alyssa's graduation

i'm not sure why it's taken me almost a week to write about alyssa's 8th grade graduation ceremony. it was such an awesome night, and i was so proud of her. i'm actually more emotional now, then i was that night. i held it together that night, and only got a little teary eyed about a half hour before the ceremony. you could just feel the excitement in the air, and it got the best of me. and then i was fine. but now? i'm actually tearing up as i type this. and i have teared up every time i've gone to edit these photos. mainly because i'm just so dang proud of my girl!

doesn't she look gorgeous up there! you'd never know it by looking at this picture, but we had her hair so curly and cute. however, her hair just doesn't hold the curl. it still looked great though. she had the prettiest dress, that was quite a lot of work to decide on. she wanted to wear heels, to make her a tad bit taller. she's still such a tiny thing. although she wasn't actually the smallest in her class this time. there were a few boys shorter than her. it worked out though, since the order they walked in was determined by height. so that put her in the front row :)

they had the opening part of the ceremony, and a few great speeches gave by fellow classmates. then they got to the honor roll students. the students on honor roll for the year were wearing the double silver cords. a good sized group of students. then there were 7 students (out of 96) that held a 4.0 GPA for the entire 8th grade year, and they wore the gold sash. alyssa was one of those students. they were all honored with engraved plaques.

then they moved on to the outstanding achievement awards for each subject. there was language arts, social studies, science, algebra, drama, choir, and band. alyssa picked up a nice engraved plaque for excellence in language arts :)

 

then she sat down. and then she got called back up. took another engraved plaque for excellence in algebra :)

then she sat down. you see where i'm going with this? she got called right back up. took home another engraved plaque for excellence in social studies :)

yes, my girl sort of swept the awards that night! 4 total. and 3 of the 7 subject awards (the hard subjects). and i'm totally fine bragging on it, because she earned it. school does come naturally to her. she enjoys it, and she's extremely self-motivated. but she also works her tush off to get the grades she does. she's read a trillion books this school year (give or take a few), she studies like crazy, and goes above and beyond whenever she can. these awards might also be what saved me from getting too emotional that night. i was too busy WHOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO'ing it up for my girl, to think too much about it all. lol!

sorry. had to go to the house to get the photo of her with her awards. lol! back over to the ceremony. after the awards, the moved onto to the promotion certificates. they called out each student, who came up and received their "certificate". which was really just blank inside. they had to wait until friday, to get the real thing. this was her walking out. she walked in a jr high schooler, and walked out a high schooler. wow!

it was pure madness outside, after the ceremony. kids everywhere, families everywhere, camera's everywhere. and most of my shots turned out super blurry and dark. but i got this good one of alyssa and one of her BFF's, kassidy. every morning, at 8:10am, kassidy has come by the side door on her way to school. and she comes inside, and waits for alyssa and sarah to finish getting ready. and they all walk  together.

i love that alyssa has genuinely good and nice friends. and it makes me feel even better, that most of her close friends are going to the same high school as her. quite a lot of students from her class, are headed out to another high school in town. so i'm glad she'll have some familar faces, of good kids :)

and this was on the front page of the newspaper the following morning! i love that it says "honor roll and 4.0 grade point average student alyssa accepts one of her many awards" ;)

Comments

[Lynn]

Laura,
Love, love, love the pictures of Alyssa - I'm very proud for you! What fantastic accomplishments! Amazing!

[dawn]

Wow what an amazing night for your family. It must have been like the Emmy's. Congratulations Alyssa for doing so good. What a great honor, you must have been beaming the whole night. I love the pictures, her hair is pretty and love the shoes. How cool to be in the newspaper also, love what they said about her. You must be so very proud of her. Does she know what she wants to do when she's done with school? What kind of school does she go to? We don't have any thing like this for the 8th graders, just an honors breakfast at 6:00 in the morning before school starts to get a certificate saying you made honor roll all year, that's it. Your school seems to do some amazing things with their children which is a good thing. Congratulations again to all of you.

