Graduation Party

It is PARTY TIME! 

The house is decorated and could not be more perfect!  The slideshow was playing with some awesome music!  Thanks Max for pulling the slideshow together!  It was wonderful! 

The Popcorn Bar is ready! 

And super cute....never mind that I thought we would need 10 big bags of popcorn and we only used two.  Details, details, details! 

Speaking of details...look at this little jar of Smarties with this cute sign. 

The cake was un-boxed! 

The guests of honor were dressed and ready!  This is the only picture I got with the four of them in the same shot!  The gorgeous girl in the picture is Carlos' girlfriend. She is also a graduating Senior.  Happy smiles all around. 

Family shot! 

Another.

Proud parents. 

Moms loving on their boys.  I know someone took a picture of me and Tyler, but I have no idea what camera it ended up on.  There were a TON of cameras in action all afternoon. 

The Street Taco guys showed up and set up.  It was a great operation.  They brought with them a 75 pound rack of deliciously seasoned pork (the orange beehive looking thing in the picture)!  The meat was rotating on this big giant rotisserie and they shaved bits of meat off with a knife as it was needed and served it up with these small corn tortillas, topped with a combo of pineapple, onions and cilantro.  They had several salsa choices to put on your tacos that were outstanding.  For a "come and go" event that lasted five hours it was a perfect choice.  Everything was served piping hot because they shaved off the meat as it was needed.  

The food was a huge hit and I would highly recommend these guys to anyone. 

Guests started arriving and Tyler was happy to have some of his theatre buds show up. 

The little brothers warmed up the Photo Booth. 

The food smelled great and people started getting in line to try it out. 

Beautiful little tacos with a huge punch of flavor. 

They also brought beans and rice.  We had tons of appetizers like cheeseballs, dips, cheese and crackers, fruit kabobs, chips and salsa.  So much food!  

Marcela and Cindy are happy the party is underway! 

Chip chillaxing by the pool! 

Anna and Kaitlyn continued to help at the party along with their friend Sara Beth.  

They took tons of pictures with Cindy's very cool old school Polaroid camera.  

Such a fun idea and the pictures turned out great! 

Within an hour the place with crawling with people!  

Beth and Tony were there! 

Hubby entertaining some of the young guys. 

Beth and Tyler.  Man has he grown since she first laid eyes on him as a four year old! 

Chip had to get in on the Ms. Beth action! 

My turn!  She is and has been such a wonderful friend to me and I sure do love her! 

Hanging out in the sunroom!   

This house has so many wonderful seating areas and people were able to spread out and not be crowded at all.  Fantastic! 

Fun in the photo booth.

Photo bomb.

The boys from the neighborhood were all there.  So awesome to see what fine young men they have turned into.  How blessed we are! 

Hanging with friends.

Peggy and Cindy! 

Peggy, Clay and the cutest little patootie ever.  His name is Grey and I wanted to take him home. 

Jake arrived.  Now the party can start! 

Let's cute the cake! 

Anna and Allie are here!  Great girls!  

Allie is Tyler's friend that is also going to ASU!  

Sun Devils are getting some of the best kids Round Rock has to offer! 

The Vasquez clan hanging in the sunroom.  

Tyler getting in line for another round of tacos. 

Ms. Conner dropped by for a visit. 

More guests enjoying the beautiful weather. 

Tyler's theatre gang.  Can theatre kids be called a gang?  Probably not.  Let's call them his theatre posse!   No, that probably isn't right either.  How about his theatre troupe?   No, too formal.  

They are his peeps.  That is what they are....his peeps.  

Tyler had to leave his party early to go direct a play at school!  It was so nice of our friends to change the party time so he could attend for the first three hours.  He had a great time. 

The party went on without him. 

Me and my sweet Chip! 

Dad and Chip.

Who's party is this anyway? 

Love this picture of Cindy, her sister Susan and their beautiful mother, Tita!  

