<p>Champagne for LizzieT ! Congrats!</p>
<p>Confetti - I’d just ask ‘What is it about school Y that makes you happier?’ Likely when the answer is verbalized it will make the decision just a little bit easier. Maybe happiness is as important as other factors. Certainly unhappiness could spell disaster.</p>
<p>Congrats to Octoberdana! And Octoberdana’s DD!</p>
<p>We’re down to two (Clark or Goucher) with Clark the heavy favorite for financial, proximity and friend reasons. We’ll have a decision next week. </p>
<p>Still deciding on every detail regarding grad party, including date and location. For those who’ve gone to some of these recently, what do you think about any of these ideas? Too goofy? Fun? Have you seen these ideas go over well – or fizzle?</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Have a globe as the guestbook. Have guests and grads pin their name to the globe with the location they most want to visit in the next decade.</p></li>
<li><p>Have flat stones as the guestbook. Guests write messages to the grad and drop them in a jar that the grad can easily bring to college.</p></li>
<li><p>Have a postcard wall. Ask guests to write the grad a note from one moment in their future. Where are they? What’s the date? What are they up to? Tack up the cards so partygoers can read them. Save the cards for a future “reunion.”</p></li>
<li><p>Before the party, create fake magazine covers (Time, New York, Discover, People, Fortune, Martha Stewart, Wired, Sports Illustrated, etc.) with headlines relevant to friends, high school, town and graduate. Put photos of grad’s friends on the covers. Who’s the cover of The Economist? Who made Vanity Fair? Post the covers around the party space.</p></li>
<li><p>Wish we we had a large video screen because I found a web service that for about $50 will stream instagram photos taken at the party on a screen.</p></li>
<li><p>Simple photo booth (no rental) – just buy a wide-image instant camera with film for about 200 instant images. Have props (grad caps, sunglasses, chalkboard messages, hats, mustaches). Let grads and guests take images and hang them on a line running around the room. Or, let folks take them home with them.</p></li>
<li><p>I really, really really want to let folks light and launch Chinese lanterns. Everything I’ve read says they’re environmentally okay now and safe but I keep having nightmares about burning down someone’s home so can’t bring myself to buy them. But, I love the idea of the grads lighting the lanterns and letting them go… </p></li>
</ul>
<p>One more question: Are small gifts for the guests expected? We’re trying to watch the budget…</p>
<p>Wow, Kelbee, what great party ideas! Thanks for sharing. </p>
<p>Congrats to every one whose child has made a decision.</p>
<p>Did I mention my sister went to RISD? And somehow I didn’t know this little tidbit. She never shared this info.</p>
<p>So looking forward to the reports about CPW. DS leaves for college weekend a week from tomorrow.</p>
<p>In what cannot be a coincidence but must be part of the OMEN, our tuitionmobile (that DS drives) is also in the shop: new engine mounts and new front and rear breaks. Price: ouch. Driving DS around for what might be the last time: priceless.</p>
<p>Hey 'rents!</p>
<p>It’s been a crazy week over here! Congrats to everyone with such good news!</p>
<p>My sleep schedule has been totally off for absolutely no reason at all! I’ve found myself coming home and sleeping, waking up around 10:30-11, and staying up all night. Good thing next week is vacation! I don’t know how much longer I could keep this up!</p>
<p>My teachers are nailing us with homework and tests since AP exams are right around the corner. I currently have a schedule completely FILLED. I have nine classes and no study halls. It’s totally exhausting, but only three more weeks until it’s all over basically! I’ll have three periods of study halls once AP exams are over…and I graduate on June 28, so that’s a long time to do nothing for me!</p>
<p>I visited UConn for a one-on-one tour of the school on Wednesday and it was nice. I think I’m going to like it there. I found myself thinking a few times throughout the visit that a rural place like UConn was the last place I imagined myself at, especially since I thought the suburbs were horrible. Oh well. The size of the campus is literally the size of my town in both population and area, so I think it’s going to be a pretty wild four years! My tour guide was a sorority girl. I was happy about it because I have always planned on joining a sorority in college, and she basically reassured me rushing in the fall will be a good decision. I’m excited to take part in the TV station. The next four years are going to be interesting!</p>
