Prior to its 7 p.m. start time, we left our house at 9:30 a.m. to rendezvous with Greg's parents to send the kids with them for the night. After that we did some car shopping, got a flat tire that took 2+ hours to deal with, did some more car shopping, bought a new (used) car, and returned home at 6:45 p.m. Um, yeah...15 minutes before guests were to arrive. I was having all kinds of panic attacks and was ready to call Laura to give her the garage code to open the house to my guests. What happened instead was that we got in the door, swooped all the debris from the front table, along with all the coats/hats/bags/umbrellas from the coat rack, and dumped it on my bed. I forgot to change the towel in the bathroom. I had dirty dishes in the sink and no time to put my costume on. Remember that we'd left the house at 9:30 and had planned to return with plenty of time to leisurely prepare the house for partying. My lovely friends Lisi and Tara arrived a bit early (aaaack!!) and helped me out by preparing the food table and doing my dishes (I'm so ashamed!) and loading my dishwasher. I'm sure their husbands were being helpful too, but I was running around like a lunatic and didn't notice. Thanks Lisi and Tara and Dan and Mike, too!
After the initial freak-out was over, and we turned the lights down low (to set the Halloween mood...and so no one could see the filth), I actually had a really great time! Lots of friends arrived with a few kids and great food in tow. We did a lot of chatting and a lot of snacking, and it seemed like everyone had a good time. Here are some pictures of all the fun. In all my freaking-out lunacy, I neglected to take everyone's picture. Sorry for that!! It wasn't until I finally ate something and chilled out a little that I thought to take photos, and by then some people had already left.
Our very littlest guest, Brinna, and her mom Kris
My sister Cassie (Angelina Jolie) and her husband Gerrit (McGyver)
The W's: Laura (Sarah Palin), Todd (McCain), Drew (Dopey) & Lydia (Snow White)
A pirate family: Jeremiah, Kelly, Brayden & Nadia
There were non-costumed folks too...Tara & Dan
Jodie & Bryan
We had our usual Connect 4 tournament, with two game boards going simultaneously to keep things moving along. Nadia helped out her mom Kelly.
Husbands and wives battled it out...Ben & Elaine
Ultimately, it came down to Elaine and Bryan. Way to represent the women, Lainer!
Greg and Tim battled it out for 3rd place, with Tim taking the title. Remember that wig on Greg... you'll be seeing it in a future post.
Elaine took 2nd place, and Bryan was the Connect 4 champion! Well done, everyone!
We also gave out prizes for best costumes, which were voted on by all in attendance. Cassie (Angelina) took 2nd prize.
And Laura (Sarah Palin) took first!! Could this be a foreshadowing of next week??!! Only time will tell... Thanks for being good sports, all you who dressed up!! Next year I promise I won't go car shopping and neglect to leave time to dress up for my own party.
3 comments:
So fun! Thanks for the memories, Carey. And hey, we did NOT arrive early! Personally, when people do that it causes me to lose my last precious seconds of "lunatic cleaning time". I love that I could help you out though! It started the night off with excitement, right? I'm sorry you were having a panic attack...
Where is the picture of you and your costumeless self?
That sounds like the preparation for all the company I've had since I had kids! Looks like fun! Mike's jealous of Greg's Mullet!
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