Grad Archives - Yearning to Create

Our Time to Shine – Daughter #2 Graduates from High School

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!

Decorating for Grad – Our Time to Shine

I was one of six parents on the Decorating Committee for our High School Graduation this past weekend. Our job is to transform the gymnasium into something that resembles the theme the grads chose. That was one tiring week of decorating, not to mention the meetings and mental work before that!!!Their theme greeted you at the doorway. (I’m showing a few decorations here. This is Friday morning, a few hours before everything started – and we’re almost finished decorating. My next post will be after grad, with actual people in the pictures!)

Big silver sparkly numbers made from MDF. They stand about five feet tall and the kids could move them around and pose with them.

This picture shows the star lanterns hanging from the ceiling. They were pretty and had a remote control to activate the LED light inside – pretty smart!!!

All set up for the banquet. That was a late night of setting tables – didn’t get home til almost 11:00pm. The grads on the decorating committee chose the colours of teal and silver – very pretty.

Notice the huge star archway on the stage made from balloons. It’s the perfect size for a couple to stand under. To the left we had frames hanging for photo shoots, and to the right, we had all sorts of props for fun photo booth pictures against the black curtains.

We had some teal netting and flameless candles and stars as centerpieces. The theme “Our Time to Shine” was printed on the paper that was wrapped around a large candle. They glowed very prettily when the lights were dimmed. Aren’t the napkins adorable!

One of the mom’s made these for each grad and they looked so cute on the tables.

It had a Grad photo on one side, baby picture on the other – a lovely keepsake for the grads. The baby side says:

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.”

That’s my guy up there in the Genie – he’s actually stuck up there. He’s hanging the moon and went up fine but the thing wouldn’t let him come down again. That’s why they got the ladder, and then found the emergency drop lever – glad he didn’t have to maneuver onto the ladder!

We put a little stool behind the moon so when you sit on it, it looks like you’re sitting on the moon. And no, the moon corner is not finished yet!

We used gossamer along the walls to hide the bleachers – making it look much prettier than a gymnasium. We had white Christmas lights in behind, just sitting on the bleachers, adding soft lighting. I must mention that it was disappointing to come back on three mornings and have to re-attach some gossamer that fell during the night!

Some of the grads felt very strongly about not having any plants used in the decorating. They wanted a more vintage look. So there is not one bit of greenery in the whole gym. The old doors and bicycle built for two was our “vintage” corner.

The doors were really cute with snapshots of the Grads throughout the year.

It turned out lovely and represented their theme well. Great job Mary and everyone else who helped!!! (And may I say that I’m glad I don’t have another Grad until 2015! And I’ll probably sign up for the Decorating Committee again – it’s a lot of work but I love seeing the gym transformation!)

(Edited to add: here’s the link for seeing the decorations with dazzling graduates in the pictures.)

Preparing for High School Graduation

This is my Min and she is having her Graduation Ceremonies on Friday. This is not what you want your eye to look like five days before Grad!!!

Wonder what colour it will be by Friday? Gonna have to get creative with the makeup!!! Although right now it kinda matches her red Grad dress!

I had two girls in a softball tournament on Saturday. In the final game, Min (on the pitcher’s mound) took a line drive to the face. Luckily it hit her glove first so it got slowed down before it hit her eye. It’s not very pleasant to be watching and suddenly see your child bent over, holding her face, staggering around in pain. The coaches of both team and the ump went running over to tend to her. She was still on her feet though, and I was very relieved not to see any blood when she took her hands away from her face. Ice was quickly produced and while she iced her eye, the coaches stood around her talking and laughing – giving her time to see how she was doing, making sure she wasn’t going to keel over or anything. She switched spots with first base and a coach stayed near her – just in case! But was able to play the last few innings. She said she felt fine – no headache or anything – but said it was really weird to be able to see her eyelid protruding from the swelling. This picture was taken about 18 hours after the hit – the swelling is gone and now it’s just the lovely red.

As for Grad, here’s a sneak peek!

That’s all you get right now! I’m on the decorating committee and will be spending the next four days transforming the gymnasium into something representing the theme they chose: “Our Time to Shine” (Hey – that theme works great for Min with her “shiner”!)

Stay tuned because you know I’ll eventually be posting pictures!!!

Click here to see the grad decorations.

Click here to see Min at grad.