Special Occasions Archives - Yearning to Create

Here are some photos of our Grad decorations with beautiful people in the pictures too!
(See the no-people pre-Grad decoration pictures here, including the banquet tables.)

This is my second daughter Min and her date Clay – don’t they look fantastic!!!

Now, at this point of the evening, I was getting very frustrated because my camera batteries died, and my freshly charged ones didn’t work for more than a minute. My guy went off to buy more, and they kept dying too. Grrr! So the next few pictures are fuzzy because my camera died right as I was taking them.

The hanging frames were fun to pose in. Unfortunately, because of my camera troubles, we didn’t get a single shot of them with the photo booth props on the other side of the stage.

Remember the sneak peak I gave you back here? Well this is what we did with it.

And as for Min’s “shiner”, you’d never know she had one.

This is how her eye looked before big sister started doing her makeup for grad . . .

We were able to borrow some corrective cover-up based on the colour that her bruise was that day, and it worked perfectly! Thanks Barb!!!

The Star Archway.

Beautiful girls in their beautiful dresses hanging out with the blue moon. It’s a little hazy here because this was during the dance when they DJ was sending “fog” out onto the dance floor.

The proud parents!

Min had the honour of being her class Valedictorian.

Our seven beautiful daughters! One of them got a little creative with photo editing!

Back to the decorations . . .

Love the casual yet classy stance by the 2012.

The fabric on the walls did a great job of hiding all sorts of uglies – like the huge mats under the basketball hoop.

And the bicycle built for two!
For sure a much cuter picture with people in it!!!

It was their time to shine, and they sure did!

This is a pretty jello to have on the table at Christmas time. And it would be even prettier in something other than a casserole dish!!!

The recipe:

1 small box green jello

1 can crushed pineapple

White marshmallows (you decide how much!)

1 small box red jello

1 can cherry pie filling

Whipped cream for top (optional)

Prepare green jello, but only use 1 cup of water. Stir in the whole can of crushed pineapple (that means that you don’t drain it!). Chill.

When it was still a bit soft, I added the marshmallows. Spread them evenly on top of the green layer. You can make this layer as thick or thin as you want – might depend on the size of your dish!

Prepare the red jello – again only using 1 cup of water. Stir in the whole can of cherry pie filling. When your green layer and marshmallows are completely set, add the red layer. Chill until firm.

If you have room in your dish, you can add whipped cream on top.

I find this jello to be plenty tasty and rich enough without the cream.

This is a never ending battle in my home: I love things in the jello!!!

But usually my guy and my kids prefer the jello plain. So as we’re eating our Christmas jello on Christmas day, I’m watching some of my kids not eat the green layer because of the pineapple. And I’m watching some of my kids pick all their cherries out of the red layer and leave them laying around on their plates looking squished, sad and rejected.

So I made a decision!!! Next year I’ll make the pretty Christmas jello without any fruit in the layers!

I’ll use the full water measurements, and maybe even do a few layers with marshmallows in between each layer – that would look pretty sweet. My kids and my guy will eat it all, and I’ll be about $5 richer.

Now I need to keep my eyes open for a trifle bowl – we’ll let the casserole dish hold something else next year!!!