Graduation Open House

As graduation open house season rapidly approaches, I’m reminded of the fun we had planning and pulling together two such parties for my two favorite high school grads! Of course, I had tons of help from my favorite party planners, my sisters and mother – my blog mates. For both parties, we had a 20 x 20 tent set up in the turn-around in the driveway. We created a “Wall of Fame” in the tent by hanging pictures that were strung together with, in the case pictured, hockey skate laces, and anchored with hockey pucks at the bottom (hole drilled through the puck). The pictures were created by blowing up photos to 8 x 10 or larger at Archivers or Kinkos, then mounted on black foam board. For table centerpieces, we used magnet frames (BorealStone.com) with skates as magnets and a hockey puck base. We also sprinkled the center with personalized golf tees. For my daughter’s party, there was no specific sport or hobby theme, but we used bright colored plaid tablecloths, and the pictures were strung together with a variety of bright colored ribbons. We also matted the photos in bright colored paper between the photo and the black foam board. We used Gerbera daisy plants in terra cotta pots as centerpieces. The “parting gift” was a key chain with a small silver frame that contained a picture of the graduate.