[Keisha]

You should brag on her, what an accomplishment!

[Kelly Rodgers]

That's so awesome Laura.
Congratulations Alyssa xxx

[jill]

wow Alyssa - congratulations and well done for all your hard work!

[Natalie]

It is so fun to hear you brag about your daughter-- you have every right to be proud of her! Congratulations to her for her many awards :) And Alyssa, your wonderful work ethic will stand you in good stead through the rest of your schooling (and life, really). Great work!!

[marissa]

Wow! Congratulations to Alyssa! I remember sitting behind Deneen when her girls won all of their awards- definitely a proud mama moment!

[Karina]

WOW!!! Congrats to Alyssa, and of course congrats to her family too!!! I always say that when kids are that good, there is always an excellent family behind supporting them !!! Excelent job,Laura!!!

[Marianne]

This is incredible, Laura! I'm an 8th grade teacher, so I can tell you that when students like Alyssa come along, the teachers have *almost* as much pride in them as their parents do. :) She must be a very bright and special girl!

[lynda p]

congratulations to your daughter! she has certainly worked hard and it shows. how nice the newspaper story. congrats to mom and dad too. i'll be in your shoes next friday. even though it's a promotion....we don't get gowns... :(. silly i know. thanks for sharing...

[Staci]

What an amazing girl you have! I actually started to get teary-eyed just reading this. I guess I am imagining how I will be when my dd finishes 6th grade :)

[Michele Marshall]

Wow! What a night. I have been a lurker for quite a while, but thought it was time I respond to one of your posts. Congratulations to you and your family.

[Suzanne Sergi]

Wow!!! Amazing!!! You go Alyssa!! What a fantastic evening for all of you!!
Congratulations to your sweet girl!!! Woohooo!!!

[Sandra]

Way to go Alyssa!!! You have many folks that are so proud of you. My favorite part was seeing so many pictures of Alyssa with the biggest smile on her face. You can work hard and have fun too. Congratulations to the entire family.

[Ashley M]

Congratulations on having such an awesome kid! :) Wow, she is even in the newspaper...too cool!

[wendy myers]

That is truly amazing you should be so so proud! It's nice when things come naturally for kids and they don't have to strugle with school. Makes moms job alot easier!

Just smile and say thats my girl!

[Leslie]

WOW!WOW!WOW!WOW!WOW!WOW!WOW!WOW!
Truly amazing and wonderful accomplishments - congrats to her (and her parents!) Funny how they hardly look old enough for HS!

[Melinda]

Awesome! You should be bragging on your girl! Thanks for letting us know so we can share in your joy. What to go Alyssa! Go and conquer High School. You have a great future ahead of you.

[Deneen]

I remember how wonderful it felt when Heather and Holly swept the awards at their 8th grade graduation and I don't think I will ever forget how proud I was at that moment so I expect you were feeling that too! I was so proud of Alyssa and actual cut out the photo from the paper and here it sits on my desk waiting until I see you so I can give you another copy LOL!!!! One can never have too many copies now can they?
Congrats Alyssa I am so very proud of you!

[Kim M]

What a special night and you have every right to brag, she did awesome. I am so thrilled for you and her and how cool that it made it into the paper, congrats!

[Eileen Van Dyke]

Congrats on your super smart daughter. Isn't it just amazing how fast they grow up!

[katemeri]

Wow! Thanks for sharing! Congratulations Alyssa!!!

[Loriann]

She is darling. good for her and what a proud day for her mamma..

[Carla]

congrats to Alyssa, she is such a bright girl. I know you're a proud mama...

And she looks so grown up :)

[lorry]

Woot Woot! you should brag and be proud Laura. I totally agree with Sandra's comment above. It truly was great to see Alyssa smiling so much, I can tell from your comments she has worked really hard to earn these achievements and she should celebrate. Congratulations to Alyssa and you for helping her get there!