Congratulations Diya!

After four years at D'Evelyn High School, my daughter graduated as Salutatorian of her class.  Her graduation outfit includes a plethora of cords including National Honor Society, AP Physics, AP Literature, Mu Alpha Theta (math honor society), Tri-M (Choir, Band, Orchestra honor society), Mock Trial and a couple of others.  She was fortunate to enjoy many activities, to the point that I had a hard time keeping up.

I know she also did Girls Mentoring, Sources of Strength, supported the Spring Musical in the booth (2023), the pit (orchestra, 2024), and as a stage hand (2025), ran track & field for two seasons and was active in her community as well.  She joined the officer ranks of Civil Air Patrol and did a couple of short flights with them.

It was an exciting week that started off on Tuesday with the Track & Field Banquet.  Seniors were recognized and several athletes qualified for the State Meet.  Diya gave a speech for Coach Anthony that was well received.

Wednesday night was the Senior Banquet with speeches, scholarship announcements and a wonderful video montage.  

Friday night we were double booked.  I attended the Tennis Banquet with my 10th grader, while my wife and 12th grader hosted a dinner at the Olive Garden.  

The Tennis Banquet did a great job of recognizing the Varsity and Junior Varsity teams.  The speeches seemed to go on forever, but were very well done.  I always like the food and service at the Mount Vernon Country Club and this event was no exception.

The Olive Garden was for out of town guests which included:

Sameep and Ruchi with kids

Priya, Vikram, Rohan, Ishan

Simi and Danny with kids

Monank and Roshni with Veer

Raj and Nancy with kids

Toral and family plus one

Mom

Dad

Saturday morning was the graduation ceremony and most of the family all came out for that.  I was a little surprised as I struggle through two hour events when it is my own kid, much less a cousin, niece, etc.

Saturday afternoon was an open house and my far the best attended event of the weekend.  We decorated the house with balloons, streamers and graduation specific items.  Food was catered from a number of places including:

South Indian from Masala's

Samosa's from Meena's

Chicken from Popeye's

Desserts from Costco and King Soopers

Cheese Tray, Veggie Trays, Fruit Platter

We also had soft drinks, beer, lemonade and chai tea on hand.

Guests included the (26) family, (30ish) friends from the Denver Metro Area, Mafwa, Mirna, Pendleys, (10ish) neighbors, (30ish) of Diya school friends, family and teachers.

Rarely is a 100 person event an easy adventure, but without hired help it was everything I could do to say hi to folks, keep taking trash out and check the toilet paper in the bathrooms.

Saturday night was dinner at Jamie's Mexican restaurant.  This was much more relaxed with about 30ish attendees and we could enjoy good food and margaritas.

Sunday lunch was the final event which was again catered by Meena's for Diya's birthday, Nana's birthday and our anniversary.  We had rice, daal, channa, paalak and naan.  The food was excellent and again since it was a low key affair, easy to eat and enjoy.

Other rentals included tables, chairs and drink dispenser.  

Being graduation weekend our daughters also attended nearly a dozen other parties as several events were going on this weekend and will continue to go the next couple of weekends.

I will probably update this a number of times, but wanted to get a baseline drafted.