We held the event at Winterham Plantation.
Elliott is pursuing a career in agriculture. To read about his plans, click here. Elliott and Oliver:
We were so blessed that over 200 of our friends and family came out to celebrate Elliott's graduation with us and to spend the afternoon feasting, square dancing, and fellowshipping!
We planned a feast for the meal! We were grateful for several sweet girls who offered to help serve food.
We bought plain white aprons and I added a fabric ruffle to the hem and monogrammed each girls' name on her apron.
Oliver constructed "pineapple palm trees" for the fruit display. We used brown sugar for the sandy beach.Oliver also created cute dolphins out of bananas, cherries, and cloves.
Oliver, "The Hog Rancher", served one of the hogs he raised. It was cooked whole and we put an apple in his mouth and cherries in his nose.
Many people said it was the best pork they had ever eaten!
Our grandmother (Mama's mother), Oma, feeding Sheridan:
After the food was served, both Daddy and Mama said a few words about Elliott and how proud they are of him.
Then the square dance began!
When sorting through our pictures after each dance we attend, it seems we always find one of Oliver striking some totally random move:
We hired a caller who brought several folks that showed people how to square dance.
Cute cowboys discussing something important:
As some of the folks square danced, Mama began serving her homemade strawberry ice cream.
Leigh, Micah, and Cullen-- Micah also posted an entry about the afternoon at her blog.
Our grandparents (Daddy's parents), PaPa and Pat-Pat (facing the camera), were such a tremendous help to us. They came to our house on Friday and began helping with food preparation. PaPa even got up at 2:30 Saturday morning to begin cooking the hog. Pat-Pat did the cole slaw and hush puppies, as well as helping us so much with keeping the house in order (dishes, laundry, etc.) as we hurried around with preparations on Friday and Saturday morning.Uncle Dallas and Aunt Brenda (Pat-Pat's cousin; on the side of the picture) came early to the plantation on Saturday morning and helped a lot also.
Mama found Sheridan a denim jumper at a thrift store and added plaid ruffles to the hem and I monogrammed the front and added Sheridan's name.
The last time Alli and I had our picture taken together was shortly before Alli's wedding. Now, just 5 months later, Alli is pregnant with their first baby! :)
Abigail, Sheridan, and I
We were so blessed to see so many friends and family. Most of our friends and family had to drive 1-3 hours to come to the event, so we were so incredibly blessed that so many made such an effort to celebrate with us. It was such a fun day for our family!!
After we finished cleaning up, we returned home to the huge amount of unpacking ahead of us. Shortly after we arrived, Daddy found a healthy little heifer calf standing next to a cow that supposedly wasn't even due for another month and a half! We bought the mama cow after she was bred, so the previous owner must have had her dates mixed up. "Ellie", named to commemorate Elliott's Graduation Party, was an unexpected blessing at the end of our great day!
