Catching Up"

Well, I've received a couple of emails from people, or comments, asking about, or showing interest in, the Princess's Graduation and Grad Party.  Graduation went well.....I hesitate to show all the pics because so many of them have the name of her high school in them....so....here is one of the entire 441 seniors who earned diplomas.  There were actually 493 members of the S-----High School Senior Class 2011 but as you can see by doing the math, some of them did NOT graduate (usually because of moving half way thru the year, or being expelled, or failing either a Regents Exam or a course)  Here is a picture of the seniors.....it was way too hard to spot my daughter!  They sit in alphabetical order, minus the top 5% of the class (she was in the top 10% and earned the privelage of wearing the National Honor Society tassle, but for the March in and Seating, she was placed with the other "T's")

The S----High School Class or 2011
441 Seniors!c. F E MT Pics 6/25/11

Courtney on the right, with BFF Shauna on the left
Both girls made National Honor Society
Courtney will be going to a college in the Boston area
and Shauna will be going to college here in the Capital Region of NYS
we are so proud of them!!
c. F E MT Pics 6/25/11

After Graduation, we went home to change, and headed over to Shauna's grad party.  

Upon arriving home, we discovered the squirrel had broken in to our house again....so....we bought a trap and my husband caught and killed 3 of them, the 2nd one being the culprit.  UGH....we dislike rodents!!  It took me an entire day to clean up the mess it made and Dave had to replace two screens.  This all happened between both girls' graduations.  What a mess.....

For those of you who missed the Ballerina's news:  she graduated from elementary school on June 23rd.  It was great.....she received a Physical Fitness award and 3 Music awards for violin, NYSSMA, and All-District Chorus and Orchestra.  She made High Honor Roll receiving all A's for all 7 years of elementary school!  She is definitely ready for Junior High/7th grade and just found out that she was accepted into the Advanced English course.  We are very proud of her.....

Claire (on the left) with her good friend Kayla
B---H---Elementary School 6th Grade Graduation
c. F E MT Pics 6/23/11

Once school was officially over, we faced a week of Graduation Party Prep!

Here are a few highlights: (all pics are copyrighted to F E MT Pics 7/2011)

Party Prep....thank the Lord for tent rental companies!

Claire helps Courtney hang party streamers in the school colors!

Party Favors
Personalized M&M's that said "Class of 2011" or "Courtney"
in her school colors of Blue and White.
We placed a few mints in each white net bag.  Some netting had no drawstring
so we tied blue curling ribbon around them.
(we also added a Grad Cap Mint to each favor)

We decorated 4 dozen cupcakes the evening before the party.
My good friend from my small group (Carla) made the frosting!
these were a huge hit with the teens and little ones

PARTY DAY!!
9 JULY 2011
Each table had either a blue or white cloth on it, tied below by blue curling ribbon
I took 8 mason jars and placed blue/white marbles in each one
Add 3 gerbera  daisies, different color for each of the 8 tables.
we added plastic trays in the shape of grad caps and filled them with crackers
and a mozzarella cheese cube/cherry tomato on cute "class of 2011" toothpicks
enough for 4 people at each table

more treats

The Cake!
I hired a friend of ours who does cakes...she is phenomenal
This was a huge surprise...we expected just a fancy sheet cake.
Because Courtney is going into Graphic Design and Math,
she formed the cake into an artist's palette, and the blobs of paint were
all different symbols that represent Courtney.
on the side she wrote in icing"Congratulations, Courtney!"
"Class of 2011"
note the Gordon College seal!
Many thanks to Sabra......a very creative baker!!
and no...there was NO cake left over! :)

We were very tired by the end of the day....we had about 130 people stop in....the party was Open House style but most people stayed the entire 5 hours.  It was a fun party and thanks to the local deli, I didn't have that much to cook.  I did make Courtney's favorite pasta salad (2 lbs) and that was a hit, thank goodness!  We also had 3 different kinds of sandwich platters, an international meat/bread platter, a bread bowl/dip platter, 2 veggie platters and a good friend of mine from my small group (Monica) surprised me with a large fruit salad presented in a charming ceramic watermelon-shaped bowl.  The fruit was delightful!  We had various kinds of soda, waters, and lemonades, iced tea.  We even had an arts and crafts table set up, run by Claire and a few other 12 year olds from youth group, for my little nieces......a fun day was had by all!  Out of 225 people that were invited, almost all of them came! I did learn one thing...SEVERAL people/families do NOT know how to RSVP!!  We had "regrets only" and so many people ignored that.  We did learn many things about our first graduation party.......and the one thing we all concluded was:  people need to learn etiquette for responding to invites, and the deli platter idea is a GOOD one....also, it kept the cost down!!  We simply added bags of chips and sodas that I had bought throughout the month, on sale, (same with the water) and made the lemonade/teas into our own pitchers or drink coolers.  We did spend money on lots of ice but we needed it!  The temps got up to 84 that day but it was lovely....no humidity!!

So...that's basically what we've been doing around our house...over the Independence Day weekend, before the party, we enjoyed a day of kayaking and swimming at one of the local state parks....that was fun.....

and Courtney has been to several grad parties...we are still partying this weekend....my nephew (my next younger sis's son) also graduated from a high school (to the north of us) and his party is this weekend......

Claire and I enjoyed the NYC ballet last evening and plan on going again this weekend with friends.  We have a free pass for any classical event at SPAC until the summer of 2017 so this year we are taking advantage of it.

That's what's happening around our house.......

And today we get a lazy day.......reading, relaxing and enjoying the beautiful summer day the Lord has blessed us with....

what about you?? what's happening around your house???