Prom 2014

Last night was the final year I'll have to rent a tuxedo for prom. Yes, I'm happy about that because it is ridiculous to pay $145 to rent a suit for one night.
Maybe next year, when I have no children going to prom, I'll be nostalgic for prom.
Tucker is still asleep downstairs, but his few words of description assured us that he had a good time.
Before he left, we took a picture of him with Grace holding the cat up beside him.

The prom theme was masquerade, so Tucker ordered a mask online and reluctantly held it up for me to take a  picture. 

Tucker and his friend Alex met their dates at one of the girls' houses for pictures. As a man of few words, Tucker was reluctant to let me know where and what time pictures would be. I finally texted the mom of one of the girls and got to the picture house before Tucker did. 

I joked that Tucker is one of those people who believes that having his picture taken will steal his soul. I can't figure out why else he's so reluctant to have his picture taken. Luckily, in front of other people, he's willing to pose and stand still.

Here he is with is date Amelia. 

She had on a gorgeous red dress with turquoise jewelry. She rented the dress. She actually rented two dresses for $95 then decided which one to wear. She wore the dress by designer Badgley Mischka, which would probably have cost more than $1000 to buy. She rented from an online company called Rent the Runway. I think this is a great idea, although we always found dresses for Grace to buy that were less expensive than the tuxes we rent. 

The girls had some elaborate masks. Here's Tucker's friend Josie on the left and his date Amelia on the right.

Here are all the girls with their masks. I always love to see the girls' elaborate dresses.

And one more shot of Tucker and Amelia. 

I hope it was a senior prom to remember. 

Senior Photos

On a crisp Autumn afternoon, my youngest went to have his senior pictures taken. He went under protest. He didn't understand why senior pictures had to be a big deal. He just needed one picture.
And, he needed some clean khaki shorts to wear, he warned as he headed back to school after lunch. Luckily, my husband had a load of laundry in the dryer, including a pair of khaki shorts.
I'd taken Tucker to the store a few weeks before and encouraged him to buy a new shirt for senior pictures.
"I'll just wear a shirt I have," he said and refused to pick out anything new.
So after school, with our 4 o'clock  appointment creeping closer, I asked what he planned to wear.
A blue polo shirt, he said. A polo shirt is as close as Tucker gets to considering himself dressed up. And a blue polo shirt is fine, but it isn't what he would normally wear. And I like a senior picture in clothes that the kids would usually wear.
"Maybe we'll just take along another shirt to change in to," I suggested.
"What? I'm not changing shirts. Where would I change?"
"You are a guy. You can take your shirt off and put on another one," I explained to my son who is a swimmer and spends half his life in a tiny Speedo swimsuit.
Then he put on his blue polo and I pointed out it was wrinkled.
"I'll iron it," I said.
"It doesn't need to be ironed. We need to go."
I held out my hand for the blue shirt and took along a red shirt that has some dark striations through it. I thought it might look good in contrast to his dark hair and beard.
And, yes, apparently the beard would stay for the picture.
Sullen, would be the way I'd describe him, as we scrambled to get out the door to meet the photographer.
But as soon as she met us, he became quite pleasant.

I took pictures of her taking pictures of him.

In both the red shirt and the blue shirt.

In various places around the park.

She thought the reddish grasses would go well with his red shirt. He warned me before we went that he was only doing close-lipped smiles. I told him we spent thousands of dollars on his teeth so he should be willing to show them.

I tried to convince him that he should have different smiles and we'd pick the one that looked best.

Spencer regrets that he "looks a little mean" in his pictures because he didn't smile, I told Tucker. 

"He is mean," Tucker said, still getting over his role of little brother apparently 

And when he got there, Tucker did smile. I guess he just likes to argue about it with me.

The photographer showed us a couple of shots that she got and I think we'll have plenty to choose from. Yes, they're all better than my phone shots in the background.

I noticed in the middle of the photography shoot that Tucker was wearing a bracelet. I don't know if it was a conscious decision to leave it on or if he just forgot it. I thought maybe he'd wear the watch he bought in Paris last year, but apparently that $100 expenditure has fallen out of popularity. 

The bracelet is one of those rubber ones, the kind Lance Armstrong made popular. This one is in support of a high school teacher and basketball coach who was just diagnosed with colon cancer before school started. So maybe it's okay that the bracelet is in his senior picture.

Last, First Day of High School

Tucker's a senior and started his last year of high school today.
Yes, it seems early, but the school district made changes last  year so the students begin school early enough to finish finals before the Christmas break. They used to return to school after Christmas for a week then take finals. Obviously, some of the information was lost during the two-week Christmas break. So now they start in mid August and finish school in mid May.

Tucker was in a good mood this morning, until I asked him to pose for a picture on the back porch.
"OMG!"

