Sunday, June 12, 2011

It's My Party

Another milestone in our life has happened.
Our youngest son has graduated High School.
Yes, I still call him the baby.
It was a very exciting night!
We are very proud of him.
Was he the valedictorian? No.
Did he have the highest grade point average? No.
Was he the Homecoming King? No.
Did he put in the most volunteer hours for the Fight against cancer? No.
But, to us we just couldn't be prouder. He did it. He overcame obstacles. He stuck with it. He remainded faithful. He is our boy and we love him!
We celebrated this past weekend with a party for him with family and friends! I thought you might like to see some of the party. Maybe one day you'll need some ideas for a party like this for your baby, too.
Warning: Lots and lots of photos ahead. And some are blurry because I was a bit distracted with getting things ready in time.
A sign in banner on the door for everyone to give Zac good wishes.
The front entrance says party! And look at the pretty little hostess with the mostest!
These look really nice at night with candles lit. The red buckets have star cut outs on them. Got them in the dollar bin at Target. ( Tar-jay)
I did a little memory table on the piano. His diploma. ( it's actually blank, they pick them up sometime this week from school) His tassel. His Leon Baseball hat. His medal from winning the Tropicana Speech Contest in the 5th grade. His baseball medal from getting Player of the game at a ball tournament. His kindergarten lunchbox. ( dinosaur) Some newspaper clippings of his baseball sucesses. And some photos.
I made the pennant banner for the mantle. And then went through some of his papers I have saved from Elementary School and taped them to the mirror. I cried and cried going through them. Save your kids papers, young Mommies out there. One day, you'll need to go through them for theraputic reasons! Trust me! You'll read them and laugh and cry and have swolen eyes and snot running down your face.
I got these carboard numbers from Hobby Lobby and spray-painted them and glittered them. I am sure I can re-use these at another time.
Oh and they were half priced. Yay.
Since he was sworn into the Marines this past week, I decided to to a little tribute to that. His photo, some American flags, one of his GIJoes from when he was little and his official Marine Certificate.
Red everywhere. Even more places than I took photos of. Sorry.
I set up a table to play a game and see who could guess how old he was in certain pictures and most people enjoyed playing it. Guess who got the most right? First place goes to.........(drum roll).....His brother....Michael! Second place goes to.................( another drum roll)...................His cousin.....Kourtney! Prizes will be awarded this week. Their very own homemade by Moma Catty pecan pie. ( they are to die for). Yes.
I think a homemade pecan pie is a fabulous prize!
We set up a candy bar. We had little bags that you could take home as much candy as you wanted and Zac helped me make little "thank you" tags to tie on them. If you like sugar.....this was the table for you!
We also made labels for everything. Fun. Easy. Cheap. Cute. These were little diplomas. But, really a package of smarties wrapped in white tissue paper and tied with a black ribbon.
We wrapped all the Hersheys Mini's in scrapbook paper. Really cute. Easy too.
Yum. Red twizzlers in Mason jars.
Hot tamales in this beautiful jar!
Some cherry slices in a vase.
We wrapped all the blow pops in red tissue paper. Easy. Again. Cheap.
Some truffles. Already pre wrapped in red paper. And this is my Maw Maw's candy dish. So, even though she's in heaven, a part of her was at His party. Aww... makes my heart warm.
These were a hit!
Then the desert table. We had some yummy stuff there and hardly any was left at the end of the evening. These cupcakes are decorated with graduation hats. They are made out of a reeses cup, a chocolate covered graham cracker and a red fruit roll up. Now, isn't that the cutest thing??
Of course some American themed cupcakes since we are a military family now.
And no party at our house is complete without this cake. Not one piece was left. It was delcious. We also had a platter of Grandmas chocolate chip cookies and they were eaten up, too. I just didn't get a photo. Sorry.
The food table. I took this before it was all ready. But, it was all yummy and all labeled cute little names like.
Jana's Jambalaya
Kiera's Hot Chicken Buffalo Dip with chips
Aunt Gayles tuna roll with crackers
Grandmas Pasta Salad
Fresh Fruit Salad
Honey BBQ wings
And Chic fila nuggets and Zaxbys Chicken Fingers
Pictures everywhere. He's always been so photogenic. And someone once told me that the baby of the family never has many photos taken of them. I believe in our case, I have proved them wrong.
More decor. Things I had around the house that got a new coat of spray paint.
Sparklers for the kids.
The drink station.
Paula Deen lemonade. Want the recipe? Oh, it's yummy. I'll share it with you if you like. It doesn't have butter in it. I know that's a shock but, it's awesome!
Moma Catty's sweet tea. Better than Sonnys. Hands down.
Wrapped the water bottles in Leon colors.
The little centerpieces we made.
A matching plastic cup. Some sparkley stuff. A Star. An American Flag. And Zac's senior card. Cute. Really Easy. Really inexpensive.
We set up tables and chairs so, everyone could have a place to sit and enjoy the outdoors. I highly recommend this. We have mosquitoes. We live on a lake. Can't help it. But, I got an outdoor fogger and sprayed it all around about an hour before the party and it worked. Just to be safe, I had some citronella candles going. But, it did work.
More American Flags.
This photo is out of order and I can't figure out how to move it. So....read below and then it will make sense. It's Ray's little brother, Richard who also graduated from Leon in 1988.
I thought I would do a family banner. Zac is the 7th HANSELMAN to graduate from Leon High School. So, I did this on the staircase with a photo of each of them when they were graduating.
The first one explaining it.
There's Ray. He was the first one.
Then Uncle David.
Then Aunt MaryBeth. But, I didn't have a graduation photo of her. And then Uncle Rich. ( the picture up there should be here)
Then Brother Michael.
Then Sister Rachel.
Then Zac. Pretty cool to have so many of your family attend the same school!
Here's some of the guests enjoying the good food.
And a few more. We also watched a music video with pictures of Zac's life growing up that my brother made. It was awesome and a tear jerker but, had some funny things in it, too. We are thankful for this time in our lives, for our family and for our friends who have loved Zac and watched him grow up and will still be supporting him as this next phase of his life begins.