“A Lemony Fresh Start” Graduation Luncheon

When my younger daughter was four years old, I taught her Bible class at church. She was a quiet little thing who stayed in her own quiet corner, and I had been praying God would send her a sweet friend for her very own. Then one Sunday morning, another tiny little girl with long brown curls and red glasses wearing a smocked dress entered our classroom and our hearts. Her family was visiting that morning and so I introduced her to the class and sat her beside my own little girl. The rest is history! From that very first meeting these two girls hit it off and have been kindred spirits ever since. They’ve grown up together in homeschooling, church, life group, soccer, and the love of books and Anne of Green Gables!

Not only have these two girls been friends but both our families have been as well. Kelli (the mom) and I are friends, our husbands are friends, and our other children are friends. So, since our girls were graduating together, our families shared in all the graduation events and Kelli and I decided to combine our efforts towards the girls’ festivities. Kelli would host a luncheon honoring the girls with our life group friends, and I would host a tea for the girls with their soccer friends. The hostess for each party would plan the decorations and menu and assign the other mom some items to bring. It worked perfectly!

For the life group gathering, Kelli decided on a lemon theme with fresh lemony paper goods, table runners, and placemats. It was so all so cheerful which is so typical of Kelli and her daughters! They all have such a fun, vibrant sense of style!

I was in charge of flowers, so I put together some arrangements to match Kelli’s lemon theme and color scheme. (At the end of this post, I’ll include some photos of putting them together.)

Kelli set up the dining room for the girls and repeated the theme at the kitchen table for the moms. So pretty!

Wouldn’t you want to sit at this table with a group of ladies and some tasty food!

And speaking of food, we had a delicious lunch! Kelli prepared her scrumptious chicken salad croissants, fruit salad, chips and dip, chocolate covered strawberries (made by one of her other daughters), tea and lemonade. She asked me to bring a pasta salad and dessert. I’m craving this meal again just looking at these photos.

For dessert I made lemon curd cake and white chocolate raspberry bars.

This lemon curd cake is really tasty and you can find the recipe here.

We had such a sweet day together. Our life group is so special to us! They are some of our very best friends ever. The moms are my “bye-bye sisters” and their girls are like sisters to my girls and like daughters to me. We’ve been together for twelve years and our girls have grown up with these families, so it was only natural to have a special day carved out with just these mothers and daughters before the girls move on to their “fresh start” in the next season of their lives.

Kelli and her girls were the perfect hostesses, as always, and it was the last gathering our group had in their lovely home before they moved to Birmingham. Tissue, please. I told Kelli I will always think of her when I see lemons, haha!

Ok, now on to the flowers, if you’re interested. I purchased lemons and flowers to match Kelli’s color scheme. I started with two smaller vases and two larger jars. At first, I was going to use oasis but ended up taking it out because it was visible through the jars and not pretty.

I placed the smaller vases in the larger jars, lined lemon slices between them, and filled with some water to keep the lemons fresh.

Then I arranged the flowers in the inner vases with water.

To transport the arrangements in the car, I placed them in a wooden crate and wedged kitchen towels around the bases of the jars to keep them from sliding around. I have two of these crates from some Christmas goodies sent to my husband’s office one year. They have been fabulous to have!

Tomorrow I’ll share about the next graduation gathering which was at my house, so I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow!