The Grad Party

 In Michigan, it's customary to throw a graduation party for graduating seniors and it's a big deal. I mean, it's definitely not something that everyone does, but a lot of people do it and it's something we've always known we'd do for Victoria if we were still here when she graduated. Our other kids too. She loves parties, I love to throw parties, and Jason loves to make good food and find a system to make the most food taste the best possible, so we figured it was something we could do.

Since most of the parties are held in the last few weeks of June, I knew I had to get our announcements out in March, the recommended time, for ours so people could get it on their calendars. This being our first one, I wanted it to be successful. I even just decided to bypass Christmas cards this year so that we could include family and friends, most of which wouldn't have been able to come, but we wanted them to know they were invited. A lot of our friends have now moved from here and know the Michigan "ways". Also, I didn't want to bombard everyone with a lot of mail from us within a few months' time. 

One thing we did slightly differently was to hold a combo grad party, which in my opinion is the way to do it. I went to one a few years ago for 3 girls from our ward and it was the best because I could just go to one party, bring my 3 cards with checks, and enjoy the food and company, but not have to go off to 2 extra parties. Victoria's best senior friend from the ward, Mallory, wanted to combine with us for many reasons. She's the youngest and her parents didn't have big parties for her brothers (they also all graduated from schools in other countries because they were overseas with Ford for most of Mallory's younger life), since they've only lived here about 5 years, they didn't feel like they knew enough people to throw a big grad party, and her parents moved to China with Ford two days after the grad party, so they really couldn't have hosted a party of their own since they were in a hotel at the time. Mallory is already at BYU, so we definitely had to have it when we did!

Most people around here put up big outdoor tents for the grad parties since the weather is always unpredictable. That way if it rains, they're usually okay and if it's beating down sun and heat, it's tolerable too. Splitting the cost of the tent with the Miller family was very nice! We asked a friend from the ward who has 9 kids who they use for their tents and she gave me a company that puts the tent up, delivers the tables and chairs, with tablecloths, and then takes the tent down when you're done. We just had to put up the tables and chairs and take them down. Six round tables with 10 chairs. 

Some people cater the food, and a lot of people do pull pork sandwiches or grill hamburgers and hot dogs, we decided to do what we do best: tacos bowls! The Millers couldn't help a ton with food prep, so they provided dessert. Mallory worked for Nothin' Bundt Cakes and she got a discount on the cupcakes. They also brought mini Crumbl cookies, which I was shocked by, but they wanted to. The desserts were the only thing we didn't split the price of. I had been planning on making cookies starting in March and freezing them, but this was so much easier and a nice way for them to do their part. 

We expected about 200 people from the number of invitations we sent out. Victoria and Mallory have a lot of the same friends from school and definitely from the ward, but with different teams and clubs, and if everyone brought all their children, we could have had about that many. Jason did calculations about how much ground beef we'd have to make. 60 lbs! He figured out how to brown it in bulk and taught me so I could do a lot of the prep work in the couple of weeks before. We had big 10 lb tubes and crumbled it into boiling water. Then used a huge slotted spoon to put it in the Dutch oven with beef broth (most of it reserved from the other batches of cooked ground beef that we had skimmed the fat off of) and the taco seasoning. We simmered it in the Dutch oven and then transferred it to foil pans with lids and froze them. There was enough liquid so that the morning of the party we could put them in the oven to thaw and warm. Of course, there were installments, so some were pre-thawing on the counter, which was good because we definitely had too much and we could just put them back in the freezer and give some away. Jason worked on the rice the week of the party. He's the best rice maker around, so he just did that. He made some with chicken broth and some with vegetable broth. Our corner neighbors from India were happy we had a vegetarian version of rice! We also had two forms of black beans - with beef broth and vegetable broth and lots of good seasoning to make them very flavorful! In fact, they were pretty spicy, but a hit!

The lettuce was pre-shredded, so the tomatoes were the only big thing that had to be done the morning of the party. Gramms and Mallory's mom, Heidi, cut the 10 or more lbs. of tomatoes while I directed traffic on where to put the coolers for the drinks, where to hang the signs, etc. 

