It's a Party! and they Cried cuz they Wanted to... (and because I was taking their pictures!)

Seth was graduating and you all know how much I love to throw a party! LOL, it was the perfect excuse for a big one!!! Although honestly I really wasn't much help in planning or putting this party on (Sorry Kylene!).  We kind of tried to do a mix of shabby-chic country with some Polynesian flare thrown in. LOL. Somewhat surprisingly it turned out looking quite lovely!

Seth and I didn't plan to have matching outfits, but on the day of when we both got there (Seth left a couple hours before me to go help cook while I  waited for our kiddos to wake up and then got them ready...) we found we matched, and our kids outfits looked pretty good with ours too! Picture moment!

Zeegan was wearing her brand new boots that she absolutely LOVES! and a shirt that I actually made for her! From scratch with no pattern! YAY!
Rocco and ZeeZee had a blast playing with their cousins while the adults all set up for the party. Zeegan doesn't look all that happy, but trust me; she was!

The party started, Fred played MC. He was pretty funny. I think it was a very special day for him...

 Seth got tons of leis! I got a couple too, but they were really itching my neck so I took them off (I found out later that that was really offensive to the people who had made the leis! I felt so bad!!!!)...

A bunch of Seth and My family came from all over. All the teenage cousins were turned into servers. We needed a bunch of servers because we had a BUNCH of food: We had BBQ Chicken, Fried Chicken (Seth's specialty), Ribs, and Tri-Tip for the meat. We also served Chop Suey, Taro, Corn-on-the-cob, Mac Salad, Potato Salad, Green Salad and Coleslaw. Plus a bunch of fresh fruit.

The professional Tahitian dance group that Seth's sisters are a part of is called Hitia'o'tera. The dancers came and put on a great show! It was really funny looking around during the Tahitian dancing at all our guests, because the ones who had never seen this type of dancing before had slack jaws and open mouths! I think they liked it! :)

 At the end of the show, the dancers go out into the Crowd and make people come up to dance with them! I think that just might be my favorite part...

My little brother Joe (on the far left) was HILARIOUS to watch! and so was Josh (on the far right)! They did pretty good though...

 Poor Josh had water all over his pants from a glass Makenna had spilled right before he got pulled up there.
He really got into the dancing! LOL. I took lots of pictures for Lauren to use as blackmail anytime she wants... :)

 The last crowd member pulled out to dance was Seth. This was fun for me because the last time I saw him dance was at our wedding...

After the dancing we served some AMAZING Texas sheet cake and custard for dessert! It was a big hit. We made enough of that stuff for 650 people, we had a turn-out of about 450 people and we didn't have an ounce of sheet cake leftover... :)

We had lots of friends, family (sad. my Family left before we got the camera out for pictures! They were all there! they made the drive from Utah with the 5 kids still living at hime...), and ward members there to celebrate with us! Thanks everyone for coming! We will miss you all over the next 5 years as we embark on our next adventure in Texas....

 While all the Great-Grandkids of Grandma Petersen's were in the same place at the same time, we snapped a couple pictures! This was the ONLY one that didn't have 2 or more kids crying in it...

Then Grammy Kylene wanted one of her grandkids and then with her grandkids. More crying involved...

 and then we got our picture moment with our Grumpy ZeeZee and Happy Rocco at the end of the party... 

It was a great day and a great way to celebrate Seth's great accomplishment!

Angels Game

The week after we got back to Redlands from Hawaii; Seth, Sammy, Jesse, Tim, Zachary, Josh, Rocco and Noah all went to an Angels baseball game in Anaheim. (ZeeZee and I stayed home from the boys night out and painted our toe nails and ate yummy treats and then went to a Relief Society activity...).  Rocco and Noah had SOOOO much fun! and kept talking about it after the fact. 

