I used to wish i had had more than one child... until his senior year.. The excitement of finally making it, the pride of all the accomplishments... the $80 yearbook, the $25 cap/ gown rental,the $145 announcement pkg,the more than i care to say senior pictures,the $70 lerners permit fee,the $80 prom tickets, the $135 tux rental, the $30 corsage the etc etc etc... and now the graduation party....We are having it outdoors, we have a pool for entertainment but i'm looking for food etc ideas that might leave some money for tuition.. i'm thinking just chips and dip wont cut it... its only going to be around 40-50 people. Do people still do graduation cakes? Also does anyone know the protocol for the parties my son attends? meaning if he goes to 10 kids parties is he supposed to give a gift at each one? I think i need a tylonal.... or a drink

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"Never loan your car to someone you have given birth too"

Things may be different now but when I graduated high school in 1992, we did not give gifts to other students we went to school with if we went to their parties. If my family attended a students party, they would give a small gift and if their families attended my party, I got a small gift. Friends don't give each other graduation gifts...at least no one I knew did

For food, I would suggest something easy. We always like doing buffet of mexican food: beans (big cans are cheap at Costco), rice, shredded chicken or pork (we get this by the bag at a local mexican restaurant Taco Del Mar for cheaper than I could make it), tortillas (soft and hard shell), cheese, lettuce,tomato, onion, cilantro, chips, queso and lots of salsa!

That way folks can have tacos, burritos, nachos....or just snack with chips and salsa. It's pretty reasonable and we always have people rave about ours (we do this kind of buffet two times a year with friends/family of about 60-100).

HAVE FUN!

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

Food depends on what time of the day you are hosting the party. If you start closer to lunch time you would need more than maybe say 3:00 (most people have eaten lunch) but then the may be hungry by 5:00 so it's a little tough.

I do catering on the side and the most popular menus that we have done are pans of sliced pit meats. We do pit beef, pit ham and pit turkey. You could do them yourself if you wanted or price it at your local pit beef stand (or if you are in Maryland you can call me ) Then you would just do baskets of bread and rolls, condiments for the meats and maybe some salads.

If you live near a BJ's or Sams - they sell really good already prepared pans of pulled barbecue pork that all you have to do is heat in the oven and serve with rolls.

If you have a lot of older people - they will be looking for a meal and not just snacks. Plus if people are swimming, they may get extra hungry.

I like the suggestion of the mexican bar. Pre make the beef and chicken fajita meat and taco meat and have all the fixins. Then you can do a crock pot of nacho cheese.


On the question of your child giving a gift, I think only if your entire family was invited to the party shoudl you do a gift. If your son wants to buy a gift with his money, tell him to go for it!

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I was born free, but now I'm expensive!

At my DD's open house, we had meat and cheese trays and croissants.(I bought one tray so it would look nice and then just got deli meat to refill that one tray throughout the day) fruit salad, chips and my mother in law made potato salad. We also had a relish tray and a cake bought at Sams. Sams cakes really are pretty cheap.

We had the food in the house and the get together was outside. it just kept flys away from the food and kept it cooler throughout the day.

We had about 60-70 people here throughout the day.

I don't have any food ideas, but I do have an idea for decorating. When our daughter graduated four years ago, I made up a memory board. I decorated and filled a huge poster board with pictures from her childhood thru graduation. I included pictures of her with family, and plenty of her with her friends. Everyone loved it. It was fun for them to see not only how much our daughter had changed over the years, but also how they had changed! It started many conversations about the fun times shared in the past! By the way....congrats on your sons graduation. Its a fun and exciting time...

Not to hijack your thread, but would it make you feel better to tell you I have TWIN SENIORS?

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Wow, I could have written this! We are going through this as well. Let's add in the expenses of two overnight college visits, all the application fees, the acceptance fee, and that somehow or another, we need to buy an almost $3K French Horn for him by August. I'm not even going to talk about tuition if he doesn't get scholarships (fingers crossed). My guests will be happy to get PBJ sandwiches, carrot sticks, and tap water. lol....

Actually, one of the things I was planning on is pork bbq. The butts are starting to go on sale for btwn .69-.89lb. I can make that up ahead of time in the crockpot-probably do a total of three butts. Also, I can get a box of 40burgers for about $12, and a box of 80 hotdogs for a bit more. Of course buns, coleslaw, potato salad, chips, condiments, and a cake. I am going back and forth about booze since it is a teenagers party-although there will be more adults there. Our party will be Sat. afternoon. If I do decide on alcohol, I will probably just do bottled beer and maybe a rum punch or something-definitely not a full bar! Not quite sure how many ppl we will have-probably about the same # as you. I am thinking I can feed everyone for right around $100-not too bad at all IMO. I do like the idea of the taco bar as well-I think that would be enjoyed too. One of my friends has two two-burner hot plates that I am sure she would let me use. Might have to think about that idea instead-that would be pretty economical (and different) as well.

Im there with you too! but our yearbooks were only 75.00 crazy.
If you have a sams club their sheet cakes are good and decently cheap compared to a local bakery,
which Im all for bakery cakes but the waste that will go on isnt worth spending the money for a expensive
cake,
the kids here dont give each other money some give a card if they wish to, I know from last years parties my dd went to,
we are doing bbq chicken on a pit thankfully we know someone who is going to cook this for us, and we
will do baked potatoes on the pit this eliminates me worrying about potato salad, mac salad, those
kinds of items in the hot weather ....we are also having it in july, I may do a regular salad and maybe pasta salad, im expecting 50 people and lots of kids.
decorations and plates after the season you will find them on clearence , I havent decided what I am doing for my dd yet, but I did see the same poster board idea last year at a party it was very nice.
Oh I think I may get a guest autograph book as my dd loves things like that she can look back on.

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RIP Chibby my chinchilla 10/02/09

Yes this made me feel alot better Thank you for all the wonderfully delicious food ideas! I did find some paper items and decorations at the dollar store. We dont have a sams club but we do have a bjs. I love the memory board idea. I also like how everyone seems to go for casual, i know one girl rented the community center and is having it catered , that seems so formal. Heres a toast that we all survive!

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"Never loan your car to someone you have given birth too"