Graduation Party

High School Graduation
June 27, 2017
Terms of Endearment
July 26, 2017

Graduation Party

On June 24th, 2017 we hosted a joint graduation party for our boys. Jeremy was graduating Gr.8 and Corbin was graduating high school. We decided to have the party for 30 people at our local restaurant The Leaf Grill. Everyone who rsvp’d they would be there showed up and even my friend Angela flew in from Thunderbay just for the day. She’s like the boys Aunt, a favourite aunt that likes to spoil them. This time she made these amazing cookies.

 

The Leaf staff were amazing – we didn’t have to do a set menu but rather everyone was encouraged to order what they liked off the menu. Our food, every last plate, was out within a half hour from ordering. When I went to pay the bill I was surprised it wasn’t higher. I highly recommend the Leaf – they even have some gluten free and lots of vegetarian options. Our servers were amazing including filling up my pop 50 times or so (ok I exaggerate – a little).

I managed to move around and talk to everyone that had come out. It wasn’t lost on me that five or six years ago we never would have been able to have this kind of party and even if we had tried I never would have been able to visit with people. Instead I would have spent my time trying to tame a wild boy.

 

Some of the educators that have made a huge difference in the lives of our boys and our entire family were invited and joined us. My parents, Adam’s mom, and my brother and most of his family joined us.  Really touching was the previous workers that Corbin had – one came all the way from Ottawa to join us.

It was a great party and I forced myself to keep it simple. I didn’t even buy any decorations or balloons. We had cookies and cake and that was enough. At the end I paid the bill and got to walk away from the mess. Totally worth every penny.

The best was when one of the owners approached me to remind me of the very modest dessert fee for bringing in an outside cake. He looked uncomfortable as he told me the cookies also counted as an outside dessert and he would have to charge me for those. He looked so concerned it threw me for a minute and I suddenly felt a pit in my stomach thinking maybe that very modest fee was actually PER PERSON. I must have looked a little wild there for a moment and he stepped back and waited for me to talk. I managed to squeek out “You mean it’s $5 per person?”. The look of relief on his face was some comfort to me as he reassured me it was just a $5 flat rate for each dessert – so $10 versus the $300.00 I thought he meant. Was I ever relieved and I don’t feel too dumb because my bestie Angela (the cookie maker) thought the same thing I did.

Tina Szymczak
Tina Szymczak
Tina Szymczak is a 40-something mom and wife with two spirited boys. She has worked in early intervention and as an advocate resource for families with a loved one with a disability. Now she also writes a blog about raising children with complex needs, trying not to lose your sense of self as you parent, and her struggles with mental health.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *