Ben Graduates

Our vacation ended with a busy and fun weekend at home in Ohio. After a sweet reunion with our little man, we spent Saturday and Sunday celebrating the high school graduation of Steve's younger brother, Ben. His party was on Saturday afternoon--a beautiful, sunny day--and Elijah had a ton of fun playing with his cousin, Olivia. She's almost exactly a year younger than him, but finally big enough to keep up with him and play together--and he just adores her.

After the guests had gone, Steve filled up one of the drink tubs with water so the kids could splash around and cool off. Olivia thought that was just delightful...

...but Elijah wasn't a huge fan, deciding instead that it was much more fun to sit on the garage step and pour dirt all over himself :)

Then Olivia got in on the action (Elijah was all too glad to help her out by dumping dirt on her). Here I think someone is telling them to "brush it off":

Sunday afternoon was the actual graduation ceremony. We took the opportunity for some family photos beforehand:

Ben was an honor student, so he gave a speech at graduation. He was the comedian of the group who gave speeches (there were eight...oy) and even mentioned his sisters-IN-LAW. Michelle and I showed our thanks by embarrassing the tar out of him afterward. The look on his face was just priceless--we couldn't have staged it better:

Congratulations, Ben! We're proud of you and wishing you all the best as you start college this fall!