And Then The Big Graduation [School]

Posted on June 6, 2011 by

I’ve delayed this for too long. I have to face it. Covering Baccalaureate was not sufficient.

A week ago Friday night (on the heels of Emma’s elementary school graduation), Madysen officially graduated from high school. *breathes into paper bag*

But first, on Thursday morning, Holly went to the Senior Awards assembly where it was confirmed that Madysen was graduating magna cum laude, which is a skosh better than I did in high school and put her sufficiently high in her class. Definitely something for her to be proud of.

The magna cum laude-ers?

But Friday night was the big show–the graduation ceremony at Moody Coliseum at SMU. Nana and Pop even showed up with Aunt Kathleen and Uncles Colin and Ezra. Kathleen, Colin, and Ezra were not prepared for a 150-minute borefest, but that’s what they got.

Not that Emma was partying it up either.

You’d think that 50 minutes of waiting for Madysen’s name to be called would have been enough for me to have my camera ready. Maybe it was too much time because I had failed to switch my iPhone from photo to video, so all I got of her name being called was this still shot.

Nice. But I did recover in time to get her crossing the stage, getting her picture taken, and making her way back to her seat. Pretty exciting stuff.


Once everyone had walked across the stage and they finished with a few more pleasantries, it was over and the graduates threw their mortarboards into the air.

By the time the ceremony was over, it was far too dark for real pictures. But here is the crew sans Holly and I.

And then one of the proud family with the graduate back at home.

Madysen had to be at some party by 11 p.m., but there was time for cookie cake and gifts.

So that chapter is behind her. Not really sure what she’ll do come to this fall, but she leaves for a 3-week trip to Barcelona and Israel with Papa this afternoon. She’ll definitely have a few stories to tell.

Posted in Madysen, School | 2 Comments

The Little One’s Graduation First [School]

Posted on May 31, 2011 by

As I mentioned with regard to Madysen’s Baccalaureate, Friday was a big day with two graduations. We’ll start with the simpler one–Emma’s 4th Grade Graduation from Bradfield Elementary. Layla did this two years ago, and it seems like many people make a huge deal out of it.

Anyway, the end was definitely approaching the Friday before with the last Snack Shack.

And last Thursday was Mrs. Nicholson’s class party.

Friday at 11 a.m. was the big event. It started with a 30-minute slideshow of an incredible amount of photos of the kids. A song and some awards and it was time for the presentation of certificates. Yeah!

An afternoon pool party with the entire 4th grade at the HP Pool wrapped up Emma’s graduation day. She’s pretty excited about 5th grade at MIS next year.

Posted in Emma, School | 2 Comments

It’s Here, Baccalaureate is Really Here [School]

Posted on May 27, 2011 by

Really hard to believe we’ve gotten this far. Seems like not too long ago, Madysen was still my baby girl–and she listened to at least a portion of what I said. But this evening, she’ll officially graduate from high school. And she’ll do so with a lot more honors than I graduated with.

All of the graduation stuff really got started last Sunday morning with the Baccalaureate Service held at the Meyerson Symphony Center in the Dallas Arts District. All of the kids got to attend as did Holly’s mom and Grandma Flossie.

The service was nice with the keynote address by Donovan Campbell, former Marine and author of Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood. We managed to get seats on the aisle that Madysen entered and exited, but Madysen and the lighting failed to cooperate.

Then it was time for lots of celebratory photos.

(Nice choice by whomever chose the spot near the recycling wall plaque.)

And because we are the worst parents ever, we made all the kids pose for a handful of pictures. You can see the pain increase in Speed’s face with each picture.

Even one of Madysen with all the Speed women.

Sufficiently drained from all of that, we went to a brunch for Madysen and 24 other graduates at the Brook Hollow Golf Club.

Emma graduates from elementary school today as well. Not sure we’ll make it through the day.

