Friday...Graduation Party!!!!!

My oh my! Friday morning…..We got up early and started the day. We finished getting the house ready for our family to arrive and got the graduation party things together. We had to borrow chairs from the Elks, go to the Commissary for groceries, pick up the cake and balloons, made signs, wrapped gifts, set up the tables….the list goes on and on. But…We Did It! We pulled the party together and Catherine had a blast. Tommy and Pat, Larry’s brother and Sister-in-law, arrived around 3pm. The kids came in from school and helped with some of the last minute stuff. I made Graduation signs that we put them in the front yard and tied balloons on the sign too. People kept slowing down and some even pulled in our drive way thinking it was a Yard Sale sign. When they got close enough to read it, they turned around. We left the signs out Saturday and the same thing happened. It got kind of comical.

Enough about Missourians and yard sale sign lets get back to the party story. We had the cookout and filled everyone’s tummies. We had 15 people here and everyone seemed to have a good time. After dinner we had Cat open her gifts. When it came to our gift we sent her on a scavenger hunt. I wrapped a shoe box with a note inside. (I won’t write the entire contents of the notes; I’ll just give you the gist of the notes.) The first note told her that her gift would not fit in the box and had her go to the office to look for it. In the office she found a note telling her that we changed our minds and put it in the shed out back. The note in the shed sent her to the basement. Sending her to the basement gave us time to put her gift out. The last note said; “Silly Graduate, you’re supposed to be all smart now. You have looked over your gift. It is outside sitting on the table in front of your seat. See you outside. Love, Dad and Momma Kim”. She came back outside to find a laptop computer sitting on the table. Larry was videoing and she ran to me and almost tackled me saying, “thank you, I love you, I’m so surprised, thank you, I love you!” She was SO excited. After the gifts we went inside and had cake. WOW! They were all hyper from the excitement of the occasion and running around looking for the gift…BUT once they ate the sugar filled cake…..H-Y-P-E-R! They were laughing and giggling until Catherine could not even get her breath. I looked at her and almost panicked because her face was bright red. Oh and before the cake, they had a contest seeing who could chug a Sprite the fastest and Cat got sick and threw up. That did not slow her down one little bit. She had an awesome time. She thanked us over and over for the party and said she had a lot of fun.

At one point in the evening I went inside to do something and I was the only one inside. Sean went through the house and didn’t see me. I said, “What’s up”. He said, “I was looking for you”. He had a look that I knew he wanted to ask me something. He said, “I’m the only boy kid here”. This was another indication he wanted something. I asked if he wanted to go to his friends’ house which is at the back of our property and invite them over. His eyes lit up and he said “right now? I can run fast and be right back”. You just had to be there but it was So cute! Those dimples were shinning and he gave me a big hug, kissed my cheek, said “I love you” and ran out the door. Poor guy, his friends were not home so he was stuck with the adults and a bunch of girls!

We have one of those portable fire pits and had planned to have smores. Well, after the cake they decided not to make smores. However, Marissa was bound and determined to have smores. Grandpa was sitting by the pit watching Marissa roast marshmallows. I went over to help her and she was just having a great time making her smores.

Funnies of the day…maybe you had to be there:

*(Sean LOVES TV) We were getting things ready for the cookout and Sean came in the kitchen and said, “If you need me, I’ll be in my sanctuary”. (He turned and went into the living room to watch TV)
*I was holding balloons that were “floating” in air. Marissa walked up to me and said, “Oh boy, do they have helium in them”? I said, “Are they ‘floating’?” She giggled and said, “Oh”. Maybe 10 seconds later Laura walked up and said, “Do they have helium in them”? Marissa with her arms crossed she tilted her head sideways, rolled her eyes and said, “Are they floating”? Marissa just looked at me and grinned. I laughed so hard and Marissa looked at me and smiled and shrugged her shoulders. Laura smiled and said, “oh, duh”. Laura had no idea of the conversation between Marissa and myself….Priceless!
*Catherine sent me a text earlier in the day saying that they did a Senior Prank and she would tell me about it when she got home. When she got home she wanted to wait and tell us all at the same time. Laura said, “She told me and it is not that funny or interesting”. Cat of course gave her a “look”. Cat forgot to tell us so on Saturday she was telling us and when she started she said, “We wanted to do something memorable, something the teachers will never forget”. Laura said, “Like That’s going to happen. Boring!”
*(Cat and her friends were sitting at the kitchen table) I was helping Laura get ice out of the freezer and the ice was stuck. So I opened up the freezer and was trying to get a clump out. I finally got it out and was going to throw it in the sink. Somehow, a huge chunk of the ice went right down my shirt! I jumped and of course was trying to fish the COLD ice out and while doing so almost came out of my shirt. The girls were laughing hysterically at me and Cat said, “And That’s why I love my Step-Mom so much! She does stuff like that all the time.”

Ok, that's the end of the Graduation Party. Next will be Graduation Day!