And She's Off!

Elena's graduation has come and gone. She left to work as a missionary with the Totus Tuus program of our diocese just 4 days after graduating. (For those unfamiliar, with Totus Tuus she will be working with a team of 3 other young adults who will go to parishes around Southern MN leading youth programs for the Church.) She pretty much ripped off the band-aid of our first-born leaving the nest with no hesitation. Fortunately, we know she's in good hands and that she will have a fun, faith-filled summer. She'll get a couple of breaks to come back home and see us and then she'll have a few more weeks to spend at home before leaving for college, so that helps. 

Olivia came with me to drop her off for training. A few tears were shed, and there have been a few debates over what exactly will happen with Elena's room in her absence, but the adjustment has been going OK. The day of the drop-off, Olivia had her cousin over to play, and it quickly became apparent that she was processing everything through her play. I overheard her saying to Briar, "How about you're the older sister, Elena, and you're leaving for Totus Tuus in Sleepy Eye. And I'm the little sister, and I want to stay with you, but I can't." This was followed by lots of "No! I don't want you to leave" and "It'll be Ok."

We've been able to talk with Elena once so far and all is going well. When I see her empty room (honestly the most beautiful and well-cared for space in the house), knowing that before long it will be taken over and changed by siblings, it's tempting to be a little sad. But I know the alternative of having her unable or afraid or unmotivated to go out into the world and find her way would be worse. 

Here's a few senior photos and glimpses of the last bits of her senior year. We got almost none from graduation, but that's probably Ok since her face was a bit swollen (for the 3rd time!) after having further wisdom tooth removal complications. 

My favorite prom picture by far! Her date was a very good sport.

More of Charlie

"Propel" "Precision" "Price" "Pretzel" "Pterodactyl".... I am writing this post to the sound of Elena and Charlie going back and forth stating words starting with the letter P to see who gets stumped first.  This has been going on for several minutes with no indication of slowing down anytime soon.

Although this anecdote doesn't have much to do with anything, it does relate nicely to the topic of this post, which is simply to share some of Charlie's recent Charlie-like behavior. 

I recently showed the boys how to use Canva to create posters/flyers/etc. for a school project. Last night Charlie suddenly started working on the computer making "Vote for Charlie" posters for Student Council Elections. He kept spitting out idea after idea until I finally had to kick him off the computer to get ready for bed. I feel I should add that elections will be sometime next fall. If he keeps going at this rate all summer, the school isn't going to have enough wall space to hold all of his flyers. I'll share them below. (You have to look closely to find his face on some of these)

Side note: I'm not sure if the P competition is still going on, but I assume it is. I thought Elena was going to give up when she said, "Ok, I really need to work on some stuff upstairs," but then she continued with, "so you're going to have to come with me." 

I should explain that he often goes by Dr. Charles at school. It all started when he titled his Google Doc assignment "Queen Anne's Mashed Potato Sauce" and made some comment about pickle smelling salts. His very artistic teacher created these advertisements and hung them up in the classroom.  (I recommend zooming in to read the fine print on the smelling salts.)

And then the other day, we left a bag of little hair-ties out right next to the game of Mouse Trap. And Charlie noticed. When I came back into the room later that day, there were various Star Wars and superhero characters trapped in the game:

And lastly, there is this impersonation Charlie did of Elena. Frank was telling Elena she should get married by 20 so he can be a young uncle. And Charlie said, "That's never going to happen because she's to picky." He started imitating her, and she quickly grabbed her phone and took a video.