It takes a village to raise a child -Old African proverb

As we are preparing for Jack’s graduation party on Saturday, there is no truer statement than that proverb.

The invitations have been sent and the to-do lists have been written.

Over the long holiday weekend we checked several items off of the to-do list.

One of those items was to “smoke the pork butt roasts”. Jimmy and Nikki are seasoned meat smokers and have fed us several times with different recipes they have made. I was so happy when they volunteered to help. We tested some finished samples today. Delicious wouldn’t even start to describe how well the pork turned out.

But, there are some things that cannot be done for a couple more days, ie. final food preparation, grocery shopping for fresh fruit and sandwich buns.

So, that puts me in a holding pattern. I used to be in the catering business, and when we would be in our holding patterns I liked to practice the layout of the venue. In this case, the venue is my backyard.

The forecast for Saturday is sunny and 80 degrees. We will have seating in the shade, some seating in the full sun and some seating in the water.

We plan to set up the food on top of the hot tub. Around the outside of the hot tub will be coolers full of beverages and the rest of the yard will have different seating areas as well as beach toys and yard games.

And now back to my statement, it takes a village.

The neighborhood we live in is a wonderful mix of young couples, young couples with children, empty nesters and retirees. Wade and I walked around asking if we could borrow outdoor tables and chairs and everyone happily said yes and asked if they could help in any other way, just ask.

I called in a couple of favors today so I could make some signage to help guests find our home and also add some cute detail to the food table.

Ashlee, Jack’s girlfriend is an accomplished artist. I needed a fish drawn so I could use it as my menu sign. What she drew looked exactly like what I was imagining. After it was drawn I cut out the fish, painted it with chalkboard paint, stuck a pole on the back and built a stand.

(Jack and Ashlee dress like this everyday. They are so fancy. Or maybe this was from Prom 2016) 🙂

I would love to share with you this entire process because I was so proud of myself how it all turned out.

After snapping an entire block of photos consisting of Ashlee drawing, me cutting with my scroll saw, painting and putting everything together…….you guessed it, I didn’t have a disk in the camera.

Are you kidding me? Arg.

My little neighbor girl Theresa helped me set up the food area. We were deciding where to place everything so all of the menu items would fit on the table. I had some of the cutest pictures of her as she took her job so seriously, and then of course there were photos of her little brother’s photo bombing. So cute.

Theresa and I finished our work and I wanted to show her how the pictures turned out. That is when I realized the disk wasn’t in the camera.

So we recreated this entire process so I could take photos. She was such a trooper. It was too late to showcase Ashlee’s talent though. 🙁

These three were on the sign committee. Mia, Becky and Rylie.

They made the menu sign for the table, along with a sign to be posted by the road giving direction, and a sign showing our guests that they had arrived at Jack’s party.

I love how everything turned out.
Thanks for all of your help village people. 🙂

Wendy