Graduating

After doing one shift as an umpire in the field, Parker graduated to being the home plate umpire at a T-ball game on his second shift. Even better, he did it solo!

Parker's first solo home base umpiring shift

Although a bad photo, this was as good as I could get in the sharply setting sun. Parker was supposed to be an assistant for a game on Tuesday this week, but the game was cancelled due to bad weather. The teams rescheduled to Thursday at a different field, and Parker was the only one available. He did very well on his own!

On Sunday we had a drop-in party for the three boys - Adam, Stanley, and Parker - to celebrate the end of the school year.  Parker graduates from grade 8 on Tuesday this coming week (going to high school in the fall), Stanley heads back to China for the summer on Wednesday (going into grade 12 in the fall), and Adam graduates from high school on Thursday (going to Mohawk College in the fall). Such a busy week, it was best to get the real party out of the way early. 

After Adam had constantly bugged us about getting him a good camera (he got the taste for quality cameras from borrowing Eric's), he was comforted by opening up a box with a Canon Rebel T3i (18 megapixel) SLR kit with a good zoom lens. His parents know him well.   

Adam happy to receive a real camera

He was holding back on giving a kiss to mom, but eventually relented! I think I missed catching the kiss by about 0.3 seconds (it probably lasted only 0.2 seconds...). Maybe I'll borrow his camera to get better pictures next time.

'Kiss me right here, or no driving my car...'

Stanley also got into the festivities and was presented with a few things that he can take home to share with his parents.

Stanley at the party

Parker got a watch from us as well (so he could wear it umpiring) and his aunt and uncle got his a game controller. One of our guests (a pretty young lady also graduating from grade 12 this year) asked Parker if he coloured his hair - she hadn't seen him for a while. I had to break it to her that, actually, he just washed it.

Check out Parker's hair - it is clean!

There were a number of other fantastic gifts that the kids received for their special graduations, but they can let you know after they send out their thank you's.

This last bit is mostly for my mom - I have had trouble explaining what kinds of plants are growing in our garden, so I thought I would just take a quick visual tour so she could see it. Beware - boring 6 minutes of video if you are not into gardening...