<p>As far as graduation parties are concerned, I’ve already been invited to a few! Annnnnd I still have two and a half more months (thank you, snow) until I graduate…but hey, whatever! As for me, I don’t plan on having a huge party with my friends, mainly just my family and a couple of my friends. I don’t really like throwing parties because I hate being in charge, I’d much rather go to parties.</p>
<p>In what is likely to be a vain attempt to get us to think about something else from RISD this morning, we offer you this assessment of the current situation on the Korean peninsula by a noted RISD dropout. </p>
<p>[Talking</a> Heads - Life during wartime LIVE - Stop making sense 1984 HQ - YouTube](<a href=“Talking Heads - Life during wartime LIVE - Stop making sense 1984 HQ - YouTube”>Talking Heads - Life during wartime LIVE - Stop making sense 1984 HQ - YouTube)</p>
<p>Congrats to LizzieT and octoberdana!</p>
<p>Announcements ordered, MoHo sweats in hand (we know what D13 will be wearing to school today!) I just did snapfish as I had the perfect Sr. photo to match one of the colors/design. She’s having two parties… one with two other friends (which I have no control over) and a small one with family and close friends so I think I’ll just order small note cards with family party info to include with announcement, date is yet to be determined. </p>
<p>Couple things, how the heck do the kids have time to go to admit days? Between mandatory awards ceremonies, dance - competitions and performances, D13 does not have a minute to spare. On that subject, she was going to lose her Spanish National Honor Society chord because she couldn’t miss dance (mandatory attendance) last night as there is a dance competition this weekend and the awards ceremony was last night; which really struck me as unfair. Well, a “lovely” April snowstorm intervened and the awards night was postponed. In steps IB Coordinator who happens to be gleeful for D13 as she’s a MoHo alumni; telling Spanish teacher that she’ll have D13 do some volunteering so D13 gets her chord back, w00t!</p>
<p>Rats, y’all mentioned memory boards. Sigh, another detail I’d have forgotten without this wonderful group and another project to get going on. Cake, hmmmm. It will be red velvet with cream cheese icing… beyond that? ahhhhhhh.</p>
<p>swizzle - the lady that does my nails’ son goes to UConn and absolutely loves it. Also, you amaze me, you are so mature and have really thought this all out well.</p>
<p>kelbee - D13’s male bff (lovely boy) is going to Clark, keep us informed!</p>
<p>excellent SomeOldGuy!</p>
<p>Hello All, </p>
<p>We are still undecided at our house. I thought I knew which way D was leaning (Bucknell) and now all of a sudden she’s terribly nervous that all the students there will be “too rich and snobby” (her words) not mine. I am somewhat baffled as when we visited in late Jan, she absolutely loved the college, its vibe and all the students she met.<br>
But when I suggest that Denision would be a great option (and certainly would make sense financially), she says that she’s worried she will regret not going to Bucknell. </p>
<p>She’s not great with transitions - gets very anxious in the run up to them but the actual transition itself usually goes fine. She’s not sleeping, is crazy busy with ECs, needs to find a job for the summer (not that easy when she has never really worked and will only be home for a few more months) and says she now has a C in AP Stats and a B- in AP Psych – Senioritis anyone? Only without the carefree attitude!</p>
<p>All these clever ideas / themes for grad parties are amazing to me! We’ll just do a simple open house / backyard cookout - I’ll be lucky if I get my act together enough to do any decorations beyond tables cloths and napkins in college colors (we are going to do in Aug for 18th bday and send off so college colors make more sense anyway). Guest books, favors, etc…I just can’t see those happening here…</p>
<p>^^Momofzag - my DS is headed to Bucknell this fall. I had worried about that stereotype too, but I think that most of the smaller private LACs have that image in many ways. I have been reassured here on the Bucknell forum and IRL by current students that there is quite a variety of students there, a niche for everyone.</p>
<p>IMextremelyHO (which is based only on anecdotes relayed by friends with kids or other relatives at these schools), Denison > Bucknell. I won’t go into the details here, but you can PM me if you like.</p>
<p>“How cool those of you doing cakes / decoration themes / etc. I love the ideas but never seem to follow through.” Confetti? Excuse me? We love you, but you may need to change your username. 
