This morning I attended the CHHS graduation. It was a window to things to come two short years from now. It is also a lesson of sorts. How parents should not behave. I pinky promise I will not bring post-it-notes, place them on 3 rows of seats, in an effort to save 45 spots. I promise I will respond to rudeness with a smile. I will not be argumentative with the convention staff. I promise I will not wave flourescent posterboard signs congratulating my senior. And under no circumstances will I whistle, squeal, woo-hoooo or my personal favorite, she says tongue in cheek, blow an air horn. Especially when asked very politely by the class president and school principal at least 3x. I do promise to bring a few Rolaids and lots of tissues.

Having said all that why was I there? Brynne was honored as a Red Jacket this spring. She will serve for the next two years as an ambassador for the school at official events. If you have FBI grade photo enhancing equipment you might be able to see Brynne...a few students in from the left on the right hand side of the arena. The Red Jackets stood guard as the graduates filed in and processed in before a representative of each branch of the military in a very moving patriotic musical segment. When their duty was done we were 'outta there! I think I will allow that first hour or so tide me over until next year...and before we know it we will have our own graduate in 2009...and another in 2010...where are my kleenex???

Three cheers! CHHS broke into the top 100 of Newsweeks best high schools.
They are sitting on the 95th spot.

16 years ago we moved to Colleyville. Part of the draw was the acclaimed school district. We had initially anticipated Brynne, our only child at the time, would attend the neighborhood elementary school across the street. When the pre-school years rolled around we were ready for a bump up from MDO (Mother's Day Out). Another pilot's wife was a teacher at St. Vincent's and she encouraged us to check it out. Much to our dismay it was full. However, a few weeks into the school year a space became available and we moved on it quickly. That began a long era of Brynne, Lacey and Jacob attending what we have always known as SVES. We were so pleased and our children so content that we elected to keep them. The years rolled one into another in a fluid fashion without an obvious break.

And then there was 9/11 and then there was a giant pay cut at AA and coincidentally the girls were middle school age. It became clear that it was time to move them, although we wanted to give Jacob the same educational foundation SVES provided for a couple of more years. Now the time has come for Jacob to move on to another school. This is done with great excitement, some confidence and a wee bit of uncertainty. Jacob is going a year before the girls moved to public school. He will become an OC Taylor Tiger and he is enthusiastic about the opportunity. I went to chapel with him one day this week...a daily part of the SVES routine. The opening song sung by the precious elementary voices went straight to my heart.
Praise Him, Praise Him all Ye Little Children
God is Love
God is Love
Trust Him, Trust Him all Ye Little Children
God is Love
God is Love
I was indeed full of praise for our many years our children attended this fine school.
I am trusting Him as the last of the Mattson children transfer to our local schools.

Each year started in the same way...a first day of school photo by the school sign. In the early years it was fun for the girls to walk through the dewey August grass in their plaid uniform. Down the road it was a bit more of a challenge to get the photo without a huge spectacle on the front lawn. I am not sure if we ever skipped a year and unfortunately those photos are hard copies tucked away in volumes of photo albums making it more difficult to share. However, I was bound and determined to have a a photo of Jacob on his last day serving as the second bookend to the first Brynne photo symbolically supporting all of the stories and tales from the past 13 years.

Have you ever had that moment when your child mentions something seemingly obscure but clearly indelible in their childhood memory bank? We experienced that recently. We were knocking on the door of the last day of school. Lacey started to reminice about "Bud's" the snow cone stand down the street from St. Vincent's school. It was a tradition to stop by one of the last afternoons, sometimes just Mattsons and sometimes oodles of classmates. We would shoo bees and enjoy our sticky colorful cup of flavored ice chips. Sugar free for me. The combinations were endless and clearly selecting the right combination of syrups was not a lickety-split decision. At Lacey's suggestion Jacob and I made certain to include her...and her friend...and Brynne for a trip to Bud's. Feeling a bit sentimental about the whole experience I was a pushover...I would spring for a LARGE and gasp, would even OK the additional scoop of vanilla ice cream in the bottom. With our blue, green, rainbow colored tongues we declared summer was officially right around the corner!

The finished products! Not only are they cute girls, but they are great girls!

Brynne, her friends and a big sister get ready for the theater banquet.

Brynne wanted to try a new hair stylist and I thought she looked cute. Although, ahem, she is wearing my top! The joys of closet raiding!!

The high school season has been done for a couple of months, but the club team rocks on. The (short) long course season is underway and last weekend it kicked off in Dallas at SMU.
This weekend we are back in the Dallas area and in early June we will travel to Shreveport.

One of the ways we closed out the 4th grade year was with a school picnic and yearbook signing. Jacob was more into the tire swing on the playground then trading John Hancocks with the other kids, but he has a few in his book and made a few contributions to others.

As a 4th grader at St. Vincent's the only opportunity to participate in team sports is a loosely run track season in the spring. Jacob is a great sprinter, but got to try his long jump skills. I think it is safe to say he will stick with his beloved basketball.

Just before I left for the airport we remembered to snap a daughter/parents photos. Don't mind the sunburn...or the deer in the headlights look...or the puffy hair.

Golly, it has been about 6 weeks since I have updated with some snapshots from Colleyville. Or in this case it is a Colleyville person from a snapshot in Florida! My mom treated to a girls weekend in Orlando/Vero Beach. We came from Texas, Michigan, Northa Carolina and New Jersey. We descended on Mom and Dad's house where Dad had his fill of squealing girls! The second night we were in Vero Beach and enjoyed an early birthday celebration with my grandmother. Of course we included some Mother's Day honor for my mom and overall had a fantastic time! All of the husbands kept their respective homefronts humming along
in perfect fashion!