Thankful for Family

My mother's extended family came for Thanksgiving.  I love this picture.  It is after dinner, people have broken up into smaller groups to talk and watch football, and Uncle Bill takes the opportunity to sneak in some shut eye.  Blame the tryptophan.

Cicely set up a craft table in her room and the kids created turkeys, pilgrims, and for some reason lots and lots of rabbits.

Playing Game of Things.  My favorite game of all times.  This is the first time I have played with kids.  I had to clean up my gutter mouth but it was still loads of fun.

Everybody is a Star

We got our clear sky but did not see terribly many shooting stars, just a couple that elicited an "oooohhhhh".  Apparently the peak time was between 3am-5am.  Still good food, better company. 

"Take me to your leader."

Cosmic lemonade, photographed by Cicely.  This is a kids' beverage with a bottle of Rose's Blue Raspberry Cocktail (non-alcoholic), two quarts lemonade, and one pint lemon sparkling mineral water.  I put in blue star shaped ice cubes made from Fierce Grape Gatorade.  They lasted about 15 minutes. 

We did a celestial snacks potluck.  There was White Russian Ice Cream; Rings of Saturn Trifle (a drunken caramel apple trifle); star shaped cupcakes and cookies; and a cosmic snack tray with Milky Ways, Starbursts, Orbit Gum, and Lucky Charms among other goodies.  I also made a stellar pasta salad with star shaped pasta, grape and pear tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh basil, parmesan, and a bottled romano basil vinaigrette.   

Tomorrow, Star Party music.  Then on to preparation for next weeks party---my brother-in-laws graduation.

S'more Please

This is my 100th post.  Cue streamers and balloons.  Huzzah! 

One must have a sense of humor when they are executing a Nature Party in July in Nebraska.  It was hot, oppressively hot.  Luckily, our neighbor was kind enough to offer up her swimming pool to my wilting guests.  Not exactly a deep and focused meditation on nature but sooooo much more practical and welcome.  We did get to do smores.  But the hot sweaty crowd  passed on a timed nature scavenger hunt and lightening bug catching.  I can't say I blame them.

The very DIY firepit--a recycled washing machine drum.  It is wonderful at night with all of the little dots of light shining through the sides.

Clare preferred her marshmallows plain, thank you very much.

Independence: Part II

Last night was the second of our July 4th parties.  The weather was milder than last week and people were  able to enjoy the patio.

My mother glowing like an angel (I am the family sycophant).  She is drinking a Cran-Cracker.  The recent issue of Food Magazine had drinks rimmed with Pop Rocks.  You simply wet the edge of the glass with a lemon wedge and dip it in Pop Rock.  I just put in cranberry juice and a shot of vanilla vodka.  It cracks and pops as you serve it.  Very Nice.  Warning:  you only get one or two glasses out of every packet of Pop Rocks as they get gummy fast. 

My great niece, Gabi, all gussied up in her patriotic duds.

My plate and many, many drinks.

It Was a Blast

The bar area.  I am extraordinarily skilled at losing my drink.  I set it down and walk off (repeatedly).  I have taken to tying different ribbons to the stems of wine and cocktail glasses to help with the lost drink identification process.  This seems like the most logical step before milk cartons.  

Yvonne was one of the birthday girls.  It was one of those nights where I had such a nice time talking and catching up with people that I forgot to take a lot of pictures.

 

We have a large indoor fireworks stand about a block from our house.  So the question of the evening from the kids was, "When are we going to get fireworks?"  They passed the time with snappers until the heavy artillery came out.

**DON"T FORGET ABOUT THE GIVE AWAY!!! The person who brings the most followers to Shindig Spree before July 5th will win the fireworks decorations featured on the June 21st post. Good Luck!

Red Red Wine

I might still be recovering from the Red Wine Party.  It is hard to tell.  The hit of the party was a Malbec that Jason and Blaine selected.  I think Jason knows more about wine than the rest of us put together.

Sparkling cocktail conversation by Wendy and Tara.  Baby Owen enjoyed milk, not red wine.