Luckily, his belligerent attitude helped make it a little easier to see him lope off to his final day of school.

A Year of Finals

My youngest son is a rising senior in high school. That means, in August he'll be a senior. So I'm sure my year will be filled with final times. A final first day of school. A final homecoming dance. A final spring break.
But the finals already began today.
I went to Tucker's final outdoor swim meet, league championships, today. He didn't want to swim in the summer league this year, so I'm sure I won't be able to convince him to swim next year.
These championship swim days are always unbearably hot and start very early. They had to be at the pool by 7:15. Luckily, the coach volunteered to take Tucker and his best friend Josh. I didn't have to be there until 9 and I went with a mocha for me and a frappucino for Tucker, trying to jolly him into a good mood.
Tucker and his team were lined up already to swim. They did well, especially considering that Tucker only went to one practice this summer.

That's Tucker in the center and his bestie Josh on the right. 

I took this picture at the end of the lane, but it looks very bizarre because his foot is so far out of the water.

They decided to stick their goggles to their faces like when they were little kids. 

Here they are on the blocks getting ready to swim the 50 freestyle. (Tucker won but it was close.)

Goodbye summer swim team.
Goodbye sitting in the sun and sweating.
Goodbye volunteering to time at swim meets.
This is just the first of many finals in the year to come.

Last Senior Game

Last night was Spencer's final high school basketball game. Unlike a lot of sports that go on to districts or states, the basketball season ends with a loss for almost every team as they get knocked out of the tournament.
Here's a picture of Spencer in the grips of his coach. I'm not sure if it is right after he fouled out with a minute left or as he was going back in to get his last foul.

He's had a love-hate relationship with this coach who left Spencer in for almost the whole game last night to see him score 16 points and pull in 6 rebounds. Nevertheless, the team lost by 6 and is finished for the season.
People stopped me on the way out, exclaiming over Spencer's amazing game.
"He left everything on the court," they said.
"It was obvious he wasn't ready to be finished with the season," another one said.
"Awesome game."
And I felt sad at the end of an era.
At the end of Grace's high school swimming, she still had YMCA swimming to finish that winter and again in the summer before she went to swim in college.
Spencer says he will not play basketball in college. He's finished with coaches and refs who call more fouls on the big guys.
"Basketball will always be part of my life," he said.
And I know he's right because I've watched my brothers compete against each other on the basketball court into their 40s and my dad played basketball into his 70s before a should injury forced him to the sidelines.
So basketball will always be there for Spencer and he has some pretty good high school games that he can point to when he reminisces.

Graduation is Nearing

I can hardly believe it's already time to submit baby photos of the seniors to the yearbook. A lot of people go with toddler photos, so I wanted this one:


But Spencer said he preferred this one:

Even though he's holding his Pooh bear in it.
I'm also supposed to send photos of Spencer hanging out with friends in high school. I can't find any except from prom and since he and Claudia are no longer an item, that would be awkward. He doesn't have a Facebook, so no one tags him there. Guess I'll have to keep searching his friends' Facebook pages to see if he appears.

Entrepreneur

Sometimes my boys come up with crazy ideas that just make me shake my head and laugh.
This week, it was Spencer who admitted that he had started a home-based business. Well, not so much home-based as locker-based business.
Spencer and three friends noticed the effect that Michelle Obama had on the snacks in the school. As seniors, they were used to pop machines and unhealthy snacks in the cafeteria. When our schools phased those out this year responding to calls for healthier food, Spencer and his friends decided to fill the niche for junk food.
They went to the store and bought $40 worth of candy, chips, Honey Buns, Pop Tarts and pop. They sell it from their locker.

This week, they made $60 so they got a 50 percent return on their investment.
"Wait a minute!" I said. "Is this against the rules?"
I mean, he wasn't selling anything illegal or even convincing students to take supplements that would make them stronger or smarter.
One of the teachers said she didn't think it was a big deal, so Spencer considers that carte blanche.
I drove five sophomores, Tucker and friends, to an away football game last night, and they were talking about Spencer's business.
"Oh, yeah. I bought a Reese cup from him for 25 cents," Josh said.
"That's a rip off," Tucker said, determined to find fault with his brother.
I pointed out that a two-pack of Reese cups costs around $1 at the grocery store.
"Dude, he's gotta have a profit margin," Josh said.
Keenan added that the pops are $1.
"They used to be 65 cents in the pop machines," Tucker said.
Well, the pop machines are gone.
Maybe I should just be proud that Spencer is showing some entrepreneurial spirit and not worry about the repercussions. Like him, I do believe that the kids, who are allowed to leave school for lunch, will probably eat all the junk food they want whether the school supplies it or not.
Maybe I should see it as a sign that he's ready to leave school and start his real life, which is what he'll be doing at the end of this year.
Maybe, I should realize that he has great ideas, like me, but apparently he is willing to follow through on them.
I just hope he can stay out of trouble for the rest of his senior year.

