Three Kids and a Dog: Grad Parties Galore

How much fun have we had going to grad parties this season?! It's been really special to celebrate these boys and girls whom we've had the pleasure to get to know whether it's been through travel baseball or travel soccer or something else.

We missed five parties due to Father's Day (in Michigan) and another two parties due to regionals (soccer) in Kansas City but we more than made up for them the other weekends of the year. I've thoroughly enjoyed these celebrations and seeing all the pictures of him/her growing up. I realized that most of these grad parties were from families we knew through travel sports. Boy, you really get to know each other through traveling together and spending a lot of time together over the years. I realize how incredibly lucky we were to form these kinds of friendships not just in soccer but in baseball too. Of course, soccer was just extra special because of all the years that Austen played travel soccer. We were very fortunate to form great bonds with several parents on his first club team (Wizards) where he started his travel career in the 1st grade and continued through 7th grade. Some of those kids still play soccer today, some don't.- but the parents still get together. (And, Austen's college roommate is from that club team.) I didn't think we'd find those kind of friendships twice but we did. Austen joined Galaxy heading into 8th grade and will finish his club soccer career with them this month at Nationals in Orlando. These families and their boys are an incredibly special group that we were lucky to get to know through travel soccer. Most are graduating this year and some will start their senior year this fall. But you can't help but root for all of them in life. Great kids. Great parents. Looking forward to our last hurrah with them at Nationals soon!

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Austen's graduation party. He did not want a big graduation party in our current house. He only wanted one if we had a nice new "party" house. So while we are moving (that's a whole other blog), it wasn't soon enough for a grad party so we did a family only grad party at our club for him which turned out to be really nice, and wasn't too much work (which I heard parties at home can be. Note: my next two will have their parties at home.)

We ate well (sushi), caught up with family, took lots of pictures and didn't have to worry about the rain that rolled in that evening. It was the perfect family grad party but I have been warned that when our new house is done and he is back from college, Austen will be having a "real" party with his friends to make up for it. I can hardly wait (for him to go to college).