R.O.P.E.S. Ceremony

Today was a very special day...my son, Loren, graduated from elementary school. They had the R.O.P.E.S. Ceremony tonight at Scottish Rite Hall. R.O.P.E.S. stands for Rite Of Passage ExperienceS. Our elementary school ends after 5th grade and all of the 5th graders have to complete a R.O.P.E.S. project to graduate. Once the project is complete, they present it to a panel of judges on Powerpoint. They get a letter telling them whether they pass or not. Loren chose a 'Challenge' Project and learned to oil paint. He met an artist at a local gallery who agreed to give him a few lessons. He really enjoyed the hands-on portion (not particularly the written research report portion). We are SO very proud of his progress and effort in school...he is a self-motivated young man. They sang "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now" and also had a slideshow of their Now (Current) and Then (Baby) photos. All of the kids got a kick out of that. It was fun to hear about what each kid chose for their graduation project.

Then we let Loren pick his dinner restaurant of choice and he chose his favorite 'breakfast for dinner' location....International House of Pancakes! We celebrated his promotion and my mom's 66th birthday tonight with a carrot cake. It just so happened to also be our 13th wedding anniversary (also this month marks 18 years together). Talk about a night of celebrations and milestones!
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THIS BLIP PHOTO IS OF MY THREE BOYS...ALL EXCITED OVER LOREN'S PROMOTION...YOU CAN SEE THE SYMBOLIC ROPE AROUND HIS NECK IN HONOR OF THIS SPECIAL MILESTONE...MOVING ONTO MIDDLE SCHOOL.