Yesterday Vann “graduated” with his Masters of Science in Communication from Northwestern University…well…almost, as he still has about six weeks of classes to complete!! For some reason, NU only has one ceremony, and yesterday was the day. It started out beautifully, and Auntie Em (my BFF who you frequently see on this blog) accompanied us to join in the celebration. Unfortunately, Charlie is going through a major Daddy phase and wasn’t happy unless Daddy was holding her. This wouldn’t have been a problem if Mommy was graduating…but luckily, Auntie Em took Charlie outside and played with her for most of the ceremony.

Although we certainly hadn’t recruited Emily as the babysitter, it did give the two of them the chance to spend a little time together and Mommy was able to catch all the speeches that Charlie wouldn’t have been able to sit through. They snuck in at the end, and it was so cute to see Charlie sitting in an auditorium seat like a big girl, although when she saw Vann walk across the stage and yelled, “Daddy, Daddy!!” at the top of her lungs, we knew it was time to go. At that point, it had really started to rain, and if you were in Chicago yesterday, you know what kind of rain I’m talking about. Let’s just say that we saw a lot of women with ruined shoes!! The School of Communications hosted this wonderful champagne brunch afterwards, but because of the monsoon, it was a muddy mess and all of that delicious food went to waste…we managed to down a couple slices of bagel and lox but were deterred by the huge puddles of mud that were collecting on the ground. Instead, we drove over to the Dixie Kitchen and had an amazing N’awlins-style brunch.