Another idea... Since the guests are folks who've know her since babyhood...when you send out the invites-include a page from a smaller sized photo album (one with 2-3 ring holes so it can be inserted by her the day of the celebration. The size of the album should have pages that will hold the photo & memory card on the 1 page. Print a'what to do' directions to include with the invite (send in a manilla envelope to fit the photo page)stating to please place a photo of her they have taken, and also include a recipe sized card for them to write down what the occasion was when the photo was taken and/or what special meaning it has for them. If they don't have any photo (from birth thru the present-perhaps you or another family member would give that person one to use. Then...(you still with me? LOL) place a ladder at the party location-place an 8x10 photo of her (Sr photo?) on the very top of the ladder with a sign under it saying : "___'s (her name) Ladder of Life". You can tie cording to each side of the ladder, with clothespins threaded on it (to hold the photo/memory cards that each guest brings. A little sign dividing the rungs of the ladder into sections (Babyhood, Toddlerhood, Elementary, High School)-guests would pin their page of the album into the section when the photo was taken, along w/their memory card. You can decorate the sides of the ladder with bows, school colors or party colors. You'd give her the empty album when she gets ready to open cards-have her read each & then place it in that section of her Memory Album. I've done this w/all 3 of my children & a couple nieces & nephews-well received by all and a treasured album for the graduate!

I did get teary at each HS graduation....the speeches, etc just bring that out. Where I broke down was saying goodbye at the college dorm. With DS 1....he went to our state U less than an hour away...his first choice school. It was hard but I told him he was not allowed to come home for the first six weeks unless it was an emergency. I had heard stories of too many kids coming home every weekend and never immersing themselves in campus life and I wanted him to get involved, meet new people, and have the same experience as if he were miles away. He was rooming with best friend since toddlerhood and lots of other HS friends there as well so plenty of support. We all survived those six weeks just fine. With DS 2..our youngest...I felt somewhat guilty shoving him out of the nest since he was our homebody and the most likely to get homesick. I think he would have been happy to stay home and go to junior college, but his major was unusual and not offered by many schools and you had to take prerequisite classes freshman and soph years so off he went...12hours away not knowing a soul and a roommate from our area who never returned his "get to know you" calls and turned out to be 24! Roommate was a deadbeat and I worried all first semester about whether he could cope with everything. (Fortunately he was able to switch roommates second semester). He blossomed! He spent a semester in Bangkok. He formed a campus organization for a cause he became passionate about and works in that field today for a major non-profit. Hardest might have been DD....for 11years it was usually just the two of us going to practices and competitions for her sport. She went to school 6 hours away...I drove home alone as DH had to fly out from there for work. I sobbed all the way home. Was so distraught I missed an exit and didn't realize it for 20 minutes. I think I even pulled off to a rest stop just to cry. The upside was she loved the school, made great friends and it was a joy to see her come into her own after a not so great high school experience. She still lives there. Fast forward....they are all grown and gone....and we love having the house to ourselves!!! The boys live close by so we see them regularly, one is married. Of course we love seeing all of them and having them over and although it was an adjustment, we love the empty nest too!

Thanks guys! I just saw a thing a while back on Carol's show; making an evening gown box, & I decided to make a card; using a doily I had.

I'd send a card and a note with best wishes to the whole family. I have never sent a graduation announcement nor received one. I have heard from distant friends that Susie or Johnny is graduating, but never a formal announcement. It seems to me that people who know one another KNOW when someone is graduating and send cards or gifts as they wish. If you don't know them or they don't know you well enough to KNOW these things... It just seems odd to me. Would you expect to send or recieve an announcement that someone has been hired for a job or is promoted? (Today, that might be worth announcing! LOL) We get invitations to weddings, confirmations, bar/bas mitzvah's, showers, etc. If I'm invited to *attend* an event concerning someone I KNOW I send a gift whether I attend or not -- because the invitations come from close friends.