me. I am so very lucky to be able to call these beautiful, loving girls my daughters.