I'd make sure you have some decaffeinated varieties of drinks, and bottles of water. Make some coffee too even if it is hot outside.. I find many people like a cup in the afternoon.

For people who don't like cake, cookies would be nice. If you have a Aldi's nearby, they sell the refrigerated break-apart and bake cookies that are really very good! Several people commented on them and asked me for the recipe! lol

How about adding a cold pasta salad? And some sliced cheese to the sandwich bar?

Sounds like a great selection of food to me! Congratulation to the graduate!

I was at a grad party this weekend. She made mozzarella/tomato/basil kabobs - (kind of a caprese kabob.)
Also fruit kabobs.
A really cute treat was a mini peanut butter cup with a chocolate square on top, with a mini icing ribbon to look like a graduation cap. They were stuck on a toothpick and standing on a piece of thick cardboard

Here is a good lemon cake recipe, if you don't mind using a mix.

Perfect Lemon Picnic Cake
1 package lemon cake mix
1 3-ounce package lemon instant pudding mix, right from box
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon water
4 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 6-ounce can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed but undiluted
2 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

Combine cake mix, pudding mix, water, eggs, and oil and bake according to cake mix directions in a 9x13-inch pan. While cake is baking, combine lemonade concentrate with confectioner's sugar. After baking, immediately poke holes all over the cake with a long pronged meat fork or something
similar. Then pour the lemonade mixture all over the top and let it seep in. Return to oven for 5 to 10 minutes.

since it is summer I always like a fruit selection like various melons, watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe, and berries strawberries, cherries, grapes etc.

the snowball cake is a good summer desert we like. you can color your coconut too if you wanted a pink one or one to match the school colors etc.

Snowball cake
1box white cake mix
1 (6oz) can crushed pineapple drained
1 (6oz) can pineapple juice
1 large box vanilla instant pudding
1 (8oz) pkg. Cream cheese
1 (9oz) container cool whip
1 large can coconut

cook cake as directed. When cake is cooled, remove from pan. Punch holes in cake with a fork or skewer and pour pineapple juice over it.
Top cake with crushed pineapple. Set cake aside. Prepare pudding as directed on package. With electric mixer, mix cream cheese with pudding. Spread over crushed pineapple. Frost entire cake with cool whip. Sprinkle on coconut. Refrigerate

This is a KT favorite. First time I had it was at a KT gathering in Iowa!

Buffalo Chicken Dip

2 cups cooked chicken breast shredded
---
4-8 oz. Franks Hot Sauce I used 4 oz
16 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup blue cheese or ranch salad dressing **used buttermilk ranch
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese, divided **used finely shredded fiesta blend

Preheat Oven: 350�

Combine chicken with 1 cup of cheese. (Adjust the amounts of hot sauce to make the dip mild, medium or hot per your own taste.)

Heat the hot sauce, cream cheese, dressing until melted

Add to the chicken and cheese

Pour mixture into a greased baking dish and sprinkle with remaining cheddar cheese. Bake at 350� F for 25 to 30 minutes.

Used an oblong baking dish sprayed with pam

Okay I'm going to chime in as a Mom who did 3 grad parties....Plan how much food you THINK you will need...then cut it in HALF! The reason I say this is that people often go to more than one open house, so don't fill themselves up at any one. The people i've told this to who have done it..still have A LOT of left-overs..think of how it might be if they'd made the entire lot!

Plus more variety just means more work for you. You want to enjoy the day too.

The only thing I would add is water. People seem to like that more than anything else, expecially on HOT days.

Vickey

I made the grad caps from mini peanut butter cups and squares of chocolate on top, then thin strips of twizzles and M&M as the tassles. They were a huge hit with everyone. The party was in Houston outside by the pool, so I had to keep the candies iside till the last minute. Fortunately, the kids snapped them up before they melted!

Looks like you have everything covered. maybe just a plain garden salad with dressing on the side.
I believe it is better to have left overs than to not have enough.
What you might do is not put it all out at once. I know that I don't like to keep things that were out for hours. You can keep an eye out and replenish as needed.
Then your "left overs" will be what is still in the fridge.

I agree with Vickey MN. It looks like you are going to be having a lot of food left over especially if there's a lot of other parties going on at the same time. When we have lots of parties on the same day, I eat just one or two things at a party and I cut the portion sizes way down. There's nothing worse to me that going to the last party and not eating a thing. But that's just me. Others will be able to chime in. Don't make anymore. BTW - it sounds delicious.

