A Whirlwind Weekend

Hey y'all,

So this weekend has been a bit of a whirlwind and I thought I would share a slice of my life. *beware of picture overload!

Friday was very busy at work but I was able to have a nice lunch out with friends during the middle of the day. After work I hit the road and made it to my parent's house in time to enjoy some yummy bbq ribs and chicken. The rest of the night was spent hanging out with my big bro, kDw, and catching some of TLC's Friday Bride Day. I mean, I don't have cable so I need to cram in my Say Yes to the Dress and I Found the Gown when I can. 

Saturday began at 5am. Yep, 5am on a Saturday since we had to hit the road by 6am for kDi's college graduation. We were out of the driveway on time and hit the McDonald's on the way. It had been so long since I enjoyed one of these.

We got to the PNC Arena a bit early so we had to wait in line for the doors to open but hey, we ended up with the perfect seats. The KID sister was one of 100 valedictorians, aka she graduated with a 4.0 GPA! Yep, she is a smarty pants which also meant she was seated at the front of the arena (sorry for the bad iPhone pics, I got the nicer camera later). 

Selfies before the ceremony!

Yep. Perfect seats. She also made it on the jumbotron due to her grad cap and the News and Observer had a picture as well!

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After the ceremony we grabbed a couple of pictures (and yes everyone was commenting and loving the cap!)

With the graduate! I am so proud of this KID!

Yes, her initials are KID and she is the kid sister ;)

The day continued with stopping by her apartment and packing her up. Then a quick lunch at Jersey Mike's commenced before we headed to Reynold's Coliseum for her departmental graduation. Again, we got there a bit early and found great seats. The only problem was that it was 3pm and there was no air conditioning. Luckily, the ceremony was pretty short. 

The NCSU College of Sciences Department of Biological Sciences graduates

SHE DID IT!
She crossed the stage and turned the tassel!

 After the ceremony we had hours to kill before our dinner reservation so we decided to take a picture break since kDi didn't take any senior photos. Here are some of my favorites including some pictures after the ceremony with the family and a few friends.

M and kDi went to Namibia together last summer!

 Outside of the Departmental Graudation

 All of us kids

 Candid pictures are the best. 

I mean, she is a Daddy's girl after all.

 All of the family. 

Myself, Mommy, kDi, Daddy, sDe, and kDw + photobomber

I think the wolf would be proud of her cap.

Then we were off to Brasa (a Brazilian steakhouse) for dinner but of course we took a few selfies in the car. SHE IS ALL DONE! GOODBYE STATE!

 She thinks NCSU is better than UNC.

 Yes the cheesecake was delicious. The entire meal was soooo good!

 This was the sunset on our ride back to our hometown.

Sunday was a lazy day after all of Saturday's adventures. We had a nice big brunch to celebrate the graduate and Mommy. The rest of the day was spent laying around the pool reading and watching some tv. Dinner was a yummy cookout with our family friends and neighbors and then we all watched Saving Mr. Banks.

Today, I had a dental appointment (yes my dentist is still in my hometown) and took the day off so I spent a bit of time with the graduate and my siblings before hitting the road back to the Triangle. 

I hope you all had a great weekend and congrats to all the graduates out there! I'll leave you with this last picture.

Congrats....

Hey y'all,

Lots of congratulations are in order this weekend so I thought I would share:

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Congrats to all the Carolina graduates today, especially my PBX sisters (and littles!)

Little #1 kBb

little #2 mGk

Some of the PBX Seniors

*photos via their facebooks so don't re-pin please!

And since that wasn't exciting of a weekend enough....

K&D are ENGAGED!

Photo Credit: Burleigh Bodart Photography

K was president of Phi Beta Chi when I was VP and that experience brought us closer together as friends it's crazy that last year we graduated together and now she is ENGAGED! I am so happy for her and D!

Last May!

What are you celebrating today?

Commencement Questions: All About Graduation

Hey y'all,

I have seen a few people ask about other's graduation experiences and since college graduations will be occurring over the next few weeks and high school graduations in the next month or so I thought I would share my two cents about all things graduation: dress, photos, etc.

High School

The bestie, aMl and I after graduating

Dress:I attended a public high school that had very strict dress code rules for graduation (and everything else for that matter...) and therefore there was not a whole lot of room for what to wear on graduation night. The dress code included closed toe, closed heel black shoes  so I found some ballet flats (we had to walk down escalators and other stairs before even entering the and for all the previous years leading up to 2008 the girls had to wear white dresses so of course when I was a junior marshal and had to buy a white dress we knew what I was going to wear to graduation but the policy changed a few weeks before my graduation so I stuck with the dress I already had.

Senior Pictures:In my school you took your Senior photos the summer before your Senior year so that took care of that.

