Joe graduates from the eighth grade. Look out Fordham Prep!

First, the good news on Joe’s honors mathematics final exam. After a bit of a debacle, including getting 24% one week earlier on a quadratic equation test Tom Faranda’s Folly: Joe Faranda, math and Fordham Prep he got 93% on the final (thank you Bev Milich). As his math teacher Mrs. Kwan wrote in his yearbook, “You saved the best for last.” Of course there are other less delicate ways to express that sentiment…

Thursday evening the school had a very nice “Baccalaureate Mass” and then a dinner just for the students and their parents. That’s when they got their yearbooks and at the dinner there was a very good “video yearbook” that was shown. Very amusing and at times touching. Many of the students have been at the school since pre- Kindergarten. Joe was at St. Augustine’s for ten years.

Here are a few pictures (actually more then a few) from Thursday evening – some before Mass, and the milling around and picture-taking after Mass and before the dinner. And then some from the graduation on Friday evening.

Well, this one is Joe getting off the bus for the last time Thursday! Brigid took it.

Some of “the lads”, outside of the Church –

Here’s Joe processing out of Church after Mass. I guess they were told to look serious!

Post – Mass Hen Party!

A few more group photos

Here are many of the students from the two eighth grade classes

this is the Valedictorian – more on her later

And here’s the Associate Pastor, in his last act at St. Augustine’s, giving the commencement

At the end of the graduation ceremony, both classes assembled on the stage and sang. It was really quite cool –

Here’s Joe with Fr. Dunn, who I wrote about here a few days ago – Tom Faranda’s Folly: A report on a good priest

Joe and the Valedictorian, who it turns out is a good friend of his! 

and Tim and Joe, outside after the graduation

Typical mug shots for the boys, neither of whom cooperate (esp. Joe!) when it comes time for Dad to take some pictures! By the way, in the middle of my putting up this posting, Joe came into the room, looked at what I was doing and said “Dad, aren’t I entitled to a private life?”