"I agree with Vickey MN. It looks like you are going to be having a lot of food left over especially if there's a lot of other parties going on at the same time. When we have lots of parties on the same day, I eat just one or two things at a party and I cut the portion sizes way down. There's nothing worse to me that going to the last party and not eating a thing. But that's just me. Others will be able to chime in. Don't make anymore. BTW - it sounds delicious."

TOTALLY agree! Do NOT make any more, but buy water.

IF there are other parties that day, people will barely eat at each one.
I always tell people to cut what they think they need in half for graduation open houses.... just like vickey!

The cake and water will all go....

I think you have a lot going on and may end up wasting more than you think. Is there a chance that no one will even eat the Kraut? Do you need both the turkey and turkey salad? I'd picked one and then offer tomatoes and lettuce with it. Are you having a Nacho Bar, and a taco salad, and what appears to be the makings for tacos too (what is the shredded cheese for)? It seems a little too much. I'd simplify or try to condense some of what you have.

If you want to add stuff, I'd do a bar cookie (or just buy choc. chip cookies if you don't have time to bake) and some sort of pasta salad, maybe an orzo salad. This one is really good:

Here is a link that might be useful: Spinach Oro Salad

I agree with water! It seems that more people will drink bottled water over pop. It's cheaper too! :) Make sure you have a way to keep it cold. Buy ice if you need it.

You menu sounds very good, but I would simplify it and just go with "one" thing - salad bar, or hot dog bar...

We send 120 invites and had 325 people here. There was only one other party that day, and not at the same time, so people came and ate. I had just enough, but nothing left over.

Around here, the kids hand out invites and also do Facebook invites, so you have to factor in that number (that is the "open house" part of it! :) )

If there are several grad parties - as the others said, you will not need nearly as much food.

Is this at your home? Do you have enough tables and chairs? I rented those ahead of time. The garage/house cleanout and revamp was a year long process - LOL!

KEEP NOTES! If you are having more grad parties down the line - keep track of who you invited, who you forgot to invite (whoops) how much food, how many drinks, what you used for decorations, etc.

I would be freaking out! LOL! Around here the grad parties are a big deal and they take some preparation - LOL - so last minute might be good. None of that anxiety!

We also had a video slide show playing - almost every party does. Those are so fun to see! Pictures from the life of the grad. So sweet - most of these kids I have known since they were born.

No more recipes or suggestions for food, but here is how we kept our cold stuff cold. Line a wheel barrow with heavy plastic, or use the kiddie pools, and fill with ice. You can set your cold salad type stuff down in the ice in these, and you can use one for drinks also. You could also use a new short garbage can filled with ice for drinks. Please report back and let us know how it all went.

Congratulations to the grad!

Tami

Thanks for all the great input! We'd already considered some of the things you mentioned, but I hadn't thought to put them in my initial post.

Besides the soda and beer, we do plan to have plenty of iced water on hand, along with lemonade and coffee.

Cookies would be nice, but I think quite time-consuming to make. We don't have an Aldi's within more then a couple hundred miles :-( Cold pasta salad would be a good addition and I think I might do that! I've added cheese to the sandwich bar list.

The mini peanut butter cup with a chocolate square on top, with a mini icing ribbon to look like a graduation cap, sound really cute. I don't know if I'll have time or not, but will keep this one in mind!

We have the kraut on hand, and we like it ourselves, so it's being included. We'd like to have lots of good 'toppings' for both the hot dogs and the nachos, and variety is important to us. We are having the hot dog bar and the nacho bar because we want them. The Taco salad (in addition) seems a bit much, but that is there because it was always Emi's favorite and her aunt Sara wants to make it for her grad party and her feelings would be very hurt if we told her not to bring it. Same for the deviled eggs.

We're having the salad bar along with the hot dog and nacho bar because we want to provide for people who don't like hot dogs (not everyone does, and I'm not crazy about them myself usually). Plus we want sides. Setting up separate 'bars' is just a kind of cute way I wanted to do it, instead of one long potluck type serving table.

Iowagirl, your 325 people for 120 invitations just stuns me! My hat's off to you for handling them all!!!

This isn't going to be at our home. We've rented the VFW hall for the day. We get the keys at 4:30 p.m. Friday and have it as late as we need (for cleanup) on Saturday. It is small, but it is what we could afford. Our home is just too small for something like this, we have a very small yard so couldn't do a tent, etc, outdoors at home. The hall has 10 tables and a long bar with stools. We'll need 4 tables for food, gifts, etc. There are also 5 large tables that we can set up outdoors. We have a tent top (10 x 20) that we can set up over the outdoor tables in case of rain.

