Brandon's graduation party/open house was May 14. I spent a lot of time this past year thinking about details of the party. It was fun to gather photos and keepsakes from his life. Many friends came to celebrate with him. I know he felt really loved and honored.
Here are some pictures of the party...
These dear friends helped me set up and serve the food. I couldn't have done it without them!
We had a whole hog roasted in the yard and served pork sandwiches, beans, cheesy potatoes, slaw, fruit and veggies, and monster cookies for dessert.
This is the tent we rented in case of bad weather. We had bad weather: May 14 broke the record for the coldest daytime high temperature. It never even reached 50 degrees and there was drizzle a good part of the day. Some guests used the tent, but most milled around visiting inside where it was warm and cozy.
Remember these?
I grew oats to use as the centerpieces for the tables in the tent. All 12 buckets came up as thick clumps of grass/oats. The buckets were wrapped in burlap and tied with twine.
(Thank you to the friends who helped me!!!)
Each table had a runner of brown paper and crayons.
Our guests left Brandon some really cute messages!
This is the display table. Lots of fun things to see from his 18 years of life:
The week following the party, we attended the senior awards banquet, senior scholarship awards night, baccalaureate, a 5-8 grade band concert, high school state track meet, and then...
It was the weekend again and time for more grad parties and graduation. We were really glad we'd had our party early.
The graduation ceremony was wonderful. I love this picture...
Even some grandparents made it up for the graduation:
My oldest is now a high school graduate.
It brings a lot of emotion, although I expect that August is when I will feel the reality of it all. Sending one of my little birdies from the nest will not be easy for me.
I'm hoping that this summer is a time of fun memories for our family!
Today was the last day of school and we made our summer bucket list, but I'll save that for another post...
This was very cool. Hope you don't mind if I take some of your ideas and use them for our son who will be graduating this year. The last of our 4 kids and just wanting things to be very cool for him.
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Pretty sure no one will read this but...My 18 yr old granddaughter graduated and her mother and I are getting things ready for her party set for 2 weeks from now. The last 5 years or so has been very difficult for my daughter in regards to her daughter. They were super close, she was a super sweet child and then the teenage years hit and she appears to be the most distant child ever. She has gotten in to serious trouble in the past few months and my daughter and fiance have been doing EVERYTHING in their power to help my granddaughter, from counseling to tough love to patience.. That being said my daughter said that she herself isn't even happy to be doing this party, that its supposed to be a fun thing and it is not... My daughter needs to know that no matter what, she has done her best for her daughter and hopefully, one day my granddaughter will come to realize how much she is loved...
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