Sunday afternoon was our daughter's Graduation Open House. Luckily, the weather was perfect. The planning and prepping was a real blast for us. Want to take a peek?
Last minute effort, but these signs were as you walked up the driveway...to direct guests to the backyard. Those are repositionable decals with r hinestones on the corner s (frames added to huge cardstock and added to stakes). We will prolly remove them and put in her dorm room in the fall. There is a big banner with her photo on it on the garage door in the background.
My parents and sister were here all weekend. It was SO great to spend time with them. They were such a big help, too!!
Sassy setting up the candy island in the backyard.
She wanted black, white and pinks everythings. So that's what she got! She also wanted Gerbrera daisies, so those were the table centerpieces. These colors and those flowers have become her trademark over the last couple years.
M&M's on each table and cameras. Can't wait to see those pix!
She picked the phrases on the M & M's.
I got pix of some of the food but not all of it. Of course.
The coconut macaroons were delicious!! So fresh!! They were from Dill Pickle Bakery and so were some of the other cookies (top tier). The black and white cookies are a family favorite from Whole Foods. Always tasty.
Aren't these monogrammed cookies just adorable? I ordered them here.
All of this was for dipping into the chocolate fountain. We had other small sandwiches and yummies, too...just no pix to share. Oh well.
Big surprise...the little people loved the candy island. So did the teens. I even noticed some grown ups nibbling.
The handmade fortune cookies were lots of fun! There were custom fortunes inside that said: "You will wish her congratulations", "There is cake in your future", "Fortune favors the brave", and "You wish you were in the class of 2009"...I forget what else. Silly though and brought lots and lots of smiles.
Hard to tell here, but this was a double layer half sheet chocolate cake. It was soooo heavy and we have sooo much left over. Goodness.
Inside we had her graduation shrine area. All the kids do this around here. This is a close up, but all her certificates, medals, scrapbooks, and awards were all over this table. Later we took parts of it outside.
She's a big Life is Good fan and picked this book to have her guests sign. Turned out great. Especially since their yearbooks aren't handed out until this August...and so by then she won't have a chance to get it signed by her pals. I loved doing that in high school...didn't you? Her family, friends, teammates and coaches all signed it at the open house.
That sweet Jessi recently surprised her with this scrabble tile love adorned with all of her favorite things. Jessi sells them on her Etsy site. So cute isn't it? So we had to have it out, too! Thank you Jessi!
The hostess with her grandparents. All smiles!
Baby girl and I. You can see parts of the huge pom pom flowers hanging from the trees in these pix. They are so popular right now. I got them at PomLove. Really inexpensive I thought, and you can pick from a lot of colors. There were actually two styles of flowers and all the poms were different sizes. Maybe she will hang these somewhere in her bedroom?? Who knows. They'd be fun in my studio, too.
Here are just a few of the smiles from the afternoon...
Hostess with friends
My sister, Sassy...who I miss a lot right now.
Little Miss Bridget, my adorable niece!
The boys...who played basketball and football most of the afternoon.
A few more friends.
Dad and his brothers.
Little brother into the candy again...
Here's Grandma and the Grad as she's getting ready to go to some of her friend's open houses for what was left of the afternoon. In the background though, you can see some of the huge vintage fabric pennants hanging. I had a few of these and was able to get them any size. This one was huge. Again, inexpensive...and totally worth it. I ordered them at Jump and Down. Fabulous!
So that was our very special afternoon with family and friends. Wish it wasn't over! Wait, yes I do. Well, no I don't. Bittersweet emotions around here lately!
If you are planning any parties this summer, maybe I gave you a few good source and/or ideas! I feel another Shutterfly book coming on. I sure could fill a book fast with this one week's worth of events!