Posted in Emma, Family, Friends, Layla, Madysen, Portrait, School, Speed | 3 Comments

Layla and Emma’s First Piano Recital [Piano]

Posted on May 26, 2011 by

The last week of school is madness around here what with the track meets, dance recitals, dance portraits, end-of-year parties, graduations, etc. Because we didn’t have enough going on, we added a piano recital for Layla and Emma. For most of this school year, they’ve been taking lessons and practicing some–nothing like the 30-minute practice marathons of my youth.

First up was Layla, who had come directly from ballet portraits.


Then Emma.


They are cute.

Previously unknown to me, each had a friend–Anna and Avery–also taking lessons from Miss Becky and performed at the recital.

Posted in Emma, Layla, Piano, Video | Leave a comment

A Day At The Track And At The Mall [Running]

Posted on May 26, 2011 by

With Holly out of town, last Saturday was a beatdown day for me. The big event was the PCYMCA Track Meet at SMU that both Emma and Layla were in. Emma had to be there at 7:30 a.m., but they did the field events first, which are nearly impossible to observe. Emma participated in the softball throw. She felt much better bout her second throw.

At 9:30, they moved to the track events. Emma ran in the 100M first. You can’t really see it in this video, she strayed into the next lane in the first 25M. Didn’t impact the overall race, but I did mention to her afterwards that those lines are there for a reason. She starts in lane 1 and finished 3rd in her heat.


A parent with field access provided some pictures too. This one after she’s made it back into her lane.

Her last event was the 50M. She starts in lane 8 and just beats out the girl twice as big as her for 1st in her heat.


At the finish line.

She wasn’t quite fast enough to make it into the finals, but she had a fun morning with her teammates.

One irritating thing was that I had stepped down to the rail to film Emma’s 50M heat and when I returned two people decided they liked my spot–marked by a towel, a book, and my moleskine–so much that they had to have it themselves. Despite the fact that there was no one else around. The lesson, as always, people suck.

From the morning track meet, I rushed over to the mall to look at a couple of dresses Madysen picked out for the upcoming graduation festivities. I am very poorly suited to such tasks. It did not go well.

I was back at the track in the afternoon with Layla and her friend Hattie. They did field events first too. Three years ago, Layla also did the high jump but couldn’t get the steps down. The next two years she moved to the long jump, even getting 4th place last year.

This year she went back to the high jump because she was struggling in long jump practice. I was able to stand on a ledge precariously and film the high jump through a chain-link fence. Not really optimal viewing as proven by the fact that I only got one semi-decent video. Thankfully, we got some good photos.

She succeeded at the first height.


Same with the second height.

And she just nicked the bar on her first attempt at the third height.

On her second attempt at that height, she made two approaches without jumping, which I guess counts as a failed attempt, so she was out of the competition. The good news is that two of her teammates came in first and second place.

On to the field events–first the 100M. She easily won her heat but wasn’t quite fast enough to make the finals.

She ran in the 200M too. Started in lane 8, which is a tough start position. She finished 4th in her heat and 5th overall. She was very excited.


Layla also ran the second leg in the 4×100 relay. They came in 3rd, but Layla unofficially ran the fastest second leg.


At 6:30, mercifully we were cleared to leave the track.  A fun but very long day.

Posted in Emma, Layla, Running, Video | 1 Comment

2005 Archives Done Got Posted [Administration]

Posted on May 23, 2011 by

It took my longer than I had hoped when I finished 2004, but I got the remainder of the 2005 archives up and in their place. In my defense, we had a lot going on the last two weeks.

And since the blog was fired up in late April 2006, we only have the first third of 2006 in need of getting up and archived. Add to that, we’ve already got posts up on Speed’s two goals scored in January, Madysen’s tournament win in February, Layla’s birthday goal and Speed’s Cub Scout graduation in March, and Madysen’s excellent 100M showing, a trip to the Dallas Arboretum, Easter festivities, and Madysen’s quasi-league championship in April.

But there’s more. I hope not too much more.

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So Close I’m Physically Ill [School]

Posted on May 19, 2011 by

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Today marks the final real day of high school for Madysen as she took her last AP exam. I’m not ready for this.

Posted in Madysen, School | 1 Comment