D wanted her grad party at a State Park 3 miles from our house, so I’m not worried about entertainment-they can hike, wade, swim, kayak, etc. I don’t know how to figure out food quantity for an open house, though. Some of the kids and adults will be hopping from one party to another and may have already eaten lunch at a previous party by the time they get to D’s party. And since it’s not at our house, it’s not like I can rummage through our pantry if food starts running out.
Graduation party - we’re having an open house, people can come, eat, drink, and go as they please. I’m sure my D is not the only person that weekend to be throwing a party. It will be casual. Note to self: order invitations.
@CaucAsianDad and @NolaCAR Yep, food is an issue. S wanted to have “something with a lot of meat.” We have a neighbor who smokes meat and sells it at a reasonable price (and it’s sooo good!), so we’re planning for everyone we invited to eat one sandwich. Since it would be a huge surprise for that many to even arrive and many will have recently eaten or be eating soon, we are planning on filling up the freezer with the leftovers. We would’ve have bought the meat anyway for ourselves and a couple other gatherings over the course of the next few months, so we’re not out anything there, and I’d rather have too much than run out. Homemade rolls, cookies, brownies (all freezable), baked beans and pasta salad (less freezable but not expensive) round out the menu. I usually offer fresh vegetables, but with the impossibility of accurately guessing numbers, I think I’m going to just put some in the pasta salad and maybe have a platter of carrots and broccoli or something.
One of D17’s friends is having a graduation party this coming Friday, and since they were going to be making a huge amount of food anyway (Samoan family, and her father cooks to the stereotype), they invited us to have it be the party for both of them. (Seriously, a chance to have some of his kalua pig? We’ll take it!)
S17 is having a joint grad party with 2 other students. We are having it at one of the parents house and we divided up all of the needs. I will be smoking about 30# of briskets and renting the tents. Another parent is smoking 20# of pork shoulders and a bunch of other food. Last set of parents (hosts) are buying a bunch of rotisserie chickens as well as other items.
D opted to not have a grad party. Not sure why, but lucky me!
Question…she has been invited to over 15 parties, how much is she (or am I) supposed to give these kids? Some are besties and others are school friends.
@greeny8 Call me crazy, but I don’t think a fellow graduate is expecting a graduation gift. Especially with 15 parties to attend, that could get way out of hand.
ETA: When I graduated back in the stone age, several of us went to a friends family party (empty handed of course) and on the way out to the next party I grabbed a 6 pack from the cooler. Oh man, I got the evilest of evil stares from my friends father. The emotional scar I still have was definitely not worth the 6 pack of Meister Brau. Lesson learned.
May depend on the school/area of the country, but for us kids are not expected to bring anything to each other’s parties. If parents are invited, parents give a gift. Sometimes for very close friends the kids will exchange gifts. Not for just school friends. And in a lot of cases, friends show up later in the party, do not eat/drink much, socialize a little and then move off to another party.
Not doing a party here, per D17’s request, but she has been invited to a few. She’s not going to bring gifts, just pop in and say hello.
D18 and I are going to make an amazing glass/mirror cake (google it) with Bama colors, and do red velvet on the inside with white chocolate mousse on the day she graduates. I’m leaning towards getting/making a topper that says “The Tassel Was Worth The Hassle” like this one:
It seems like the practice around here is similar to what @saillakeerie describes. We’ve been invited to a few of S’s classmates’ parties, and even if we don’t go, we’ll send a card and $20 with him to those. He and his best buddies will exchange gifts, but not cash, and we’ll likely also send a card with a little more cash for the couple of friends who have spent significant amounts of time at our house. Otherwise, S isn’t planning to take gifts to the other open houses or receive any from his classmates and school friends.
My D16 exchanged small gifts with close friends only - we were not involved in any of those celebrations. S17 has sa couple of close friends attaining Eagle Scout this month - we will do something for them. As for graduation - we will leave it up to him if he exchanges with close friends or not. We will not do a graduation party for him - but will most likely do a combination graduation/going away party mid-summer. I have not run this by him - he may just opt to have us pay for him to do something fun with a couple of friends.
@STEM2017 I remember my friend’s mom had me open a bottle of champagne. She wasn’t happy when the cork nearly put a hole in the ceiling. Meister Brau, huh? I’m not sure if that’s a step up or step down from Schlitz Malt Liquor.
D didn’t want a grad party, so we’re having a nice dinner w/ close family and friends after graduation (starts at 10:45 pm!). I couldn’t believe I was able to find a restaurant. I need to order her cake soon, however.
I don’t think we’ll be having a grad party, D17 doesn’t like people all that much, at least not in big groups. I need to figure out where to take her for dinner after graduation, gets complicated with a bunch of vegetarians.
My D also skates the 4.0 line, several honors coming her way for remaining above it.