Photos give guests look into kids’ past

One of my vivid childhood memories is of riding in the back seat of our Ford station wagon on a summer trip through the scorching deserts of the Southwest, with no air conditioning and two restless brothers kicking each other and me. We often were rescued from boredom by a series of Burma-Shave signposts.

Printed on giant stakes spaced about a mile apart, silly rhymes grabbed our attention and gave us a chuckle, prompting us to make up our own verses.

With a nod to that clever marketing idea, I created our own version of these posts, using photos for my kids’ high-school graduation parties. Along the walkway that led guests from our front yard to the festivities in the back was a progressive visual history of their lives from tot to teen.

Step 1: Sort through family photos of your graduate, and choose about 12 favorites that make you smile. We pulled out photo albums, loose pictures stuffed in drawers and my wallet, and identified favorites in our photo collection.

Sort and identify your favorites from the different stages of your child’s life.

Step 2: Scan and print enlarged 8-1/2-by-11-inch versions of the photos on your computer or have them enlarged and copied in color at a copy store.

For displaying 12 photos, purchase six large sheets of poster board in bright colors at a discount or art-supply store and 12 dowels or garden stakes at your hardware store. Cut poster board in half widthwise.

Step 3: Attach photos to the poster board with spray adhesive outdoors, following the directions on the can.

Attach the dowels with strong tape to the back of each photo poster. Set in the ground or in planter boxes along the path to your party.

Tip: Don’t rush through the photo finding and sorting step. Although time-consuming, it was the most meaningful experience of the party planning. As a mom of three, I found pleasure in focusing on just one of the kids for a concentrated period of time, chronicling that life with visual and sentimental memories.