<p>Had a sad passages/transiton experience yesterday. Took DS for our last “fill up the trunk of his car” run to Costco yesterday. He heads back to school today :(</p>
<p>What are people planning for graduation celebrations? We want to have a dinner or buffet at a restaurant for family and his friends near his school, but haven’t begun to plan it. Thoughts? Ideass?</p>
<p>We will be attending his graduation with his godfather and grandparent. We’ll be going out to dinner at the most sought-after restaurant in the area. That’s about it. :)</p>
<p>It would be nice to have a get-together that summer at home of all of his HS friends and their parents, since many of them will have graduated also and they remain friends, as do many of the parents. I don’t know how many will be around, but perhaps we could arrange something…now I’m thinking of inviting some of their favorite teachers, too. I’ll have to think on it.</p>
<p>We’re planning a dinner for the 5 of us that will be there graduation weekend. Unfortunately, the grad boy & his brother are meat-eaters & brother’s gf is a vegetarian, which is making it a little hard to find someplace that satisfies everyone. The restaurant I found which grad boy has approved only takes reservations 2 months in advance, so I’m hoping I can get one.</p>
<p>We’re hoping to host a dinner for 10-12 of D’s extended family who will be in town for graduation, but I really haven’t started planning it yet. Since D’s graduation will be in Chicago, I’m sure there’s no end to the restaurants that we could choose - that’s part of the problem!</p>
<p>Right now I’m planning our “last family vacation.” (Every time I say that, my D complains that it sounds so mournful. According to her, she’s always happy to go vacations with her family, as long as we’re paying and as long as we’re going somewhere fun. I know the reality, though: once you’re working in the real world, vacations can be few and far between, and you don’t always want to spend them with your old fogey parents.)</p>
<p>Anyway, when D was growing up we spent her spring breaks at Sanibel Island, Florida, so I’m planning one more trip there for her last university spring break.</p>
<p>We’re planning the “last” family vacation, too. Our evidence also shows that if parents are paying and if it’s fun, they’ll figure out how to go!</p>
<p>My cousin is coming with us to S’s graduation. His older half-siblings, who live near his school, will also come. I’ve made dinner reservations at a great restaurant in town for that evening. Then we’ll go home, and he’ll stay in his apartment there for three to four weeks, working at his current job (and hanging out with friends) until it’s time to drive home and leave on our trip. He brought a duffel bag full of books when he came for winter break. He’s agreed to UPS boxes home periodically over the winter until he winnows his possessions down to whatever fits in his Prius. He has more kitchen equipment than the average college senior, but he’s proud to have saved the shipping materials for the stand mixer he bought on eBay and the set of Le Creuset bakeware he won in an online sweepstakes. :rolleyes: (He’ll be a real catch for a foodie woman someday.)</p>
<p>How’s everyone doing? I can’t believe the end is near.</p>
<p>I’m a little worried that my son doesn’t want to leave. Do you think that’s common? He’s asking to stay in his apartment through August, but I would like to see him leave ASAP. The area around his university is terrible, and only seems to be getting worse. There were 4 armed robberies last week within 2 blocks of his apartment, and all occurred in the afternoon. Last night they were on lockdown because several electrical transformers blew up under the campus.</p>
<p>The end is near. D1 will go to “gradfest” in a couple of weeks to pick up graduation tickets and do everything else that I guess you are supposed to do. </p>
<p>How many tickets do you get for graduation? It is different each year, depending on how many are graduating, but this year the “college of sciences” graduates only get 6 tickets each. We are hoping to be able to buy 2 more because my parents are divorced, and all 6 grandparents want to attend. </p>
<p>Unfortunately S3 (a high school junior) can’t attend because he is in production drama and they have a show the night of graduation. I checked the AP schedules, the tennis and track team schedules, but forgot about drama. Oh well. Since we are low on tickets, likely I won’t try and get S2 their from his college, instead we will have a party at home the next weekend and have him attend that. Life is complicated.</p>
<p>Graduation - I think my D said she can get up to 5 for her smaller, school-specific graduation, and the website says she can get up to 6 for the whole-school shindig. We won’t need them all, her grandparents are all too elderly to travel and sit through graduation, and for S that will be the weekend before his finals at college 500 miles away, so it will just be us parents, hopefully younger D (will have just finished AP testing, may have a mandatory sports practice though) and maybe my sister who we will be staying with in DC.</p>
<p>tx5, maybe your D can find a friend with some extra tickets to give her?</p>
