One thing I love to do is plan a good party or vacation. So of course I had to do both for my daughter's graduation especially after her junior and senior year were interrupted due to the pandemic. I see several post asking for graduation party and trip ideas so I am including that in this blog as well for those who are interested.
THE PARTY
The party was smaller than I originally envisioned as again I'm a planner so I booked the facility before the pandemic and because of the pandemic we cut back and only immediate family members were able to attend (less than 20 people). Family came in to town on Friday afternoon and stayed at the AirBnB until Sunday afternoon.
The graduation was on Friday and each family was able to set up a table in the gym that represented their child.
Saturday was our family party which included outdoor activities, a BBQ lunch (pulled pork, pulled chicken, chicken wings, green beans, collard greens, mac & cheese, basked beans, texas toast, coleslaw, pasta salad, and garden salad. That evening we had a s'mores bar set up at the fire pit.
I'm definitely thankful for our family gathering as due to the pandemic we rarely saw our family as we normally would visit them, out of town, atleast once or twice a month. Due to the pandemic we had only seen them at Christmas when we drove to drop off everyone's gifts and then in May at my daughter's playoff soccer game. Two months after graduation our aunt contracted Covid and passed away so I am so thankful for the playoff soccer game and graduation so that we could see her again.
PARTY FAVORS
A gift bag was made for each family that attended. It included the following items: *Post it notepad with the high school logo/name of school/graduation year (Vistaprint)
*Ink pen with the same information as the post it notepad (Vistaprint)
*Tumbler with the high school logo (Discount Mugs)
*Coffee mug with the high school logo (Discount Mugs - I've ordered from them a couple of times for work and communication hasn't been the best with them and some items don't arrive on time as they were not shipped by the promised by date even with rush order processing. I usually only order from them if they are offering a sale. Just a heads up!).
*Yearbook - a 63 page yearbook that I made for each person. The yearbook included some of the following:
*Inspirational Quotes
*Facts and photos about her high school
*Pre-school graduation photo
*a page for each grade (K-12) that included individual school pictures, class picture, teachers names and schedule.
*Senior pictures
*Graduation pictures
*School dance photos
*First day of school photos from K-12
*Awards
*Soccer photos and stats from middle and high school
*College art portfolio
*Back in 2008 (when she started high school - things that were in style, popular tv shows, music, songs, what was in the news, who were the best sporting teams, etc...)
*My daughters favorite things
*Years in review - a timeline of popular events that occurred every year that she was in school
*Map of where her and her friends have travelled to together
*School field trips from K to high school
*Concert Review (one of my daughter's favorite things to do is attend concerts and so two pages were dedicated to concert photos, which artists she's seen the most, where we've traveled to for concerts, etc...)
*A family tree with photos of my child with different family members
*College visits
*Colleges she was accepted to and their scholarship offers
*College announcement of the college she will attend
*Stats about the college she selected
*Senior group class picture
*Pictures throughout the years at school
THE TRIP
Two days after graduation my daughter, six of her friends and myself flew to Los Angeles to spend a few days. While in Los Angeles we took a private tour to some of the most famous and iconic LA sites. After a few days in LA we were off to Maui, Hawaii where we enjoyed the Road to Hana, a luau and spending time at the beach and our resort. The girls made memories that they will always cherish.
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