BTW, we appear to have the same DS; mine has texted his obituary to me as well.</p>
<p>Kelbee: Do you plan weddings too? I may need you in the next decade. I’m feeling so worthless now. I haven’t even sent my family emails about the graduation date yet.</p>
<p>Swizzle: Several of my relatives enjoyed attending UConn. Be prepared to love women’s basketball! :)</p>
<p>Thanks SOG, that was the best Dancing Mascot I’ve seen in awhile at 1:40.</p>
<p>I realize that theez are some fightin’ words, but Ldog, I match your Pitt Panther and raise you a Tim the Beaver.</p>
<p>Sadly for all involved, I’m pretty sure the only dance moves I actually knew in 1984 were all copped from “Stop Making Sense.”</p>
<p>For those of you with progeny at CPW, there is a Live tumblr. Spotted a photo of my DS, so I know he was still alive as of yesterday…and smiling. :)</p>
<p>momofzag, plenty of nice middle class kids from my area (Pittsburgh) attend Bucknell. It has a very good academic reputation, especially for engineering. My older D did not like its location (she went for an urban campus). I have had 2 nephews and a niece attend Denison, and it is a nice friendly school. They were all liberal arts type majors though, so I can’t compare the academics. Granville is a cute town.</p>
<p>Feeling just a little bit of senioritis here too. D got back quite late from an away game, finished her homework, and decided to sleep in and skip her first morning class. She just texted me that she should have slept longer, as they didn’t do much in her second class of the day!</p>
<p>momofzag - my S’s best friend will be at Bucknell next year. He is the opposite of rich and snobby. 
Eagle Scout, very down to earth and friendly. My S decided to go south (Roll Tide!) but we loved Bucknell when we visited. I don’t know anything about Denison so can’t help there.</p>
<p>I have quite a few friends with Denison degrees but from the 80’s. Denison was a different school then. Lots of prep school kids with money and very greek. It was a pretty wild party place. Wake and bakes were popular.</p>
<p>It has since changed for the better. They have had a lot of success in diversifying the campus. I suspect that it is more diverse than Bucknell but check the numbers. They got rid of the greek houses and I think they are now housed in res halls. The greek scene is very tame now.</p>
<p>Thanks to all who have weighed in on the Bucknell vs. Denison (didn’t mean to hijack the thread). I would happy for D to be at either. As a resident of Ohio for 40+ years, I, too, think Denison has transformed for the better itself over the last 25-30 years. It’s a lovely campus and we have been impressed during our several visits. I agree that it seems a bit more diverse than Bucknell but all of the small colleges we visited seemed less diverse to D than her high school.</p>
<p>Bucknell - I was surprised by how much D (and DH and I) liked it especially for a non-engineering student. Although it does seem to lack diversity, student we met have seemed down to earth, friendly, smart. I have no doubt that D could find people to connect with. Also a pretty campus and D liked Lewisburg as a small town with some shops, etc. walkable from campus.</p>
<p>I am guessing that the anxiety over the decision is just that - anxiety over having to make any decision!</p>
<p>Good morning cruisers! OK, so I hear you are tired of Champagne, so this morning we are offering Mai Tai’s. Including a cute little umbrella!! Don’t worry about drinking so early in the morning, the fruit juice counts as breakfast.</p>
<p>Kelbee: What great ideas you have!! I hadn’t thought of having the party guests DO something and I think that is a great idea. For #1 and #2 I made poster boards, one with all the Homecoming, Prom, Winter Formal pictures, one with school pictures and one with team pictures. I also had their soccer/little league etc… uniforms, so I hung a clothesline against the fence in the back yard and hung up all the jerseys of various sizes. </p>
<p>Good luck with all of the decisions. It seems these kids can’t go wrong, which makes the decisions so much harder. DS has spring break next week which will be a welcome breather. Today is an assembly at school, boys vs. girls, so DS and a bunch of the senior guys are doing a dance of some sort so I am going to have to sneak away and watch. He left the house in a suit and tie (and he is usually a sweatpants or shorts kind of guy), so that alone will be worth it. </p>
<p>Happy Friday!!</p>
<p>SomeoldGuy - Another great DJ selection! </p>
<p>Interesting reading all of the comments about Bucknell and Denison. I can’t contribute much to the conversation but the one girl I know who is a Bucknell alum told me that when she arrived on campus she was absolutely stunned by the amt. of money that her classmates and the alumni had. Not a bad thing of course, but she did not come from a wealthy family and there were many eye-opening moments for her. She loved her 4 years there however. </p>
<p>Kelbee- You are a woman after my own heart. I have not lived in the same state as my Step-D for 2 years now and the PTA at Step-D’s school STILL would like me to throw the end of the year party for the school’s faculty and staff! LOL. I tend to go over the top… : ) </p>
<p>DDHM - Well…I was ready to rumble with you but…I have to say that Tim the Beaver is adorable! And, although this is blasphemy, Michigan needs to ‘cuten up’ our beloved Wolverine. I think the Pitt Panther and the M I T Beaver could take the Wolverine in a cute contest ANY Day! </p>
<p>Happy Friday to all. :D</p>
<p>Regarding Bucknell vs Denison, let’s not forget the most important criteria - cuteness of the mascots. I don’t know what Denison’s mascot is, but my D thought the little stuffed Bison at the Bucknell bookstore was adorable.</p>