It's not that we didn't do any planning ahead of time, I just felt the need for a little more input on the menu. Most of the people around here do grad parties potluck style, with lots of people bringing food. I don't feel comfortable asking my husband's family and friends for that kind of help (other then the one or two who volunteered) so am planning something I can pretty well handle myself. And this is my LAST grad party! LOL! My first child graduated in the 1990's! I've had enough! I'm done after this one :-)

Several of the suggestions won't make it to the grad party list but I'm already making a list for us to do either 'just for us' or for other events this summer. Mozzarella/tomato/basil kabobs - sound absolutely DELICIOUS!

Several of you mentioned some great sounding cake recipes. If we didn't already have a centerpiece cake and cupcakes on the menu, I would try one of them. As it is, I'll keep the recipes on hand for later in the summer.

Buffalo Chicken Dip sounds delicious! We already have plenty of meat items though, so I think we'll try this one later. Maybe for Independance day!

Vickey, I hear you about the numbers! I had tons of food left over when my oldest had her grad party some 14-15 years ago! In this case, I'm planning for about a hundred people. We sent out about 85 formal invites, plus many more word of mouth. By doing the hot dog and nacho bars, we can run to the store for more if supplies run short, and we can put just part of them out at a time, so any extras can be kept frozen (hot dogs) or just in the bags (corn chips) for use later throughout the summer. I HATE trying to calculate the numbers. I don't think you can EVER get it right!

There shouldn't be many parties going on that day. We are at the tail end. Emi's ex-boyfriend is having his party that same day, but earlier and it will be over before ours. While some of the invitees are the same, we have a huge number of relatives and also work and other friends of Emi's dads who will not be going to the ex-boyfriend's party. My family and most of my friends are far far away, so unfortunately won't be here. But Gary has a really big family (there are 10 sibilings, including him, all of them in this area -lots of neices, nephews, etc).

There is a refrigerator at the hall, but Tami, I love your ideas for keeping food cold. I think I'll use the wheel barrow idea at camp later this summer. For this one though, I told Gary about the wheel barrow and he said he already had an idea. He works at a company that manufactures bath tubs. They always bring a bath tub to put ice and drinks in at their company picnic each summer. Gary said he's going to do the same for the grad party!

Thanks again. I'll let you know how it all goes. You guys are the BEST!~

Your menu sounds great. I also think you are going to have a lot of left overs. I would probably scratch the sandwich bar and just buy some taco shells and turn it into a taco/ nacho bar.

Jel48, congraulations to your daughter.That is going to be some grad party. Everything sounds delicious. Especially the hot dogs! I don't have anything to add except to wish your DH lots of luck!! Did he know what he was getting into when he volunteered to chop! Bless that man!!!

Have a wonderful time and, please, save me a hotdog ;-)

Taking the day off today to cook. Thought you might like an update :-)

12 pounds of taco meat for the nacho bar - done!
6 - 12 oz pkgs of pasta for the pasta salad - cooked!
2 cake pans of brownies - being frosted (by Emi)
150 mini cupcakes baked - (by Emi) waiting to be frosted
1 huge pot of chili for the hot dog bar - simmering!
10 pound turkey roast roasted - waiting to be sliced and ground for turkey salad!

Three bean salad is next!

I think we're on schedule.

enjoy

The party is over! It was a great success. We had about 80-85 people there, and yes, tons of food left over! I planned for close to the right number(planned for 100), but of course I expected them to eat way more then they did!

Here's a picture of the cake that Emi's oldest sister made for her party. This is only the second one that she's tried decorating and I think she did a lovely job. Not professional yet, but very pretty and imaginative!

And another pic, of Emi with her dad (back to the camera) and a great aunt and uncle.

WOW! That cake turned out beautiful. Can't believe it's only her second one. Looks like everyone had a great time. Thanks for sharing.

Sounds like a success! The cake looks lovely.. she did a great job.

We had way too much food at our graduation party too! We're eating some of the leftover pasta this week and still have some in the freezer.

Very cute cake and graduate!
Glad you had fun.

"We had about 80-85 people there, and yes, tons of food left over! I planned for close to the right number(planned for 100), but of course I expected them to eat way more then they did! "

Yep!
People ALWAYS make too much for grad parties.
I tell everyone to plan what you think you need, then make half.

Glad you had a great day!

Congratulations to your daughter!

The menu sounded delicious and the cake looks wonderful!

So glad it went well for you. Now you need to put your feet up and rest...

Very nice!

Throw another party with those leftovers!! invite us!!