Feel Good Friday- The Party

Here we are again, another Friday, another chance to share the good things.  Pretty soon, I wont' know when it's Friday because we are going to a 6 day schedule at school.  Days will no longer exist and it will be all about day 1, day 5, etc.  Maybe by then, thegirl will be back and she will do Feel Good Friday and then I'll know it's Friday in the real world!

Alas, if you haven't been on a Feel Good Friday trip before, squeeze in and come along for the ride.  Your goal is to go to grab the Feel Good Friday button and go to your own blog and write a post about what made your week.  It can be one thing, 3 things or a dozen.  It can be small or gigantic.  It's all about what made you smile, especially if your week was the worst week EVER.  There will always be something you can think about that made your week.

Even if it's as simple as your favorite candy was on sale.

Then come back here and tell us where to find you so we can share in your feel goodness.

So, here's mine.  Last week, I wrote about the upcoming party.  My parents celebrate 40 years this year, so we knew we had to have a party.  And it would have to be in the summer so we can carry the tradition of having some kind of party every summer now that we've started it! 

We had a big surprise party for their 25th and it was truly a surprise, right down to the last few minutes.  I still don't know how we pulled it off. No one told them. Everything went smoothly.  They were truly surprised.

And in those days, we didn't have home projectors that hooked up to laptops so we could show powerpoints or slideshows.  It was 1996.  Did you even use the internet then?  Somehow, I managed to get a ton of pictures from friends and family and took them to a photo place where they put them on a video tape.  I know, a VIDEOTAPE.  Then, we borrowed someone's tv and VCR and showed it outside on the deck.  It was small, it was afternoon, so people didn't really see.

This time, there was no surprise.  In fact, my mother ended up planning the whole thing, which was not my intention.  She seemed to have fun doing it, so how could we stop her?  We each ended up with one task.

Mine was to get a banner.  I went online to vistaprint and made this and it was super el cheapo for a 2 ft by 4ft banner.  I was able to upload pictures for possibly free, I can't remember, or maybe like $1 each.  I completely manipulated this the way I wanted it and paid a little extra for faster shipping and was very pleased.  I can't remember if this was the indoor/outdoor vinyl option or just indoor.  We've had it up for a week and had some torrential rain and it's fine, no smudging or tearing.  If you're looking for banners, I swear this is the way to go.

A-ster was in charge of "the booze" because they brought a lot of beer for their own wedding two years ago and now they've been given the title of In Charge of Booze forevermore.

E-ster was in charge of the no dairy cake.  A friend of a friend of hers makes them and did not disappoint with this one.  I can't believe I didn't get a picture of this cake.  It was a fairly large cake, yellow, with lots of flowers for decoration.  I am not a cake fan and don't usually eat it if it's not chocolate, so I have no opinion on this one.  People said it was great.

I knew we could pull out all the stops, what with modern technology being what it is, but really, where do you stop?  We could have done crazy things, but we already had paid entertainment coming, so I decided to something a little old school.

Since we had done the whole "pictures from your childhood until today" thing for their 25th, I decided to do all pictures of them and the 3 of us since 1971.  And I copied and printed them and arranged them in a big 4 0 on a board so everyone could go up and look.  I had seen this somewhere online and thought it was a neat idea and much less difficult than some of the things I was cooking up.

At the last minute, I decided to paint on the words and I am no artist, so it looks like a 6th grader did it.  People enjoyed the pictures and it was fun to reminisce with some, like Carol, our babysitter from the time e-ster was 8 months old.  In fact, she was able to help identify a couch that I have no recollection of!

My mother had been up to something that none of us knew, in addition to making all of the arrangements for her own party.

She made one of these for each table and then cut hydrangeas from her yard and put them in a glass.  It was nice and made it more festive.  I debated the whole "theme" thing and cutesy kitsch for decoration, but decided since it was outside, it wasn't worth the effort if the wind blew it all away.  This was perfect and with the white tablecloths, it made it classy.  And a smart man once told me my mother is "a classy lady". 

My parents have a great yard for a party, and as you can see, everyone worked very hard that afternoon.  The tent people put the tent up on Thursday even though the party wasn't until Saturday and then on Saturday afternoon, my aunt s-ster (I have two aunt s-sters and soon they will both be from Florida, so you will never know who I am talking about), uncle b-ster and my parents set everything up.  Uncle b-ster hung up these lights which were a great touch.

They looked great at night, more colorful than you see here.  There were also a couple of strings that had scallop shells around the lights.

We had it slightly catered.  These guys did the meats and some salads and a clam chowder that I actually liked.  I'm picky about the saltiness of clam chowder and this was really not salty at all.  We had them for my father's retirement party and they did hamburgers and hot dogs, but we thought something other than hamburgers and hot dogs would be good.  So we had chicken, steak tips and pork.

Freddie and the Maybellines are a local group that plays fun music.  Freddie lives just down the road and I taught his kids and I know I taught all of the kids of at least one Maybelline, possibly all of them.  They played for my dad's retirement party and said they loved the deck and the atmosphere and they were thrilled to return.  People were excited when they heard they were coming.  They play a lot of 50s and 60s hits but I heard some more modern tunes in there too!


They played for at least an hour, then changed their outfits and took a break and came back for at least another hour.  During the first part, people enjoyed the music while they ate dinner.  It was almost dark after the intermission, and people were done eating, so they got up and danced.

Uncle b-ster and aunt s-ster dancing.  Nice job with those lights!

My mother, l-ster, e-ster, g-ster and another b-ster hiding on the side.

There really were a lot of guests at this party, but it looks like the same 6 people danced to all of the music!

 After Primrose Jim wore himself out dancing to that one song, he spent some quality time with a solar light.  We thought it was funny that he was hanging out by the porta potty, so I had to put this one in.

It was a great time, we saw lots of people and enjoyed good music.  Stay tuned for next summer's Bauer Barbeque and see what we cook up for fun!

Now go write up your Feel Good Friday post and come back and tell us where you are!