<p>Yup, the end is near. I’m not sure tickets are an issue for us. My two stepdaughters and their families are coming, but my cousin can’t come because she has been ill. Our son will attend not just his graduation, but friends’ ceremonies in two other schools at his big state U, so it will be a busy weekend. I know he will linger after graduation day, but I’m not sure for how long, and we’re leaving it up to him. The three of us leave on a trip to Europe the last week in May, so he has two weeks to find his way home. He’s in the midst of his last big work push now–he always has big papers due in March. Then he’ll go somewhere with friends for spring break. </p>
<p>I know I’ve probably said this multiple times in this thread, but I’m just stunned that it’s all over. I think (but am not sure) that I’ve stopped fretting about his next steps in life. He’ll figure it out. And you’ll either see him on Top Chef in about 10 or 15 years (because he doesn’t enjoy things if he’s not sure he can go all the way), or he’ll be doing something completely different.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, March Madness is really fun when you have a team that actually could make it to the Final Four. M-I-Z!</p>
<p>We won’t see S1 til graduation; he is heading overseas to see the fiancee over spring break. He’ll come home for about a week after that and then spend most of the summer with her overseas. We may get them both for a month in August as they come back here, stage all their stuff and prepare to move to their jobs (or we’ll be planning a small wedding, depending on which visa comes through first). Am stunned and thankful that both have offers in places they want to be.</p>
<p>Toledo, I think it is common that they like to linger. It’s the end of a certain era.</p>
<p>We only get 2 tickets for the smaller school graduation, unlimited for the university graduation in the stadium. But both are simulcast in other locations on campus.</p>
<p>Flights, check. Hotel, check. Dinner plans, tentative check. Now I need to figure out flying the stuff back. Family is booked on Southwest with 2 free checked bags. Do I go with empty bags? I don’t think I have enough of the right size. We tend to travel with carryon. Do I buy duffles there? Suggestions welcome!</p>
<p>My kids both have a big, heavyweight canvas duffle in addition to the wheeled bag. Got them at a military surplus store. They hold all the off-size stuff and Southwest will take them. </p>
<p>S1 ships stuff back via UPS – his dorm always has someone from UPS in the lobby at the end of the year who sells boxes and will do all the postage and stuff on-site. It’s a LOT more convenient than having to schlep 50 lb boxes elsewhere to ship, esp. when one does not have a car!</p>
<p>After the grads pick up the tickets they need (at Gradfest) the remaining tickets are sold and you can buy 2 at a time. So if she can’t find any extras from friends, she will buy 2 more. I don’t anticapate a problem. We are only 80 miles away which is why the grandparents can attend.</p>
<p>There will be 4 of us at graduation. I know we’ll have no problem with the all-school ceremony since they give graduates 6 tickets for that. For Arts & Sciences ceremony, they split the class by major & have 2 ceremonies to accomodate everyone, so I can’t imagine that 4 tickets would be problematic.</p>
<p>DeniseC, here are the Southwest baggage allowances:</p>
<p>[Checked</a> Baggage](<a href=“http://www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/baggage/checked-bags-pol.html]Checked”>Checked Baggage Policy | Southwest Airlines)</p>
<p>50 lbs and 62" are the limits before being charged. You may be able to find boxes that would work.</p>
<p>Thanks! I called SW on the advice of ‘Good Buy of the Day’ folks and SW is happy to accept boxes with the limits toledo has listed. So will probably bring the empty luggage we do have and supplement with boxes. Thanks!!</p>
<p>Congrats to you all as you plan your graduation festivities. SO exciting.</p>
<p>Denise…I posted this to you elsewhere…we borrowed suitcases from friends…and took those with us for DD to fill up and bring back from 3000 miles away. Each of us just used our carryon bags…DD filled SIX suitcases. We were very clear…if it didn’t fit, she needed to find a new home for it in her college town.</p>
<p>Thank you Thumper! Our grad will be limited to 6 boxes or suitcases, or maybe 8 if she flies home on southwest too. Doesn’t have reservations yet, may want to linger :)</p>
<p>Does anyone have to dispose of furniture? I don’t know if much could be sold in May, as everyone is leaving campus. Son has some pieces from his ex-girlfriend’s family that he thinks he can just “give back”. I doubt that they’ll want it. He’s also mentioned putting it out on the curb, thinking someone will pick it up, or just leaving it in the apartment. He’s acquired a few things that were left behind when he moved in. The only downside is that he risks losing his security deposit. Maybe I can find some charity that picks up furniture donations. There are 5 guys moving out of this apartment, so it will be a mess.</p>
<p>Toledo,
The worm was too busy/lazy to try to sell his furniture online, so I scheduled a pick-up from Salvation Army. I could do that online, and they showed up on schedule. They had a printed receipt to use as charitable donation for taxes.</p>