I'm very much not a bottled water person, nor an individual-can-of-soda type person. However, I decided for ease, I didn't want to deal with cups and big water jugs or soda bottles, etc. So we had coolers of drinks and some cute drink tubs we borrowed from a friend. I got a lot of them from Costco, which is where I got the plates, but most of the other stuff I got from GFS (Gordon Food Services) and was well-priced. 

The weather was so perfect that day, I couldn't have asked for better. It was sunny and actually a little cool, but not too bad. Since we had ladder ball, corn hole, balls, and the trampoline for the young kids, or teens, to play with, that group was definitely not too cool!

Here are the pictures of the whole event, which I can't believe how much fun it was and how well it turned out. From counting plates, we had about 135 people who used a regular plate. There were some bowls gone, but I didn't count those. Some people just had cookies and a few, I noticed, didn't eat at all. We could have had about 150 who came over the 4 hours. We gave them an option to build their own taco bowl, or just have a soft taco. Most people just used plates and got what they wanted, but I had cute little signs up to help them along if they didn't know what to do. (Tacos aren't as commonly eaten here as they are in California and Texas!) And for the record, people told Jason and me that they were some of the best tacos they'd ever had, even the families we gave leftovers to the next day who couldn't make it to the party. Jason is a taco master!

Basket for cards. Mallory went to Canton (red) and Victoria to Salem (blue). We cut the tablecloths in half to fit the table and Victoria made little "ghosts" to hang above, but I don't think I got a pic of the blue one on the other side. 

You can't read what we wrote, but they say Classic (chips, meat, rice, cheese, lettuce, tomato, sour cream) Vegetarian (lettuce, beans rice, tomatoes, guac), Mercado Style (rice, beans, meat, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, cheese), Mallory (everything but tomatoes), Erik (chips), and Taco Style (which meant to just make yourself a taco).

This was taken before Mallory came back with a few of her grad ribbons and hat (the things that weren't packed up).

Victora's letterman jacket and dance jacket.

Mallory's going to BYU and Victoria to BYU I, but people here don't know the difference!

This was the couch from our sunroom where the tables were. It's an indoor/outdoor couch.

I moved my plants from the sunroom, or Erik did. There used to be a lot of junk there!

My garden looked amazing!

We borrowed the ladder ball and corn hole from a friend.

Nicely mulched.

When the food was out. I moved the little "ingredients" frames to the back of the table. You could see them if you were standing there. I needed more room for all those cupcakes!

The grads!

And here are some pics with people. Some didn't want to be posted anywhere and I didn't take any at the "high" time.

The Miller Family (she had one brother not there).

The couch was very popular!

Our lovely neighbors!

Austin dorking around with his friends.

Jason was mostly in the kitchen, but as everyone had to come in the sunroom to get food, I think he saw them all, at least those who knew him. 

Jacob came with his family from 2 hours away!!

One of Victoria's large friend gangs.

Dance friends!

Before I kicked off a few...

Kai's window is right there, so she took her friend out on the sunroom roof for a different perspective.

Erik had fun too!

Austin and a friend with lightsabers!

It was a huge success and let me just say that I am totally shocked at how much money Victoria got, just from the party, not from generous friends and family who live afar.  So shocked. Even if we hadn't combined with the Millers she still would have come out ahead. People here just love these grad parties!

14 Years

I would never have guessed that June 2 could be a busier time for a birthday than a November or December birthday, but I have quickly learned that's the case. This year wins the award, though. 

Truthfully, his actual birthday was on a Friday and wasn't that busy, but prom was the day before and the dance recitals, Austin's piano recital, a soccer game and Erik's fun fair were the next day. Plus, I was planning for the grad party to be held two weeks later, so my mind was very preoccupied. Technically, we could have had Austin's birthday party, but we had decided to wait (we're still waiting till he decides to text his friends). I'm really glad we did because it turned out that Austin was pretty sick that week. 