Senior Pictures

Does it seem to anyone else like I just posted Grace's senior pictures last month? Well, I guess it has been two years because today we went to take Spencer's senior pictures.
Like the hovering mom I am, I stayed in the background and took pictures of the photographer taking Spencer's picture.
His first choice for background was the local, outdoor basketball court. He's leaning against the fence here, but the photographer had the basketball hoop behind him.
He wore this shirt because I love the way he looks in it. The blue really brings out the blue in his eyes. Unlike Grace, and other girls, Spencer was not too picky about what he wore for his photo.
He tried sitting in front of the basketball hoop and the photographer had him sit way out front of the hoop so she could get the hoop in the background.
Although the weather is still hot, the humidity is down and the sky was a brilliant blue.
For his next round of pictures, Spence wanted to go to the railroad tracks. I had told him to pick some places that had meaning. I didn't ask why these railroad tracks have meaning. I probably don't want to know.
We hiked up the tracks to this railway signal. We were all fairly sweaty by the time we got there.
Around middle school, Spencer started having fake smiles in his pictures. Now he's so self conscious about his smile that it's hard to get a genuine one out of him in pictures. I hope the photographer managed to capture some. If not, we'll have to go with taciturn photos.
Hard to believe he's going to be a senior already.

Break a Leg!

The musical this past week was FABULOUS. I got to sit through it twice and a third time I was on costume repair duty so I scurried from backstage to the rear doors to watch various parts, especially Grace's scene which begins the second act.
When our French friend Marie came to visit this summer, she found it impossible to believe that Americans actually have "high school musicals."
"No, zhis must not be true!" she insisted. She also couldn't believe there were real marching bands. But, it's all true. These pieces of Americana make up the high school experience.
I'd never seen this musical before, so my expectations were low. But the music, the acting and the kids were amazing. The musical is called HONK! and it's based on the story of The Ugly Duckling. A number of the high school kids decided this was beneath them and didn't even try out. They apparently weren't aware of the sexual innuendo throughout the play. As Grace said, "Mom, what do you expect? It was created in England."
So no one should have been surprised when the duck mother was explaining to the Ugly Duckling that the island was too far away to swim. "Good gracious, no. It's farther than you'd think. I've only been out there once when your father and I were courting and I didn't mean to go that far then."
Grace, a hen, and Queenie, a cat, have a scene where the tom cat is chasing down the ugly duckling. The tom cat sees Queenie and a "love scene" ensues. She calls the tom cat a "scruff" but admits that when "you've had it easy, you like a bit of rough!"
So this was definitely no children's-only show.
Some of my favorite parts from the show: Grace was sick on Tuesday night so she stayed home while they were rehearsing. She was texting. I asked who she was texting.
"Carl."
"Isn't Carl rehearsing?" I asked. Carl played one of the ducklings.
"Yes, he's in his egg."
I loved the idea that Carl was on stage waiting to be hatched and busy texting.
On opening night, we were in the audience. The cat's goal throughout is to catch and eat the Ugly Duckling. A little boy a few rows behind us. Began to whisper in fear, "Oh no. He's going to eat him. He's going to get him."
His mother had to take him out of the theater. Then when the cat goes running out of the back door, as part of the play, the child and the mean cat came face to face. Kyle, who played the cat, scared children, and enthralled them every night.
In the final night, a little boy in the audience had the funniest laugh, kind of craggly. When Kyle the cat ripped open his yellow rain slicker (the one he'd been wearing to pretend he's a duck) the little boy laughed a big, raucous laugh. Everyone on stage had to freeze because the whole audience cracked up at the little boy's laugh.
At the end of the play Saturday night, Grace sobbed and sobbed. Theater and music made her high school experience worthwhile. Yes, she loved biology and she was an expert at English essays, but this was something she could not have gotten at home.

Sad Grace

Tucker is in charge of the picture slide show for the high school swim team this year so we have over 600 photos of swim team members. This one kind of sums up how Grace felt after her disappointing swim at Districts.
As we were driving home from play practice at 9:30 last night, I broached the subject of skipping swim championships for the Y next week. She will have play performances Thursday, Friday, and twice Saturday. Then she'll have to get up at 6 on Sunday and drive two hours to swim. She is setting herself up for more disappointment.
"No, I can't skip. It's my last championships."
Then I pictured how the "last" anything is so sad for Grace and I imagined the tears I will have to deal with.
"Well, if you skip this year then last year was your last year so you won't have to be sad," I reasoned.
She didn't buy it.