Over Spring Break it hit me that Holden’s First Holy Communion was less than a month away and I hadn’t given much thought to his reception and invitations!
I had a color scheme in mind {mostly navy & green}, but not really a “theme”. As I was strolling through Target last week, I spotted these Mara Mi notecards and immediately knew that an anchor was going to be the icon for this big milestone in Holden’s faith journey.
“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” ~ Hebrews 6:19
Perfect!
I’ve also been on the hunt for a tie to complete his outfit for the big day. I immediately searched on-line for an anchor tie and settled on this one via Etsy…
Boom!
Trying to keep the decor simple and use things I already have. Did a search for FREE anchor printables and found this one that I adore and ties in with everything…
Following this very special weekend is Elliott’s big double digit birthday celebration so I am in full swing with the party planning. There is nothing that makes me happier than seeing our kiddos at their parties & celebrations with friends and family.
This past weekend Elliott celebrated her first holy communion.
When given two dates to choose from, I decided to go with Saturday the 11th of May so that it would fall on Mother’s Day weekend. My in-laws and mom would be in town and we’d all be able to celebrate Mother’s Day together for the first time, as well.
But honestly the focus was on our sweet, sweet almost 8-year old and her special day.
I really can’t put into words the pride and joy I felt. We were given several blank cards to choose from at the communion retreat and instructed to write our child a note and give it to them the morning of their mass. I tuned out the hustle and bustle, sat and wrote her words from my heart, took her aside and had her read it. She immediately gave me a hug and said, “Thank you, mommy!”
She was confident. She was ready.
Some days she fights me when it’s time to go to CCD, but I’ve never backed down and every time we arrive and I walk her to her room, she runs in and doesn’t even say goodbye. I’m OK with that.
She’s memorized all her prayers and even got 100% on her cumulative quiz. She performed her first reconciliation like a {pro} in early February. I had NO doubt that she was going to make us just as proud as she received her first eucharist.
And proud we were….
{We found her dress at Nordstrom. It’s actually an Easter dress and was a fraction of the cost of their communion dresses sold on-line. I wanted simple and classic, yet with a twist and I think this was perfect. Her little shoes are from Payless and her veil is from the parish gift shop. ~ Thank you to Lolo & Lola for her dress and Gramma Kathy for her cross earrings and matching necklace! XO}
Jay and I hosted a little dessert celebration that evening and I had so much fun planning and preparing for that. Obviously.
I found some sweet notecards at TJ Maxx and used those for the invites. Again, I just format the text and run them through the printer for a “professional” look.
Of course the main color of the day was WHITE so I tried my hardest to stray away from the bright, vibrant colors that I love so much. I knew there was going to be some tulle involved since, to me, that is so light and delicate and reminiscent of the veils worn by the little girls.
I covered our huge Cinzano picture in brown mailing paper and then hung a few embroidery hoops from the tulle. I found a small remnant of while polka dot fabric at Joann’s as it complemented the little dots on her dress.
I’d also seen a balloon chandelier on Pinterest and went off memory when putting that up…
I had no idea what I was doing…just picked up a bag of 10 gold {accent color} balloons and some white iridescent curling ribbon, blew up the balloons, cut a long piece of ribbon, curled the bottom half of it and hung it with tape on the ceiling so that the curly part hung down. Simple as that. I hung all 10 balloons over the center of our big table.
We decided to just do desserts and drinks and I wanted everything to be white. I went with my favorite sugar cookie bars, white chocolate covered strawberries, white chocolate covered pretzel rods, TJ’s vanilla meringues and at the last minute we picked up an ice cream cake for the kids.
It was just lemonade for the kids and beer and wine for the adults…
I finally picked up the stemless wine glasses I’ve been wanting for years for the occasion.
I wanted all the families to go home with a little something so I found some small wall plaques at Dollar Tree, swapped out the ugly ribbon and repackaged them. I think we all can benefit from a little reminder of FaItH & hOpE once in awhile.
FAITH is inspiration for the future.
HOPE never falters or gives up.
Amen.
The kids chalked up our court with the help of the street lights. Elliott desperately wanted me to take a picture at 10:30pm, but I had to wait until daylight to best capture her work…
Here are some other favorites from the day…
*****
Thank you to all who came to the church for the mass and to our home to celebrate and for all her precious gifts ~ perfect reminders for her down the road of this special day and tokens of our faith.
It was a truly blessed day.
Can’t wait to do it again in two years with Holden.
Elliott is receiving her first holy communion this weekend.
It’s a big deal.
I know this because I just went through it myself about 6 weeks ago.
She’s been preparing for this since October and she is so excited. Her catechist has done such a fantastic job this year paving the road to her first reconciliation and now her eucharistic sacrament. I think it helped that she watched me being baptized, confirmed and receive at the Easter Vigil. She is ready and we can hardly wait to witness this solemn, yet powerful, milestone.
We’ve been shopping and selected her dress with Lolo and Lola. She chose her veil all on her own {I zipped my lips ~ promise!} at the parish gift shop and we tracked down Monsignor Mike to bless it. We’ve been practicing taking the host and sipping the wine at home.
And then there was the shoe issue.
She wanted sandals with HEELS.
WHITE sandals with heels.
Like these…
I said absolutely not and may have played the {sandals are not allowed} card.
I just couldn’t do it.
Her dress is darling and extremely simple. I wanted her shoes to also be classic and sweet.
Without heels.
I scoured several stores ~ Famous Footwear, Kohl’s, Target, Wal-mart {just couldn’t go through life knowing I purchased her first communion shoes at Wal-mart, sorry}, Marshall’s and Ross.
Then a mom that I totally adore and value her style and taste mentioned that she got her daughter’s shoes at Payless and that they had several styles to choose from. I immediately logged on and clicked through the white dress shoes and found these cuties…
Delicate little ruffles with the ever so tiny sparkle of a few rhinestones.
And FLAT.
Adore.
AND they were $5 off.
ANNNNND when I got home and showed them to her she squeeeealed, “They have heels!”
Win. Win.
Everyone’s happy and she’ll be an inch closer to the ground ~ at 7 {allllmost 8} years old, that is a good thing.
I suppose one could argue that the higher the heels, the closer to GOD………
Cannot argue with that.
*****
Looking forward to your day, Elliott Elizabeth Aspiras…Saturday, May 11, 2013 is going to be so, so special.
