The Second One Graduates

My second oldest nephew graduated with Honors from The King's Academy.

I wasn't able to attend his brother's graduation three years ago because Emily and I were on her 8th grade DC trip.

So I was very happy to see Joshua graduate.

Joshua with his proud mom, dad, and two brothers

The Ow and Okazaki Clan

Today, Joshua turned 18 and will be attending Santa Clara University in the Fall...  following in his big brother's footsteps.. but they will not be rooming together!

Bri-Bri

Our one and only graduation this year that we attended was for Brian Michael Yee, son of Michael and Angela Yee,  or "Bri Bri" to those who knew him as a wee little lad.

Brian graduated from Washington High School as the Valedictorian with a 4.6 GPA.

Someone is bigger and someone has less hair..

He also gave the Commencement Address to the class of 400+ students.

I wanted to do something BIG for him so we made four head sticks to show him how proud we are of his achievements!

They made great fans too! It was hot siting in the sun for that long!

Brian also tutored Emily in Honors Geometry/Honors Biology (after her original tutor left to join the Army). We didn't know we hired the smartest student in the Class of 2016! I guess I should have given him a raise from the $10 hour I was paying him!

Hmmm who is the real Brian?

We are extremely proud of Brian and know that he will succeed in whatever He does!

Brian is heading to UCLA in the fall. He got into CAL but decided not to go there. :(

So this is what we can look forward to in three years! Sigh!

GRADUATION CHAOS!

End of a Decade + 1

Before I dive into the Washington DC & New York trip that the 8th grade just came back from I wanted to share about an end of a decade plus one.

ELEVEN YEARS... That's how long Emily has been attending KHA and this is the day we have been waiting for!!

GRADUATION DAY!!

Preschool and 8th Grade Portrait

This past Saturday was KHA's 8th Grade Graduation Ceremony.

19 students graduated that day

Emily gave the Salutatorian Address to her classmates.

You can hear her address here:

It was amazing to see that 11 years ago before school started, I was having a parent-teacher conference telling her preschool teachers about Emily's selective mute anxiety issues.

And here she is speaking in front of not only her classmates but to the school board, faculty, parents, and friends.

As a part of the ceremony, each graduating student also got the opportunity to read a Tribute Letter they wrote to their parents. Afterwards Christine Ingebretson, FCC's Women's Minister and this class' Bible teacher (for 6th and 7th grades) gave the Commencement Address. She encouraged the students to "Have Courage and Be Kind" as they enter into high school.

You can read parts of her excellent speech to the kids here on her blog: Commencement Addresss

Special thank yous go to Don who videoed and Kenny who took pictures of the ceremony.

And since Emily started KHA in Preschool we, her parents, were given the honor of giving her her diploma on stage.

 Lots of our family came to support Emily:

Her Goong Goong and Popo (my parents)

Her Yeh Yeh and Mah Mah (Matthew's parents)

Her E-Ee and E-Jeung and her cousins Daniel, Joshua and Zachy (my sister and her family)

Her Kau Kau and Auntie Hilda (my brother and sister-in-law)

Her Goo-Jeh and Goo-Jeung and cousins, Marissa and Timothy (Matthew's sister and her family)

Extended family  also came:

Auntie Cheryl, Uncle Don, Mandy and Kyle (my cousin and her family) along with my Auntie Doris (not pictured)

 And close friends...

Uncle Greg, Auntie Carolyn, Cory, Craig & Priscilla

Mr. Michael, Ms Angela and Rachel

Owen Sook-Sook, Grace-Ee, Faith and Hope

We also wanted to honor all her teachers and invited them to the graduation and a lunch. Here are a few that came:

Mrs. Stevenson her Junior Kindergarten teacher

Mrs. Choy her 1st Grade teacher

Mrs. Kao her 2nd grade teacher

Mrs. Scott her 6th Grade teacher

....along with Mrs. Ingebretson, her 6th and 7th grade Bible teacher.. who was also the Commencement Speaker at the graduation!

Some good friends came to cheer her on..

Jessica left after Kindergarten

Shawna (left) left after 6th grade and Jennifer (center) left after 4th grade

Bryan is the only classmate that has been in the same class with Emily for 10 years...

Caryn is Emily's twin buddy

Pairing up for Twin Day for the past four years!

Emily even squeezed into the Band Group Photo even though she did not perform. Too busy graduating and the only 8th grader in Band!

Mr. Bolivar her Band Director for the past 5 years

Congratulations to the Class of 2015!

Another One Off to HS

My nephew, Joshua, graduated from 8th grade from King's Academy. He will continue at King's for high school.

Joshua with my family and my parents.

He is extremely smart. I found out he took Geometry in 8th grade and will be taking Algebra 2 Honors as a freshman. (In comparison, I took regular Algebra as a freshman and Geometry as  a sophomore). At the rate he's going he'll take Calculus as a junior.

Joshua is the 'quiet' one out of the three boys. Daniel is the loudest (and biggest) and of course Zachary is a mix of his two brothers.

I took Calculus as a freshman in college and failed miserably! Math was not my forte'.

Time is moving so quickly. Joshua is only 2 months older than Emily. Emily will be graduating 8th grade next June. (She is taking Algebra in 8th grade and Geometry in 9th.)

Joshua graduating from my Homeschool Preschool.

I taught him and Emily when they were 3 before they entered Kindergarten.

Emily and Joshua at 4 years old. Emily is currently taller than Joshua.

On a completely different subject, at my sister's house there are always lots of visitors. She always has 2-3 birds that nest around her house and hatch their eggs annually.

My bird expert says its a black phoebe.

This one had 4 eggs.

They hatched a few weeks later.

This one stayed in it's nest probably because it isn't ready to fly yet. It wasn't very pretty but what newborn baby is right?