Graduation Party, Dr Seuss Style

Working in ministry with teenagers brings both blessing and heartache. For us, one of the greatest heartaches we face each year is watching our seniors graduate and move on to the next phase of their journeys. And this year was no exception. We have been incredibly blessed by this particular group of seniors and we know we'll feel the heavy weight of their absence next year as they leave the nest.

BUT...We are thrilled knowing that we are sending out an entire class of talented, confident, God-loving world changers. It was so appropriate to celebrate their accomplishments with a banquet themed "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" recently. We have a tradition at our church that the moms of the junior class students plan and organize the annual senior banquet and every year I'm blown away with their creativity and talent.
The picture above is a {gigantic} painting. It was so incredibly well done that when I walked in I thought it was a print. The artist behind this beauty is also the same one who painted one of my favorite pieces of art in my home.

Hot air balloon centerpieces and place cards.


Can you just imagine how long it took the poor cake decorator to make that many different colors of icing?!

Need more graduation party ideas? Check out the inner-city graduation party we threw last year and all the decorations and treats involved here.

Graduation Party

The graduation party was a hit! As promised, I'm sharing the links for the how-to's so you can copy-cat if you'd like. I didn't reinvent the wheel on this one but it still turned out cute.

And this has nothing to do with graduation, but aren't these cute?! I made these in the midst of frantically trying to complete all of the graduation party projects. I gave (most) of them to a friend at church who has a 2-year old, a newborn and strep. She needed mini-cupcakes. That makes it sound a little less frivolous, right?

Want to make them, too? Here's Bakerella's how-to:
http://www.bakerella.com/cupcake-bites-made-easy/

Back to graduation...

Any idea what these became?...

These were a labor of love, but worth it. As we were decorating, a precious 10-year old boy who attends the center was just bouncing from table to table because he was ecstatic that they were made of candy. Needless to say, that made it worth it!

Bakerella is the genius behind this idea and her tutorial is here:

http://www.bakerella.com/candy-cup-caps/

This picture was taken close to midnight... I'm tired just typing that.

I {love} tissue pom poms/tissue paper balls. They were easy and relatively cheap to make, but they made a big statement. So cute.

There are a lot of tutorials out there, but All Things Thrifty has my favorite one. Find it here:

http://www.allthingsthrifty.com/2010/04/tutorial-making-tissue-paper-balls.html

The graduation party was held at a youth development center to honor four high school seniors who have attended the center through the years. The center is downtown, in a brick building with bars on the windows and big locks on the doors. To get in you have to ring a doorbell because it is locked at ALL times for safety reasons. A few years ago, before we moved closer, I volunteered on a mission trip where we spent the night in the center and overhauled the insides - painting, cleaning, etc. There was only one car among us and it was an old beat-up van. The most valuable thing inside it was a 4-year old bottle of sunscreen. We were told to take everything out of the van before dark, but we figured the very few items we had (of no value) in plain sight wouldn't be a problem. We were wrong. By 1 am the van had been broken into and the few contents inside (half a pack of Dr. Pepper, a few old textbooks, even the sunscreen) had been stolen. It's a rough neighborhood, and the kids who grow up in it deal with rough situations as a result.

The center is a bright spot for the teens and adolescents who attend tutoring and mentor sessions there. The building's history alone screams of how needed the center is. Before churches across Texas came together to revamp it, it was a crack house owned by a local drug dealer. The walls of this building have seen horrible things, but now it shelters troubled teens and elementary-aged kids who sometimes don't have food to eat, let alone help with homework.

The flags are a free download from Bird Crafts. Find it here:

http://birdcrafts.blogspot.com/2010/05/freebie-graduation-party-flags-by-bird.html

To graduate from high school is a big accomplishment regardless, but to do so in the environment these kids grow up in is incredible. And this youth development center is not only helping educate kids, it's saving their lives by giving them hope and a path to follow.

And that's why, even though I had a tiny budget to decorate 10 tables and an entire (huge!) room, it had to be special. When we left, my husband told me it was probably the fanciest that place has ever looked. I don't know about that, but I hope it looked formal, important...like it was a big deal. Because it is. And those four graduating seniors needed to be able to walk in that room and know it.

Congrats class of 2010!
Don't forget about the free graduation gift tags and labels download in the previous post!

Free Graduation Tag Download

Graduation is on our minds these days. My husband's baby brother just graduated from college, we had our final senior banquet for our teens at church, and tomorrow I'm helping host a graduation party for some inner-city students who attend a mission/tutoring program that our church helps support. I'll tell you more about it later this week. I've been making endless amounts of tissue paper pom poms as part of the centerpieces and my hands are officially blue from all of the dyed candy melts I've been using to make edible graduation caps. Watch for links to those how-to's later this week.

For now, I want to share a free (FREE!) download that I made for all of you precious readers.

You can download these designs here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/31675674/Graduation-Gift-Tags-and-Labels

I think they would be cute on graduation gifts, or even incorporated into graduation parties.

Maybe something like this?...

Or maybe even this...

(No lie, that towel was a graduation gift that I received many moons ago when I graduated from HIGH SCHOOL. That is one high-quality linen, I tell ya.)

And if you like the designs you see in your free download, head over to http://www.forkeepsdesign.com/. If you've read my "About" page you know that For Keeps Design is one of my babies. We've got stationery, birth announcements, party invites, you name it. We offer graduation invitations that are classic and traditional, but don't be afraid to contact us through the website and ask us to modify any of the designs you see available. Birthday party invitations can easily become graduation party invitations, etc. Just ask. We love that kind of stuff.

I hope you all enjoy this free download! I'd love to see pictures or hear about how you use it. Feel free to send me an email: restorativeliving at gmail dot com.

**www.forkeepsdesign.com is undergoing some construction today so if you click over and don't see graduation invitations available, check back later**

Linking to:

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Somewhat Simple

The Shabby Chic Cottage

Beyond the Picket Fence

Bloggeritaville