Friday, October 7, 2011

Party Animals

It feels like we've been having one party after another around here lately. First, we celebrated Sam's 3rd birthday once Dave got back from Wisconsin.


 True to form, I made a Spider-Man cake at his request only to have him tell me once it was done that he wanted a dinosaur cake. Wonderful. Ah well, he got over it and seemed to enjoy himself just fine.
 
Then last Friday night I hosted the First Annual Girly Gadd Pajama Party. When we lived in Moscow, ID, I had a friend named Angela Boyle who hosted a party for all her girlfriends every year at Christmas. She made dinner for everyone, and we did a white elephant gift exchange. It was fabulous, and I've always thought it was a great idea to get all your girlfriends together once a year. Especially now that we've moved to a different part of town, I thought it would be a great way to maintain contact with dear friends that I just don't see that often anymore.


I knew that if I didn't just set a date and invite people, it would never happen, so one afternoon I set a date and used evite to send email invitations to everyone. I also knew that me making dinner for everyone this year just wasn't going to happen. Maybe I'll do that some year, but I just wanted (and could handle) to get some friends together for some goodies and chitchat. So for fun I made it a pajama party and served little open-face cucumber sandwiches, raspberry salsa with chips, and macaroon brownies. Dave put out a bowl of Skittles, and they were a hit. I think I might do different kinds of candy in the future...kinda fun.


 Even though I tried to prepare all day, it was still (is always) a bit of a scramble at the end to get everyone fed, nursed, dishes done, etc. So the only picture I have of the spread is one that Sam took at his eye level. I decided to finally try an idea I've wanted to do for some time.  Some nice people from church have given us quite a lot of unexpired baby food that they don't want anymore, so I have a TON of little baby food jars that I've kept to turn into little candle holders. I bought a couple bags of tea lights at the dollar store. Sixteen tea lights for $1. Booyah. I pulled the label off the baby food jars and got the sticky residue off with some GooGone, also found at the dollar store. I just plopped a tea light in the jar and lit it. These would also be really cute with some jute string tied around the top, but I didn't get around to it.


Then we had General Conference weekend, which I love. We are so blessed to listen to the words of the prophets and apostles who have inspired counsel from our Heavenly Father. Dave let the kids set up their individual tents they got for Christmas last year and had them face the TV. We felt very King Benjamin.


Now the kids are enjoying their fall break from school, and they decided they wanted to have a party last night (and tonight.) So they strung up some lights and made up some games for us to play last night before we went down to the fort they made downstairs to watch a cartoon. I love how at my kids' ages all it takes for a good time is a string of lights, a fort, and a bag of popcorn. It's awesome. 

And right in time for fall break, we have had a serious change in the weather. How did we go from shorts to wool socks in 2 days? Anyway, since it turns out you need a gas meter at your house if you've changed over to a gas furnace (Go figure.), we will be without that convenience until Monday. So we will have fires (and space heaters) blazing this weekend.  In the above picture, you may notice the space heater on the table. Babies like to play with space heaters. Tonight for dinner, we decided to take advantage of the coals from the fire we've had burning all day and make tinfoil dinners. Pretty fun. I think I'll do them more often but in the oven to prevent burning. There are so many fun variations, and it's kind of a novelty for the kids.


The heating company's snafoo is kind of annoying, but the fires have been pretty fun. With this cold snap in the weather, I feel so festive and ready for the change in seasons, and now our house feels that way, too.


2 comments:

Amy said...

Sounds like fun. You could do away with the fires and open the windows...then you'd know what it was like in Wisconsin. They don't believe in heat. They like the fresh air no matter the temperature, just ask Dave! :)

Molly said...

So fun to hear about all the fun things your family has been up to. I love the tin foil dinners in the fireplace. What a fun mom you are!

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