My Mom's Weekend - Graduation Celebration

Friday night Matt and I made it up to my parent's house in time to have dinner with family! My sister was kind enough to wait for us along with my aunt and cousin who had just arrived before us from New Jersey. I didn't take any photos but there was ham, macaroni salad, and Matt made me make the pear salad again. It was a great dinner! The rest of the family (mom, dad, graya, and poppy) kept us company while we ate so we could all catch up.

Friday was an early night because Saturday was an early morning. We all had to leave the home at 9AM to get to the graduation site to ensure we got the best seats in the house, thanks to my mom's mandate. Her graduation was great even though it was freezing! The graduation took place in an outdoor music venue and Saturday morning was cold. Brrr!

So proud of my mom! Her gold tassel was because she earned honors. She was so happy!



Doesn't she look pretty in blue and gold?


After graduation my sister, Joce, and I went get a quick manicure and pedicure. It had been the first time that I have been to the nail salon in about a year. It was such a nice treat. After getting our nails done we walked over to my favorite ice cream shop, Bailey's Bubble, so I could get a kids vanilla soft serve in a cone with sprinkles. I ending up feeding three-quarters of it to the fish in the lake because we realized that we were running late for our combined celebration lunch. My cousin turned 9 years old on Saturday so it was a day of celebrating!

Here's the birthday girl



Lunch was pretty good but no one in the family can remember the name of the restaurant. Anyway here are some food.

Appetizers: pepperoni dip and fried green beans


My garden salad and Tuckerman's beer


Another cool shot of my beer and Matt's Guinness


The cheese steak that I shared with my sister. I didn't even touch the fries. Way too much food. Oh, and Matt was experimenting with a faux white background, light box, with a napkin. I think it looks silly. We're going to have to try this again.


Matt's steak tip salad which was delicious!


The view from the restaurant's porch



Again we had to get up early, Sunday morning, to say good bye to the family and then to help set up for my mom's BIG party!

It was the perfect day!


Getting ready


The dogs not-so-patiently waiting at the door (left to right, Bailey, Dudley, and Molly)


My mom got beautiful table arrangements


My dad hard at work, beer in hand, cooking up the food for the party


It wouldn't be a party with out a margarita and strawberry daiquiri maker! I forgot to take a picture of the SnoCone machine which was right next to this machine. My family likes to go all out!


Or lots and lots of alcohol.


The food:

Chicken wings


Kabobs. There was beef, lamb, and chicken.


Cheese and crackers


Shrimp cocktail


There was a lot more food too! Macaroni salad, potato salad, hot dogs, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, french bread with a pesto anchovy spread, salad, chocolate cake, rugalach, and cannolis. My family probably had about 50 people stop by throughout the day.

The middle-aged adults (which was an age range of 23 - 33 years old) snuck out to our boat for a quick spin around the lake. We didn't make it too far. It was very windy which meant their were white capped, large waves which resulted in a very wet boat!

The lake



My sister and her friend braving it at the front of the boat


After our boat trip we went back to Bailey's Bubble for my fourth (shh!) ice cream of the weekend. Yum!



It was a great weekend! Lots of fun but too much food! I did get one run in with my sister but it was after an ice cream trip (or two) so it was very slow and painful. I won't be making that mistake again. If I'm going to get ice cream I'm just going to be lazy for the rest of the day!

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend like I did! Matt and I took Monday off again so we have another short week. Hope it's not as busy as it was last week!