So, it’s no secret that I have totally and shamelessly immersed myself in planning my older boy, Ryan’s, 8th grade graduation party.
Lots of people don’t get it, including my dear husband. He went to public school. There was no big delineation between 8th grade and 9th. Like my sons, I went to private catholic school. It runs from kindergarten to 8th grade. You basically grow up with the same 30 friends for 9 years. Then- you graduate to another school for 4 years of high school- and then on to college. It’s big. It’s (hopefully) your first goodbye that hurts a bit. It’s a figurative and literal stepping up into a new chapter of life. It’s exciting, scary and a little sad- all at the very same time. And not just for the graduate. 😉
So- knowing myself as I do- I tend to create tasks for myself to keep my mind occupied during hard times. My little guy growing up and moving on to high school is wrecking havoc on my already oversensitive momma’s heart. So- I planned a party. One with LOTS of handmade decorations and such. Busy hands- busy mind. The other fringe benefit to approaching his party this way is that he is actively involved in it- and it has become a “countdown” you can actually see. First the Pin Boards…. then the shopping trips to the craft stores, the the late night web crawls at Amazon…then a little project every few days… until there a a huge banquet of beautiful goodness laid out in my craft room for us to decorate our little yard with! The stash grows a bit every day- and I can see him getting more and more excited for the party! It feels good. And it feels like it is something we are doing together.
I started off with the quote so anyone who may not know the quote will now be an educated soul ready to be bombarded with my theme! |
The little dude in the back is Ryan at his Kindergarten graduation. *sigh*. |
This is simple easy to make-cut strips of ribbon and pin onto a Styrofoam ball. But OMG-halfway through cutting the ribbon strips you begin to wonder- “WHY did I decide to make these?” |