Prom 2019: Heaven on Earth

Here we are at Jackson's Senior prom -- how did that happen so quickly?  For the past 5 years, I've enjoyed watching Syd and Jack get all fancy for prom.  This year was admittedly a little different without Syd because prom isn't quite the same for guys as it is for girls, but we still had fun seeing all of the beautiful ladies!  As we have the last couple of years, a whole group of kids and their parents met at Scott & Joy's for pictures.  Jackson and his date, Madie, looked gorgeous together!

I loved all of the different tuxes this year!

What a beautiful group!

My girls with their ultra-handsome big cousin:

Grandpa Denny got his truck all cleaned up for the annual Prom cruise.  My boys can't wait for the day that THEY get to take their date to prom in the Dwyer '49.

From Scott & Joy's, we headed to the nursing home to see Ammie.  Madie's mom works there, and the residents loved seeing the kids all dressed up.

I just love Ammie's spunk!  (And don't mind my obnoxious sling.  All of the pictures you are seeing were taking on my camera by someone other than me, because it's really quite difficult to hold a camera and push the shutter with just your left hand. Thanks, Rebecca and Syd for your assistance!)

From the nursing home, all of the kids meet at the church.  It's fun to see so many out and about! Here are a few of the pics from there.

After the pics at the church, the "cruise" got underway.  So many fun cars on the bricks of Main Street!

Grandma and Grandpa with their grandson and their truck!

While the cruise continued, we walked up to the school to see the transformation of our commons area to "Heaven on Earth" -- it was really breathtaking!

Seriously, the pictures don't even really do it justice.  The junior class really outdid themselves!  We spotted Jackson's picture in a cloud and his spot for the banquet.

Some fun pics with the beautiful decorations!

We got back to Main Street in time to see the prom-goers begin the traditional "walk."  There were more girls than boys this year, so Jackson made two trips, first with Jessie and then with Raven.

And here are a couple more pictures of our favorite guy at the beginning of the dinner banquet.

What a wonderful evening for Wellsville High School and the Wellsville community as a whole.  We have so many fun traditions around our prom and I'm so thankful that I get to see all of these kids on their special night, especially one Jackson Dwyer.  

Our Newest Baker Wildcat

This past week was a big one in the Deterding/Dwyer families, as Jackson signed to play basketball at Baker University!  The last time any of us watched Baker basketball regularly was when this #10 was bringing the ball down the court:

So in case you couldn't tell based on the picture of a picture out of the "Baker Orange" yearbook from days gone by (that's seriously all we could come up with for pictures -- sad, I know!), that's my big brother doing what he loves best.  Now, we've come full circle as the next generation will follow in his footsteps.  Here's Jackson's post from his big day:

He certainly has learned from the best!  With Grandpa Kermit, Uncle Kyle, and of course, his coach Rick O'Neil.  At the signing, Coach O'Neil told everyone what a great player, and more importantly, what a great teammate and role model, Jackson is.

And when I say "everyone", there did seem to be everyone there in the high school library for the occasion!

Here are a few pics we took with the Man of the Hour before the signing got underway. . .

Reminiscent of last year at nearly exactly this same time when Syd signed to play at Fort Scott, this family gathered once again to celebrate Jackson's signing, as his high school coach and one of his college coaches looked on.

He also got one last picture with some of his high school teammates. . .

. . . as well as some future Wellsville Eagle ballers.

I've said it before, but these two have a GREAT role model to look up to in their cousin.

Of course, Joy had plenty of cake and cookies for everyone to enjoy after Jackson signed.

I couldn't be prouder of Jackson, and I am SO excited to watch him continue to play at the next level!

VIolet's Spring Field Trip

Violet was SO excited to get to take another field trip this spring.  And I was excited to go!  (Their fall field trip was "Day at the Farm" and parents aren't allowed to go on that one.)  This field trip began at the Ottawa University track for "Kansas Kids Fitness Day" where the college athletes had a dozen or so stations set up for the kids to get outside and get active.  Several of the stations involved water, and thankfully it was a warm day!  These first couple of pictures show their water relay race with a sponge.  It was pretty hilarious.

Then they had a water balloon toss.  Violet just kept trying to throw the balloon at poor Ms. Ashley!

Another water game they played was a variation of duck-duck-goose called "drip-drip-drench" -- these kids were pretty wet by the end of this one!

They had lots of other stations as well, with tug-of-war being a crowd favorite.  I'm not sure how much help Violet was to her team (although she DID come with a certain Ms. Jenny, who WAS a lot of help, so there's that).

It was a little windy, but all-in-all a beautiful morning to be outside playing.  It was great to see all of the college athletes interacting with the kids; a great time was had by all!  After a picnic lunch, we headed to the oldest operating theater in America, the Plaza Cinema.

Wellsville's third grade rented out the entire theater -- how cool is that??  Violet and Tatum sat ready for their movie to start.

All of the kids got their very own pop and popcorn, which I'm quite certain was Violet's favorite part.

Violet is getting so much better at sitting through movies.  We had a lot of fun watching "Babe" with all of her classmates.

Violet had been telling anyone who would listen "FIELD TRIP!!" for about 2 weeks leading up to the big day.  I'd say the day was a success!  I'm very thankful for all of the teachers to work hard to make fun memories for their students.

Spring Has Sprung!

We had a random day off school yesterday, and the spring weather was absolutely perfect!  We started our day with the boys (+ Matt) playing basketball and Evie making some beautiful artwork with sidewalk chalk.

We even had a picnic lunch outside because we didn't want to waste any of that sunshine.

We spent the afternoon at Celebration Park in Gardner, where we did lots of running, climbing, and playing.

Violet wanted to go for a walk, so we took a couple of laps around the little lake there.

Thank you God for beautiful spring weather and friends and family to enjoy it with!