Graduation Day

Andy graduated a few weeks ago.  We had a great time celebrating with family including our parents, Andy's aunt, my sister and niece, and Andy's brother and sister-in-law.

The Baccalaureate Mass was beautiful.  Philip did a pretty good job getting through it, especially considering the short nap he had that day.

Cookies afterwards made everything better

The weather was beautiful on graduation day, which was great because it was outdoors!

My Dad caught Andy in the procession

Cardinal Dolan was the speaker - he was great!

All of the doctoral students had their names called out and they were able to stand on the stage for the last part of the ceremony.  Can you find Andy? Hint:  Look under the red arrow.

After the big graduation, we went to the smaller school ceremony for graduate students.   It was a really beautiful and intimate ceremony.  Each doctoral student had the name of their dissertation read out before receiving their diploma.

First time I saw Andy all day since we arrived.  Philip really liked the tassel on his cap.

My sister and niece - finally time to play!

Andy with his proud Mom...

and proud Dad.

Love this

Here come the family pics:

With my sister and niece

Andy's parents

Andy's aunt

My parents

Afterwards we all came back to our house to party!  We catered food from one of our favorite restaurants and enjoyed hanging out on the deck.

Can you guess what Andy's graduation gift is?  All of our family pitched in to help buy him a new electric guitar - due to arrive sometime mid-June!

The kiddos had fun playing Andy's acoustic

Olivia dove head first into the cookie cake

What is everyone looking at?

It is hard to believe that graduation has already come and gone (and he defended over three months ago)!  We had a great time celebrating with family and also many of our friends who also graduated this year.  God is good!