It's all about Amber, part 1

My only daughter is growing up.  (sniff)   She has turned 8.  Or is that 18?  I'm a little confused, because her favorite present was a BYU cougar pillow pet.  :)

So I will start off with the crazy two weeks of prep work for the infamous graduation weekend!  As many of you know, Bret and I have slowly been working on lots of landscaping around our house.  Last fall we decided we might need a bit of help to get it all done before Amber's graduation party.  the quote we got back for the work on the walk out basement patio and retaining wall was a bit much for us to swallow.  Like $25,000 to much!  So, we thought we'd plug along with doing it ourselves. So two weeks before the party we went into super work mode.  We new the patio for the walk out basement wasn't going to be a possibility. But we did finish the retaining wall. Also I did all the work around the deck in back, and Bret, with a little help from Bruce, and his Bobcat, were able to finish the "great wall" off the west side of the house.  We were blessed with good weather, and were able to finish the front as well.  LOTS of buckets of rock being carried up by me, Jaime, and Amber, with Ben, Sam, and even Keaton filling those buckets.  We bought a lot of plants, and planted till our hands were blistered and bleeding.  But it was getting done.  We have some grass to plant and a few more little things to finish off, but the big stuff is done.  Let the party begin. 

I asked a friend of mine who did a graduation party last year, for some advise.  She said get a caterer!  So I hired a friend of mine from the wellness center who said she did catering on the side.  Best thing I ever did.  Amber wanted a chocolate fountain, lots of fruit to dip it in, lots of cookies, peanut butter balls, cake and punch.  Yummy stuff!

The weekend started off with my parents coming in on Thursday night, and with it came the lovely mid-west winds!  30 mph SE winds with 40+ wind gusts.  Well living out where we are, there isn't any wind breaks.  So all the plants and furniture and flower pots I had all over the front porch to make it pretty had to be moved inside or to the north side of the porch, where no one would see it.  All the balloons were either popped or torn off.  I had a lot of seating for people out on the back deck and the front porch that we couldn't use.   I was mad!  All that work we did outside wasn't even going to be seen!  My back deck and front porch couldn't even be used, because of the winds that blew for 3 days strait!!!  I really hate wind.  But After everything got set up inside, with the food, the sign-in table, all of Amber's child-hood pictures, and awards displayed all over the house, I was okay.  And at 2:00 our first guests started showing up, and they didn't stop till after 6.  It was a great party, lots of Amber's friends came, and teachers and our friends from town, and church, and family, it was just great!  Mel and Tina, kept the food table full and everyone was happy.  I'm glad it's over!