So we had a full house here Sunday for Gunnar's birthday party. We did a Halloween theme and everyone came in costumes, it was awesome! As you can see, I was the Corpse Bride, complete with gruesome scars, a barbed-wire tiara, black veil, purple-spiderweb fingerless gloves, and my adorable black peep-toe wedges, of course! The kids came up with a back-story for me: At the altar, I was stolen by an evil werewolf (the slash marks) and when my groom tried to shoot it, he got me instead (the bullet hole on my temple, my stupid hair covered it the entire night). He was so distraught, he tried to bring me back to life (open-heart surgery scar and stitches on forehead), but I came back EVIL! Muahahaha! The kids played games like Stick the Wart on the Witch with chewing gum, Gunnar got spoiled rotten with presents and money, and we all ate till our costumes were bursting at the seams.
I did learn a few things though. Let me pass along my new-found wisdom:
- Always budget yourself enough time for applying costume makeup. What you think will only take a few minutes, ten at the most, may actually take an hour, putting you behind schedule for other things, such as cutting the veggies and sausage and cheese. In which case, you will still be doing that when the guests arrive and they will have to stand around feeling helpless while you frantically finish getting the food ready.
- Get the present-opening out of the way early on. If you leave it too late, most of the guests will have gone home before you remember and you'll feel like an ass.
- Same goes for the cake.
- If you get the cake from the freezer section of the store, it does not necessarily mean that it is a frozen icecream cake and so should be put right back in the freezer once you get it home. ALWAYS check this, its important. Otherwise, you'll be trying to laugh off the fact that you are serving people frozen regular cake that has the texture of rock-hard sponge. Oh yeah, and putting the pieces of cake in the microwave to 'soften' them up, DOES NOT WORK. Blond Joanne (there were 2 Joanne's there) was nice enough to tell me, "It still tastes good! Really, it does! Don't worry, no one's noticing!" Yeah right Joanne. I'm pretty sure I'll be hearing about this for the REST OF MY DAMN LIFE! (As evidenced by Levi's comment in a prior post)
- Before the party, designate at least two people to be picture-takers, and have them email you the pics later. Thank God Fred and my mom were snapping pics left and right, because where was my camera, you ask? Oh, on the counter in its case, completely charged and ready to go. But did I remember even once to get it out? Of course not!
- Do as much food prep as you can before the party starts; if it involves cooking, get it all done the day before so everything can just be reheated or set out as is. I did this with the meatballs, devilled eggs and coleslaw and it was such a relief to know those time-consuming things were done. Obviously I didn't do the food prep beforehand for the veggie platter and the nibbles tray, which was so stressful (see number 1).
- Not everyone likes homemade punch and spiced apple cider. Its good to have water bottles and some sort of canned pop on hand for those party poopers.
- One thing I REALLY really wish I would have done at the party is to take one big huge group photo of everyone in their costumes. How cool would that have been? Doh!
- If you have pets, lock them in your bedroom (no one will dare go in there) so they will be safe from bratty kids. Put their food and water in with them, and lay out some newspaper, and they'll be fine (and wayyyy less stressed out). Wish I would have thought of that before the cats were tortured and traumatized.
- I had the inspired idea to do a different version of caramel apples, with apple slices instead. Spent like an hour peeling the wrappers off ONE HUNDRED tiny caramels, then another hour waiting for them to melt in the pot, suspended precariously over a pot of boiling water. Almost went into a mindless stupor after coring and cutting the apples into like a billion slices. Dipped them in the caramel mixture, layed them on waxed paper, and put them in the fridge downstairs, just like the directions said to. Of course, these directions were for making whole caramel apples. I didn't take into account that the moist apple flesh might somehow screw up the caramel-hardening process. Left them in the fridge overnight. An hour before the party, I went downstairs to get them, only to discover a huge, gooey, sludgey mess. The caramel had completely slipped off the apple slices. ARRGHHH! What a frickin' waste of my precious time. I could have had a damn nap!
Anyway, despite all this knowledge-learned-the-hard-way, the party was a great success and we all had a blast! Everyone now thinks I am an amazing party-planner (*bowing* thank you, thank you) and that I keep an amazingly clean house (what's amazing is how great it is to have three able-bodied "slaves", as they were calling themselves, muahahaha). I'm just glad everyone had a great time and I can finally throw out all my lists, and the MASTER list with the list of all my lists. Heh.
Happy Halloween, everyone!
1 comment:
it was an awesome party Sax and I loved the ROCKY HORROR FONT you used to label the food, red and dripping blood - let's not forget that the two people who took the mostest pictures also produced you (ie., Fred was my first husband) so of course we both had a vested interest in capturing you and yours. The exorcist child of your loins was adorable and of course, numbers 1, 2 and 3 are forever wonderful. I loved how Lena's blue panties stuck out of her last costume of the night, the pink ballerina! I should have taken a pictue of her butt to post on her graduation slideshow! Great party and great host.
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