Announcements: My parent's ordered the school announcements and then I labeled each one with the small photo of Senior Pictures.

Day Of: So of course the day of graduation it was expected to rain. My county does our graduations at the local expo center so our school always had the 8pm Thursday night graduation slot. So instead of doing anything with my hair it was natural crazy curly.
Carry: Nothing. My graduation was very formal and we had to walk in alphabetical order into a specified seat. We even had a practice run that took a few hours so I knew that I would not be carrying anything but my parents held on to my phone and extras.

Party: There will be lots of graduation parties to attend so my family and my bestie's had a joint neighborhood shindig since we are cul-de-sac potluck people.

Refer to the rules of your graduation, my school did not even allow for cheering or yelling at all during the ceremony so that all students' names could be heard when they were read. 

College

Dress: In college I actually had 3 graduation ceremonies. One was the large graduation for all students of Carolina and then I had one for my major department and one for my Women's Studies minor. My minor department had a small gathering on one of the reading days so the dress was casual and it was more like a party (yay for small departments). So for the departmental graduation for the English department was held in the theater on campus so since it was inside and required walking across the stage making it a bit more formal so I decided to opt for my J.Crew Carolina blue silk dress. For the larger graduation I knew was outside in Kenan Football Stadium so my cotton J.Crew Lorelei in white was the way to go. I wore Jack Rogers with both dresses since I knew I had to walk across a stage in my department and walk down some steps in the Tar Pit for the large graduation. 

English Department Graduation

Large Graduation Dress

If I was graduating this year from Carolina I would be debating between these dresses:

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Senior Pictures: I had a friend take photos one Friday afternoon a few weeks before graduating since I knew then that I could spend some time at all of the major highlights of campus. As it gets closer to graduation the main points of your campus will get more crowded. It took a few hours for us between changing and viewing different locations (the Old Well, Bell Tower, Arboretum, Kenan Stadium, South Building/The Quad/The Seal, the Sundial, etc.) Be prepared that during graduation weekend the main attractions will be crowded with a line. My parent's took some photos with me after the English Graduation at the Paul Green Theater and then on the day of the large graduation we took some by the Bynum fountain.

Daddy's girl

My sorority also picked a day in which we took some photos together and then on the day of the large graduation we all met together so we could sit in the stands as one group(we don't walk across the stage or read names at the large graduation only speeches and symbolically awarding degrees). 

Before heading in to graduate

Announcements: Once again my parent's ordered the school designed announcements and since they were paying I wasn't going to argue.

Day Of: I carried nothing to my English Department graduation but during the main one I had pockets in my dress and carried my camera and phone. My parent's gave me a designated place to meet after the event since 4,000 graduates plus their families means chaos so we met over at the student stores before heading to lunch. Our large graduation is much more relaxed then the individual departments: think proposal, neon signs, balloons,etc. 

Our Graduation Address by Mayor Michael Bloomberg

To Decorate the Cap or not? I did! I knew that I wanted mine decorated and I still have my cap out in my room now. It is decor and a reminder of the last four years of hard work. It has my letters since my sisters are always with me from the beginning of my college journey to standing next to me on the day of graduation (a sister even drew my monogram). 

Party: My family and I had a small gathering at our house afterwards but we did not stay in the area long after my graduation but I had some celebration at home.

What are your graduation questions? Anything I forgot?

Peace and Blessings (and Congrats Grads!),

jDl

Hear Ye, Hear Ye: Graduation Announcements

Hey y'all,

You all know that I have a love for stationery so I was beyond thrilled when the Tiny Prints team contacted me and introduced me to their line of stationery. I had no idea that Shutterfly, a company I use all the time had a brand filled with stationery! I could spend hours on the website and if you love stationery I am sure you will agree. The team was so sweet and since I know that graduations are coming up I thought I would feature some of their adorable graduation announcements. While I always got the school designed graduation announcements, I think the more personal announcements are great for showing off your personality or even using as a graduation party invitation. 

Here are some announcements I personally love (I also love the backs of all the announcements so check out the website):

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There are even sorority announcements:

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And for those of you who love to match invitations to thank you notes, or already ordered announcements I recommend these Thank You notes, Invitations & Address Labels:

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There are so many options I wish I could graduate all over again! 

And if you have trouble thinking of what is the proper thing Tiny Prints has a whole section of Graduation Tips including:

Invitation Wording

Graduation Announcement Wording

Graduation Announcement Etiquette

When To Send Graduation Announcements

Also, if your order your graduation announcements and invitations before April 9th you can save 15% with the code APR15GRAD

Did you have personalized announcements? Have you heard of Tiny Prints?

Peace and Blessings,
jDl

This is not a sponsored post. I was not compensated but rather was contacted about collaborating with  the company.