Later in the evening we broke out the game "The Game of Things".  There should be a two drink minimum for this game.  It is hilarious.  The game poses innocuous questions like, "What item should not be stored in a china cabinet?"  My favorite answer to this one was Wendy's "your children".  Another was "What rule would you impose as dictator?"  My answer, "mandatory cullotes day".  The rest of the answers were too blue to report.

 

Dead soldiers.  The Barefoot was actually a wine we won at a fundraiser recently.  We killed it off after we finished the fancier bottles.  Then we moved on to beer and mixed drinks.  It seemed wrong, somehow, to open a white. 

The Crafts...

Here are the kids hard at work.  I will feature their projects tomorrow. 

Here is my mother-in-law, Roxie.  She made a miniature of the clubhouse she and my father-in-law built for my children.  She intends to keep it in their RV as a memento while traveling.

Tony made a banana slug habitat.  Tony also provided the AM Gold music mix.  Yes, it had Afternoon Delight on it.

My sister, Amanda, made a shadowbox with a baby picture of my niece, Makenna.

Yvonne's altar feature state park cancellations, beads, mirrors, and discarded time pieces.

Here is mine.  Have I mentioned I am fascinated with Day of the Dead imagery?

Got the World on a String

I borrowed the martini serving ware and about 20 martini glasses from my boss, Pat.  He has a very good standard cranberry martini he makes that is 2 parts cranberry juice to one part Triple Sec and one part Vodka.  He premixes it in a pitcher and shakes it up as needed.  It is very good. Aside from the spread below my guests provided a cheese tray, Utz Crab Cake Chips (Mad Men!), marinated artichokes, and a pizza dip.  Lots to eat. 

The star cookies.  The silver sugar was not so silver, as I mentioned, but they went quickly.

The kids enjoyed rootbeer, orange, and black cherry floats.  I felt pretty strongly that I did not want to do mock or virgin drinks for the little ones.  Let them be kids, not aspire to be imbibing adults.

Chris's 30th Party

The weather did not turn out to be as much of a hindrance as I had worried.  It was warm and the wind kept the mosquitoes away.  The turnout was great and the kids ran around in small packs.  Here is Eli in the barn with Shrek:

Ron and the birthday boy manning the grill:

My mother and my daughter:

By the time the night was over the driveway and all of the surrounding sidewalks were covered in art:

We hope that Chris enjoyed his 30th party!

Sunday Afternoon (Versus Saturday Night)

Oh my gosh Betty White was amazing!  I figured they would trot her out for a cameo or two but there she was skit after skit holding her own.  I had a wonderful time.  The ice mold for the mango ice cream turned out great, but I did not get a really good picture of it.  You can kinda see it on the table.

So, the food offerings were cheeseburger cheeseburgers, Jon Hamm's john ham rolls, mango ice cream. Schweddy balls, and colon blow bars: 

Matt taking on the cheeseburger cheeseburger:

Whitney with the bass-o-matic;

Micki entertained us with Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy.  Here is a gem, "If a child asks why it is raining a cute thing to say is 'It's God crying.' If the child asks why God is crying, another cute thing to say is 'It's probably because of something you did.'"

Jeremy as Dog Show's David Larry with Mr. Bo Jangles and me a Mary Katherine Gallagher.  "Sometimes when I get nervous...."

Mostly Id, It Turns Out

Here is the spread for Nate and Wendy's birthday. As promised: food that looks like man and lady parts and Id, Ego, and Super Ego desserts. The biggest disappointment about the decor for me was the floral arrangement. I was really banking on my allium blooming in time. Allium are giant purple balls. Imagine the Freudian fun you can have with a liatrus (those are the long pointy purple things in the vase) and two allium. But, alas, no.

The gang on the porch:

The Id Dessert was Ding Dongs (and a bonus phallic reference). A little known fact is Ding Dongs are better kicked than eaten. The birthday girl and I give it our all:

I think the appropriate quote for this picture is, "Did you see that kick?"

A before and after picture:

The birthday boy enjoying a Ding Dong:

Nate, Cup, Carnes:

Carnes uses the dream interpretation book to sort out a dandy about his grandmother, a row boat, and maybe a rabid cat:

I kept encouraging people to throw the shells from the nuts on the floor like you can at some barbecue restaurants. Nate kept sweeping them up: