Farewell to Trinity...Sniff, Sniff!

Our youngest has kept us busy this week with the final parties and assemblies for his graduation from Trinity Junior High School.  He allowed me to participate in helping prepare for the end of the year pool party and prom...I think he realizes that this is the end of mom's volunteering for the past 16  years in Catholic Schools and I am grateful he did. 

 It has been a true joy to spend time with the kids, their teachers and the many parents who have stepped forward in a thousand ways to make sure that the kids had all of their needs taken care of...they have all made such a difference in our boys' lives.

On Friday, they had a great time at the pool party!

Sunday was busy...we started with the Academic Awards Banquet at 5 pm.  These table decorations may look familiar...I created them for the same function for the school's class of 2010 and they continue to be refreshed and serve. 

We were wonderfully surprised and proud when Michael's name was called out for 

the Trinity Advantage Award...especially his Dad!

After the banquet came the prom...

More on that affair on another post!

Graduation was a few days later...and this proud Mama only managed to take a few pictures of the ceremony because she wanted to be sure to have enough memory on her cell phone to record his graduation speech on "Challenges."  He did a great job and we are always proud of him and his brother.

After the ceremony is crazy town... trying to grab him long enough to get a picture of the family because his friends want him in theirs as well.  

His friends are fine young men and some are going to other schools.  That's the sad part about growing up and moving on.  They have been classmates since they were "wee high."

Friends celebrated afterwards at a spot downtown...

We are going to miss Trinity, Immaculate Conception School and our wonderful Catholic school system in Fort Smith.  It's been a real pleasure and blessing.

Graduation Decoration

I did a little decorating for my friend while she was busy decorating and organizing her son's big after graduation party for 500 kids!  I started at the nursery to get pinks and purples for her flower pots at the front door and the deck planters.

 Here's the front door planters...

and the deck planters...so happy!  I love all the texture and colors.

We kept things simple with graduation portraits.  He's one of my all time favorite kids...has the biggest heart, loves to have fun and is known far and wide for his Go-Pro and Selfie Stick.  He takes selfies with groups ('cause he's not vain...he just likes to capture the fun on film, er...digital files, that is.)  There's a selfie that he took at a football game with the the principal and student body behind him and one with the family on the beach right behind the goodies!

After his graduation, his parents were up all night working graduation after party and then came home to pack up the family to leave for vacation the next day...so, we kept it simple...paper and plastic, easy throw away stuff!

I made little pennants with the names of all the schools he had attended (pre-k to college) and tucked them in the flowers.

I hung Go-Pro selfies from his senior year and many travels on the china cabinet (waiting for crown and doors to be installed!) glass panes...

 and hung a simple pennant banner congratulating Mr. Go-Pro!

 Lastly, I made a goodie bag for the family to take to the graduation with champagne poppers and large head fans to wave at him when he crossed his tassel!  Congratulations Go-Pro Guy!

Digital Decorations…

I received a text from a fellow junior high mom that she was just told that she was in charge of table decorations for the 9th grade graduation reception and they didn’t have a lot of money. Oh, and she needs to make about 30 of these!

I’m all for not spending lots of bucks on decorations and then recycling them whenever possible. There’s so much waste on something that most people won’t even remember an hour after they had to sit there and look at it for 60 minutes… much less the following year.

Paper and cardstock are great options for decorations and especially if your school will help you with the printing and maybe even the manpower to cut out the shapes and images, gluing things together and assembly line production from careful students.

I suggested that they reuse some clay pots the school had spray painted silver and make an accordion pleated sleeve from cardstock to camouflage. I created a mortar board and diploma from paper and hot glued them to skewers found at Wally World. The pic below was just a prototype but I included the school’s logo, the class year, etc. and made each one two sided. I also took chenille stems and twirled them around a pencil and took shredded paper and used to cover up the pot. The skewers are anchored in the pot with newspaper.