U MD Graduation

Today was college graduation day for Robert and Gino. The whole family joined the dinner celebration last night in Rockville and today Ellie accompanied me to the 3 hour graduation ceremony. She was such a champ. She was well behaved. She sat still and played on my iphone, ate her snacky lunch, and drew in a little notebook for over 2 hours. The last 30 minutes were slightly challenging, but once the streamers started flying, they entertained her. Everyone was impressed with how she sat there and pleasantly entertained herself.

Near the end of the ceremony I was holding Ellie and asked her if she wanted to come to U MD one day and go to college. She quickly replied No. I asked innocently, Why, do you want to go to VT instead? No she says. After a few minutes she says, I'll go here Mommy.
It's cute becuase I think the struggle is really she still can't imagine a day where she will live apart from me. How sweet. I love this phase. I hope she always wants to be near me (like Katie and my Mom).
I was hoping she would pick up something from the atmosphere and the speakers. I'm not sure how much she was listening. I was listening. It was a great ceremony. I think everyone should attend a college graduation with inspirational speakers once a decade to remind us that the world really is at our fingertips and inspire us to truly do good in the world and be our best.
There was never a doubt in my mind Robert and Gino would graduate, with honors and will go on to do great things. And, it was great to be apart of celebrating another fantastic milestone with them!