Lovely women inside and out. 

The Templetons (minus BJ) came by! 

Street tacos are a huge hit and the beehive of meat is getting smaller. 

Fun in the photo booth with some beautiful young women.  I think the "I'm With Stupid" made an appearance in almost every single shot! 

Me and Nancy.  Just a sweet and precious friend. 

Me and Hubby!  

There were about six takes of this picture before he would stop rolling his eyes back in his head of sticking his tongue out.  Behave! 

The Templeton kids getting in on the action. 

Sunroom pow wow!  

Things winding down.  Ryan and John still have big smiles for the camera! 

Clay is thrilled that he gets to share his chair!   

Love this picture!  Peggy and Ryan and Marcela and Carlos!  

Then they were photo bombed!

Sweet neighborhood mommas!  These gals are just the best and I am so happy we are raising our kids together!  It takes a village and this is an amazing village! 

Me and my girls.  We had so much fun!  

I think that is the sign of a party well done, when the hosts have as much fun as the guests!  

Blessed, blessed, blessed.  

Two weeks from yesterday these boys walk across the stage to get their high school diplomas and begin the next chapter of their lives. 

We need the boys to all graduate from college at the same time so we can do it again! 

Hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures from the party.  

Now, moving on to the next thing...Chip's birthday!  My boy is going to be 12 on Thursday!   

Graduation Party Pre-Prep.....Let's Do This!!!

Saturday was the big day!   It was Graduation Party day!  Marcela and Tony were wonderful enough to let us have the party at their home.  Thieir house is gorgeous and feels like it was just built for a party!  

We arrived bright and early in the morning, bringing in all of our decorations and party supplies. 

We found the perfect spot for the big graduation sign...right above the fire place.  It looked so cute with all their pictures! 

The cake was unveiled!  Great picture of the four graduates! 

We set up a long table in front of the RRHS sign and added card boxes, pennants, and a cute board with pictures of each boy from Kinder through 12th grade.  Also note the big screen to the right - that is where the slide show will be playing! 

The dining room before.

We set up tables all over the backyard. 

Trying to figure out where everything will go outside. 

The kitchen help!  Jack's sweet grandma and Jack and Carlos's baby sisters, Kaitlyn and Anna.  They were so helpful all day long!  Sweet Anna even made us breakfast tacos! 

The balloon crew arrived about 9:00 a.m. and we put them to work.  Please note Carlos is missing as he had a training class he had to attend on Saturday morning.  These are four busy boys....dang near impossible to get them in the same room for more than five minutes! 

We are making progress!  Would you look at Cindy trying to avoid this picture!  That silly girl!  She had no idea how many photos I was going to take yesterday!  I told her this one would definitely make the photo album and that I would tell everyone a bomb went off and she was running for cover!  

If you try to avoid being in pictures then we will just have to take some more!  That is the rule!  

Here are my sweet friends...from the right...Peggy (Ryan's Mom), Marcela (Carlos' Mom), Cindy (Jack's Mom) and me!   How blessed I am to have these girls as friends and for Tyler to have their sons as his friends.  You just could not find nicer families.  

The balloon crew was working in the game room and it sounded like screeching and gunshots!  It took these boys a little while to figure out the helium tank, tying balloons and NOT popping them!  We helped for a few minutes and it was a circus. 

Fifteen people, fifteen minutes and this is all we had to show for it!  We should have been here at 6:00 a.m.!!  Let's hope the boys can get into a rhythm and get some balloons inflated! 

We made a cake table right inside the front door!  

The kitchen crew made 8,000 fruit skewers!  

The boys eventually figured out the balloon method and made excellent progress.  They are smart.  That is why they are going on to college. 

Now, where are we going to put them? 

We started putting them EVERYWHERE! 

We had some balloons try to escape into the high ceilings!  We enlisted Tyler to climb a ladder, leap into the air and return the balloons!  He was called into action quite a bit!  Thanks for being so tall and jumpy! 

