Mr Handsome and I (grilled chicken, BBQ sauce from scratch) tidied up the yard and driveway; put a speaker in the window so we had tunes; hung a bright red apron from our portico; put out tables, with vintage cloths and napkins; used our blue-glass plates, our wine stems with blue in the stem, and the FISH GLASSES!
We put drinks in our big, metal tub with ice (Mr Handsome wanted the Blonde to bring ice, per tradition, but felt so bad that she was sick! We always forget ice and I always wind up calling her in a panic to please bring some!). Drinks means a ginormous bottle of pino grigio, Two-Hearted Ale (Bell's), IPA (Founder's) and Oberon (Bell's again). Also, some Coor's Light for Museum Girl and Law Man, kiwi-strawberry juice and milk for the kids, and baby cans of Coke products. How CUTE are those baby cans?!?! That's the only reason I bought them, their inherent cuteness - what can I say, I'm a sucker for marketing.
We also put some philodendrons outside, with my little gnomes peeking out, to dress up the driveway and back door.
Lima and her crew brought a DELISH Mexican 7-layer dip and masses of really tasty (read: salty) chips and came early, around 6, so they had to help us a bit. I had stuff for the kids: hats, bunny ears, a tiara, necklaces, dump trucks, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, crayons and huge paper, a couple other little things... but the total HIT of the party was when Furniture Couple (Magic Salad! YUM!) and their Pillow (kid) brought an artillery toy! Oh, yeah they did! It was a rocket launcher, powered by a person jumping on an air pillow. The air in the pillow is forced out through a hose to the pipe that launches the foam-padded/tipped rocket. It was a blast! heh heh - blast, get it? We also brought out our little mini-tramp for the kids to jump on, and some sparklers, once it got dark.
We had lots of chairs and the chaise lounge kinda scattered around the backyard, deck and driveway, into little conversational groups, but everyone seemed to be congregating around the grill and the food and drinks tables, so we moved them all to the driveway. Mr Handsome strung fairy lights around the perimeter of the yard and I put out lots of candles in jam jars. I'm beyond disappointed that we didn't take any pictures! My camera's battery's dead and Mr Handsome forgot his camera! WAH! The yard looked so pretty, filled up with friends. I just wish like ANYTHING I'd had my shit together more on that front.
Conversation flowed pretty well and everyone seemed to get along well. Book Doc, Museum Girl and Law Man really hit it off! Only one instance of tears: Pillow kept playing with the rocket launcher while we were eating and it hit a couple of people (one of them was me), so I told him we'd have to stop the artillery until after dinner. Tears ensued. He survived. Stickers with shiny bugs helped to dry the tears up. It's very hard being three.
Mr Handsome and I didn't get to bed until 2:00 a.m.! We both prefer to clean up the night OF the party, rather than waking up to a gawd-awful mess. I had to get up at the butt-crack of dawn for a dog call and I've felt rather unwell all day because of the lack of sleep. I only had two glasses of wine, so I KNOW it's not a hangover. But it was worth it, we both had SUCH a good time. We use to throw parties on a regular basis, much larger than this one. We were both very worried that we'd fail after being out of practice for so long. But it was a LOT of fun. I'll rally tomorrow. I've got Monday off! Except for a couple dog calls. And they're for the BEST boy-dog in the WHOLE wide world!
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