three years ago...

She had just graduated from college and was excited about moving to Seattle to begin law school.
That graduation ceremony was utter misery.  SO SO hot, well over 100, it was outside and it took hours.  President Obama gave the speech, so the stadium was packed.  There were secret service men walking on the roof of the stadium and I thought that was kind of cool.  Seriously, look at all those people...

Misery I tell you.

This time, for her law school graduation, it was very different.  There were only 180 graduates, it was inside and it was out of state.  We kept it very low key, brunch before and ice cream after.  Different but nice.

I was thinking about the shindig we threw three years ago, after that giant heat furnace graduation.
We moved all the furniture out of the living room, rented tables and chairs etc., the colors were pink/green and we had a candy favor bar - such fun.  Thought you might enjoy taking a peek, because who doesn't love a party?

bringing in clippings from outside for last minute centerpieces

setting up the buffet

I was up at midnight the night before finishing these.  They were supposed to have green polka dots but I couldn't get them right - a blob in the middle is all I could muster.  Tasted good so hopefully that made up for my poor frosting job.

Those cups with the veggies sticks and dip in the bottom were genius - don't remember where I saw the idea but I'll be using it again.  Also fun were those caprese salad skewers.

the candy favor table.  i should have hung something at the back.
our living room wall wasn't the best back drop.

close-up of the goodies.  took me a while to accumulate all those  jars!

and my favorite - the drink station...

That Ikea piece was perfect.  I put all the extra drinks in the lower cupboards, made for easy restocking.  That glass jar with the raspberry lemonade looks nice but the raspberries kept floating down and blocking the spout.  Drove me nuts.  How do people prevent this?  Yes, I made custom water bottle labels - pink and green circles with her name and congrat's of course.

So, no party this year.
At first I was a little sad when she said she didn't want one but after looking at these photos from the last one, and knowing I'm incapable of a small affair, I'm kind of relieved!