a wee bit of nostalgia

My little sister (Elizabeth) had her high school grad and commencement this past week. I am ridiculously proud of her and at the same time feeling a wee bit... old. And nostalgic. Of course, I still remember her as the annoying little tag-along sister that she was when I was in junior high. 

Elizabeth is three and a half years younger than me-- she just turned 18 in January-- and in the past few years we've become quite a bit closer than we have been in the past, which has been a very awesome thing for me. It's nice to be able to call her my friend as well as my sister =) 

On Thursday, we made our way to the Jubilee Auditorium for a few family photos prior to her commencement ceremony-- there weren't enough tickets available for us all to watch the ceremony (which quite frankly was a bit of a relief, my own commencement in 2008 was more than four hours long and I did not want to sit through that again), but I had suggested that we all (myself+Rory, my parents, sister and grandparents) take a few photos beforehand. My grandmother and mother liked the idea, so it would seem that my own intuitive ideas are a good thing from time to time. Heh.

So we took a few photos. I think they turned out decently well! Click on the individual pictures to open up a larger copy.

And yes, I am definitely shorter than Elizabeth.
We're both wearing heels here, but the height difference is
close to accurate. I'm five feet tall on the dot,
and she's... 5'3", maybe?

I also walked around with Elizabeth after my grandparents had gone home and my parents had gone up to their seats, taking various pictures of her and her friends. Some of the friends in her graduating class were people that she's known since kindergarten-- and yes, it was definitely a little bit weird for me to see all these kids that I remembered as teeny kindergarteners (crying on the first day of school) in their caps and gowns, thirteen years later.

I am seriously so proud of her. Way to go, Beppy!

The next evening was her banquet and dance, and Rory and I were lucky enough to be the only adults from our family who went. I don't know who was crazy enough to think that we constituted as "adult supervision", but hey! I enjoyed myself. 

My sister looked absolutely gorgeous in her grad dress, and her date Dylan looked rather handsome (although also understandably awkward when we were taking pictures at my parents' place, haha). 

Elizabeth is so ridiculously pretty.

So yes, we went with her to her banquet, and once again I got to walk around taking pictures of her and her friends... I'm not going to include many of those photos buuut I did get someone (Rory, I think?) to take a picture of myself with my leetle seester. Heh. 

I'd like to think that I looked pretty spiffy, too. Again, yes we are both
wearing heels but the height difference is accurate.

And just for the heck of it... look how much we've changed! This photo is just over fifteen years old.

Elizabeth has always been super cute, but MAN
was I ever an awkward looking little kid. Yeesh.

On Saturday, we had a family luncheon at an all-you-can-eat Sushi restaurant called Zen. The food there is great, and my grandma wanted to have a way to celebrate Elizabeth's grad that we could all be a part of. (Can you tell that this is a big thing to my family? Haha.) 

We also had a few of the Hemings join us-- this is Arthur and his son Miles.

So. Much. Food. I don't know how we finished it all,
but we did!

Overall, a busy week but one that I much enjoyed. Congrats on having completed high school, Elizabeth! We're all really proud of you, and I'm personally really looking forward to seeing what the next few years bring you.