There was no school Monday for Memorial Day. We had a great time at a family friend's house for a bbq and outdoor games. Tuesday he came home from school early with a fever, which meant he couldn't go to school Wednesday, and his fever was a high 103 that day which also meant no track meet. He still had a low-grade fever Thursday morning, but was starting to be on the mend. Friday was his birthday and he didn't feel 100% to go to school and I didn't want to push it, so he got to relax at home on his birthday, which is actually pretty nice. Jason even got them a pizza lunch, since he was working from home that day. We had planned to go see Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse that evening all together as a family, after eating a bbq hamburger dinner, served with rice, which Austin likes better than potatoes. It turned out that Victoria couldn't go to the movie, so one of Austin's best friends joined us. We brought candy and some popcorn and were ready to relax at the theater!

Birthday breakfast: his favorite egg-bagel sandwich and a doughnut!

As you see, he was feeling pretty good that day. He's officially obsessed with Star Wars, btw.

He not only loves video games, but he really loves the music in them and will play them on the piano. He's very talented in both playing the games and the music!

Star Wars Uno!

The gift he asked for: Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Nintendo Switch game!

He was pretty stoked about it!

Sibling gift. (Kai was trying to make a face, she wasn't actually mad here!)

$ from Grandma.

Happily playing his new game.

Dad's special-made dinner.

Well, 3 times during the movie, Austin came over to me telling me he had a bad earache. Luckily, I had some Aleve in my purse and gave him some, not knowing what else to do and not wanting to leave. He still came over twice more complaining about his ear, but we made it through and came home for ice cream cake. He went to bed with the heating pad and seemed to feel okay the next morning. I gave him more pain killer so he could go to his piano recital, but he rested most of the day, besides attending Victoria's recital. He made it to Monday when I could take him to the doctor because his ear still bothered him. Apparently, his ear looked so bad, the doctor said it must have hurt to turn his head.

Poor kid. Still made a silly face for his cake.

 

Now remember, I also had to take Kai to the doctor that day to get her cast off and I had to take Erik to the urgent care to look at the pinky that he jacked up at the fun fair. It was quite the day!

While Austin had an amazing swim season, his track season was okay. He started the first meet under the weather due to something he picked up at the 8th-grade field trip to Washington DC, of which he barely took any pictures for me, but he had a great time. He did pretty well in the 400 and 800 on his second meet, but the third meet he had to leave early for the orchestra concert and only ran the 800. The next meet he missed due to his fever and the next meet was the final one and he was still recovering, but ended up doing pretty well. He kept up with all the fastest kids for most of the 800, but the lack of training the final week showed during the last 1/4 of the lap. He got 2:36 on it and I think about 8th place. 

He's the 4th kid back here.

This is the last lap and he was kicking it in gear, but the first 3 were already out of the shot.

Home stretch!

That seems like just yesterday and now that we're into the full swing of summer, he's been training at the high school with the cross-country team and running daily with them. He's back into full health and even ran 5 miles for the first time with them! There was also a hs track camp he attended for 2 nights and a day he went to the gym with Victoria. He's getting super strong and eating a ton of food!

Kai's been attending the all-day marching band camp. Austin was torn between joining the marching band or cross country in high school. Ultimately, he decided to do cross country for long painful runs, but not all-day practices like marching band. Plus, two of his best friends are on the team and they even had a swim party already. He might try winter percussion, but his musical outlets in high school will be the piano and orchestra. 

The weekend after his sick birthday he got to go on yet another trip. This one was with the 8th-grade band. It wasn't as far, just Cleveland and a bit in Toledo, but he had the time of his life at a science museum, zoo, baseball game (which they were supposed to play at, but it fell through), they saw Spiderman: Across the Spideyverse, this time with no ear pain, and went to Dave and Buster's. They were only gone two days and do you think he took any pictures for me?? No!

I was just glad he was better and didn't get sick again on this trip. He had a great school year! Onto highschool!!

Here's a video of his piano recital with his plugged-up ear. 

And a song from his recent band concert.

And from the last orchestra concert.

My favorite orchestra players!

Bonus: Since Kai didn't get to play in the last concert, here's a recording of her at an orchestral event a couple of months ago. She's gotten so confident in her playing! There's only the 3 violas and she really carries them!

At the high school orchestra banquet.