Almost a Graduate

Here's my amazingly talented niece on her final day before becoming a high school graduate. To prepare for tomorrow's graduation ceremony, we went to the nail salon to pick out a sassy new color -- a summery, robin's egg blue was the final choice.

Beneath this youthful, girlish smirk lies a very driven, focused, and competitive young woman with a string of music and academic awards to her name. And she never even breaks a sweat! Some people! After this summer she'll pack her bags and ship off to the "Windy City" to attend the University of Chicago, studying either economics or medicine, or who knows, maybe something else altogether??

For now, we enjoyed a leisurely day together (while her folks were at work) and made a big batch of energy bars later in the evening (dates, coconut, almonds and nothing more, yum).