Rocco asked again and again if he could go again. So Seth jumped on stubhub and found some decent seats for pretty super cheap the week before we left. We called everyone in the family and told them to come too. They did! It was SOOO much fun. Only Jade and Nayse  (because they had already returned to Hawaii), Kevin (cuz it was too far of a drive for him to come), and Chris and Bronwyn (because their girls had ballet class that night) weren't able to come. 

The Angels lost the game, but we all had fun. Nettie got Rocco and Zeegan some "Rally Monkey's" that they still absolutely LOVE! Zeegan sleeps with hers every night... 

I didn't really get any good pictures that night cuz I only had my phone on me...

But I am so glad we did this as a family! Everyone had fun and it was a great last hurrah before we left California... Thanks Petersen families for being so wonderful and fun to hang out with, we miss you all like crazy!

The Hooding Ceremony

Okay, so Graduation weekend went like this: 

Thursday Night- Graduate and Spouse Dinner with Awards and slideshow of the past 4 years.

Friday Night- Hooding Ceremony for Graduates and Immediate Family members.

Saturday Day (SDA Sabbath so no activities planned)- We had a great big Graduation Party for Seth!

Sunday Morning (Our Sabbath; just to clarify since the announcement said that Saturday was our Sabbath)- Graduation!

I already blogged about Graduation, which was out of chronological order, but I needed to get my thoughts out while they were still fresh on my mind :)

Now I'll go back in time and tell you about the Hooding and we'll go from there on another day or night!

Friday night was the night the Graduates received their hoods, and those who had children during Medical school were recognized and given a special remembrance token. Because Zeegan was born during our 2nd year of med school, she had to wait outside with Daddy while Rocco and I went and sat inside.

 When Zeegan and Seth came inside they walked down a great big long aisle. At the end of the aisle was a stage and above the stage was a great big screen that was showing the graduates as they walked in. ZeeZee was SOOO excited to see herself on that great big screen! 

(PS- You may notice in the first picture that Zeegan looks all cute in the easter dress I made her and with her sweater, boots, and bow. Let me just point out that by the time they entered the chapel; she was missing all three!)

Rocco and I got to join Seth and Zeegan as they went on stage. Then the school peoples said a prayer and literally talked for about 15-20 minutes while we stood on stage. Whoever thought of having the kids and their parents stand up there through all that obviously doesn't have kids! LOL. 

I do love this picture of Rocco kneeling on the Hooding stool as he waited and waited and waited for the Dean to finish speaking. 

("All this attention is exhausting!").  

Maybe one day he'll be kneeling on one of those again with us once more standing behind him!

 They gave each student, with a child born during Med school, a silver cup that had the student's name and their child's name engraved on it. That will be something neat to pass on to Zeegan when she grows up...

 Zeegan and Makenna were born exactly one month apart, so we were placed next to each other. ZZ was happy to have her best friend there to play with while we waited for all the cups to be handed out.

 Zeegan was playing with Makenna and kind of missed our only family picture of the night! Then both kids started acting out real bad and my little brother Joe who was kind enough to come along just in case something like this happened, took Rocco and ZeeZee outside to play until after the hooding...

I once again brought my big camera with the hard to use lens and most the pictures that were taken with it ended up blurry. I've really got to stop bringing that lens when others will be taking the pictures! Thank you so much Grandma for trying!!!!

 I know I look terrible and have a triple chin in this picture, it is the one the school took and it is unfortunately the only one we have to document this exciting moment...

Blurry one of the same moment: I think I look better in this one! lol...

After Hooding Seth, Grammy Kylene took Joe and the kids to the cafeteria and then up to her office until the ceremony was over... This is what we found when we got up there! It was obviously a good night for the whole family :)

Oh Man! These two kids are sure cute!!!

PS-  NO! I am not pregnant! It is the cut of the dress and the layer of fat I have resting on my abdomen! LOL. and Yes, I know I'm wearing the same dress I wore to graduation! I really loved it that much until I saw how pregnant I look in the pictures. Actually, I still LOVE it that much.