For Those of You Who Couldn’t Make it to the Open House

Our last big “tado” for the spring was having a graduation open house for Daniel and Joel. For all you who live in faraway places, here are a few pictures. This is Joel’s picture table:

And here is Daniel’s table. He didn’t have time to help me organize picture boards, but he had a DVD of the slide show that he and Brianna showed at their wedding:

And, here’s the cake. Our family favorite celebration cake (for large groups) is the Dutch Chocolate Torte from Arnie’s Bakery:

I was a little disappointed by the turnout, but given that there were 8 known open houses for the kids on this particular Saturday afternoon ( 19 kids from our chapel graduated from something this spring!), I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised.

We really did enjoy the great group of friends who did show up to wish the kids well!

And, Joel’s very favorite friends, affectionately known as the “Splendid Seven,” stayed until the wee hours playing volleyball, swimming, and watching a marvelous old spy film (based on a true story) called Five Fingers.

From left to right: Joel, Stephen, Steve Cooper, Christian Mundweiler, John Cooper, Jessie Scherer, Olivia Mundweiler, and Katie Cooper.

I realize that makes 8, not 7, but Jessie is a cousin of the Coopers and also comes over to our home every week for a Bible study with me, so she stayed this particular night too. When Alan and I were in high school, we ran around with a group of seven kids affectionately known at the “General Principles,” because we did everything “on general principles.” Joel’s group is really made up of friends from three home schooling families from our chapel, and I am so happy that these really awesome young people like to hang out together! Each one is a treasure. So, Joel wasn’t disappointed that a zillion people didn’t come, and we all had a wonderful time. Aren’t friends the greatest?