The main table is looking pretty good! 

Cindy had these three pictures of our boys framed and put out on the piano.  Fifth grade graduation, freshman year and senior year. WAHHHHHH!!! 

The grounds outside were shaping up nicely as well!  Here is the Photo Booth table. 

We found a great spot to put up the backdrop!  Another easy cheesy wonder made of a piece of cardboard and some plastic tablecloths! 

The weather was absolutely spectacular....just about 80 degrees and sunny!  We could not have asked for a more beautiful afternoon to have a party. 

There was plenty of shade in the gorgeous backyard. 

Looks pretty good.  

Very festive. 

Carlos...headed to Texas Tech. 

Ryan....headed to ASU.

Jack....headed to the Naval Academy. 

Tyler....headed to ASU.

Lots of planning went into pulling off this Graduation Open House!  

The girls taking a break.  Such wonderful helpers with such happy hearts! 

The guests of honor! 

Fast friends.  

Now everyone go home, get cleaned up and let's have a party!  

Can't wait to share the party pictures with you!  

Coming up next! 

Weekend Projects

We have had some beautiful weather around these parts lately and have spent a couple of weekends on some big projects.  First and foremost - the reclaiming of the backyard.  

Holy Moly!  It was an absolute jungle out there.  Here is the only before picture that I have because I was mortified and overwhelmed by the sheer volume of weeds and grass (and one bad ass trumpet vine) that had overtaken our fence and flower beds. 

It took hours and hours.

And it looked worse and worse.

Until we made some real progress. 

Three garbage cans and twelve giant garbage bags of refuse and finally we can breath! 

Another twenty five bags of mulch.

A little elbow grease, sweat, cuts, scrapes, sore muscles for the entire family.  Well, except for Astro.  He didn't do a thing but eat sticks, rocks and race back and forth barking at the neighborhood dogs. 

Shockingly enough, now we find ourselves out in the backyard on the daily.  We even bought a bird feeder and have thoroughly enjoyed watching our sweet feathered visitors.  One bird feeder and we now lovingly call the backyard a Bird Sanctuary.  Some nerve, right?  Ha!

As part of the yard revamp - we also spruced up the front flower beds.  After the plantings we got some good rain so hopefully everything will take and prosper in the coming weeks.

Yellow flowers to match my yellow wreath.  Looks so fresh and spring like!  Summer is coming!  

The boys worked hard for Mother's Day!  It was so appreciated. 

In addition to the outdoor projects, I have been working on a few things for an upcoming graduation celebration.  Check out my crafty crafts!  

Cut out giant foam board letters of the High School.

There are four boys having the party together so I made a letter for each one.  This is Harry's.  All black and white photos.

Here are the letters for each of the guys! 

The final project mounted on a giant piece of cardboard!  I love the way it looks and that it is personalized for each of the boys!  

It is going to be a great celebration for some really great kids and their families.  We watched a preview of the slide show that will play at the party and I didn't cry!  But I wanted to!  I will take tons of pictures of the party I am sure, so look for more graduation party fun from me!   It is going to be a blast! 

P.S.  Thanks to all of you that raised your hands in the last posts!!!  It was great to hear from you!!! 

Stuck In An Endless Loop

I am stuck in an endless loop.  The graduation loop.  The one where I can't go ten minutes without having some thought, action item, worry, feeling, sweet memory about Harry and his upcoming graduation.

I think it has something to do with my dining room table.  It looks like this:

Pictures of Harry everywhere!  There are posters being made...slideshows being pulled together....other cute and fabulous things celebrating Harry.  After my eighth trip to the Walgreens Photo Department yesterday I grabbed this:

It really helped!   And I have cleaned off the table...that has helped too!

SIDE NOTE, TOTALLY NOT RELATED TO ANYTHING:  This is my 704th post.  That is a lot!  Raise your hand if you have read them all!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!