Housewarming Extravaganza...the photos.

*Exactly how long can a post languish in "draft" status before it's published? Way too long, apparently! Here's a short post I started MONTHS ago and I suppose I got distracted or something.

Anyway, our party was fabulous, we have amazing friends and family who were there to support us and celebrate our new home, and it goes without saying the food was out of this world. Thank you to everyone!*

It's been three weeks since our fantastic housewarming party, and I realized I hadn't even written about it!

We had such a great turnout, lots of family and good friends showed up to celebrate with us. Everyone loved the house, the food was fabulous and it was just so much fun.

I'll share some pictures, but honestly we were having too much fun at the party to take very many pictures. If you'd like to see the menu and the recipes and pictures of the food, please visit The Bad Girl's Kitchen.

I will still take you on a virtual tour of the house, don't you worry! We're getting the rest of our living room furniture on November 18th, and after that the tour will begin.

Here are some of our guests, and you can see some of the house too...

Thanksgiving.

homemade chandelier

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving. I wanted to have it at our house this year, where the only space we have for 10 or more people is in our unfinished addition...no insulation, only exterior walls, roof and windows. When we started clearing it out, it was full of sawdust, nails and extra wood. There is no electricity out there and thus are no light fixtures, so I decided I would haul out our Christmas lights. I strung them around the perimeter of the room.

I collected every clear glass jar I could find, washed them and made candle holders. I wrapped them with steel wire, and suspended them from the rafters with steel chain from the mercantile. I think they turned out beautifully. I am in love with them. A few strategically-placed space heaters and our room was transformed...a hint of what's to come when this dining room is finally completed!

before we lit the candles

the wine bar

We raided the bunk house and our barn loft storage for dining room tables and chairs, as well as a lovely antique dresser to serve as our wine bar. I drug Number One's homemade wine bottle holder (above, left) out of the garage, dusted off the cobwebs and loaded it with several bottles of wine.

I borrowed clear glasses from CG for water glasses for the table, and raided my unused canning jars for our centerpiece. A gorgeous last-minute table runner (thank you,amazon, for free two-day shipping!) and our table was complete.

I also realized we needed some wine glasses, so I used an amazon coupon for this lovely set. (of 12, but we only needed 8 for dinner) It's difficult to see in the picture, but I also used some memory wire and beads that Marlow had given me to fashion wine glass markers. The table runner on the wine bar is one my grandma gave me several years ago.

This is our scrumptious spread of appetizers.
For our complete Thanksgiving menu (pictures and recipes!) please follow this link.
We had contributions from everyone, and everyone was so helpful! (especially my two friends--you know who you are!) Honestly, I couldn't have done it without you both.

Doesn't this look lovely when the candles are lit and the cranberry sauce is illuminated?
Everyone was so busy eating and drinking wine and raving over the food that I neglected to get a picture of all of us eating...let's just say dinner was a success!
(and besides, I don't post many pictures of people here anyway)
Everything was delicious and was finished on time.
It's always nice when it all comes together.

The whole effect was truly magical.

After we had finished our dinner,
three of the kids found out there would be pie,
and came back to finish their turkey!

And I just couldn't stop taking pictures.
I let the candles burn well after everyone had left.
I am still so thankful for our good friends and family
who were able to be with us and share our lovely meal.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Sawed Off

the theme:
Red Tractor

the menu:
Hot dogs & fixins
Potato salad
Red Tractor Cake
Lemonade
Iced Tea

the activities:
Running around with the boys
Red Tractor Bean Bag Toss

the guests:
Ukko & TennisLady
Miss Jenny, two boys and a girl
Cath & boys


So as you can see above, Sawed Off fell asleep right before the party was scheduled to begin! Miss Jenny and Cath were already here, with all five combined kids, but Sawed Off was too tired I guess. He slept for a couple hours amidst the excitement. We were lucky to have a sunny spring-like day with a high of 65 degrees, so the party was outside for the most part.

The kids loved the bean bag toss, and everyone won a little red tractor and some candy. Sawed Off was more interested in presents this year, and had an enthusiastic present-opener helper in his brother H-Bomb.

The boys (the only girl guest is 8 months old) had so much fun running around and playing on the ranch. It is a boy's dream, this place.

It was a fun little party. We're so excited everyone was able to come and help us celebrate.

Red Tractor Cake!

The cake is finished for Sawed Off's 2nd birthday party.

For a step-by-step decorating blog (including pictures!), go here.

Red Tractor!

Red Tractor is finished!

He just needs some supports, then he will be ready for the Bean Bag Toss!
Isn't he cute?

Sawed Off's Bday Party Prep!

So, I am all about theme parties. Red tractor this year, I think I told you. Anyway, here are some things we've been working on:

Gift bags:
(which H-Bomb helped me fill, even cutting off little tags with his little scissors!
He's getting so big)

The Red Tractor Bean Bag Toss:

Isn't it turning out to be one of the cutest things you ever saw??
I'm very proud of this.

And, in the midst of it all, H-Bomb has created what he has named
"Googley-Eyed Friends."

They each have their own name too, but unfortunately I can neither remember all the names nor which one is whom. Some of the names are:
"Mr. Googley-Eye Friend"

"Mrs. Googley-Eye Pants"

He even took a couple "friends" to school with him today, for show and tell.
Number One said the other kids are going to think he doesn't have any toys.
I told Number One to be quiet.

There was an incident right before school today, in all the chaos of getting ready and lost keys and dead jeep battery and what-have-you, in which some of the darn googley eyes fell off the "Googley-Eyed Friends." DISASTER. I did some last minute re-gluing of eyes, both paper and googley, and stuck a toy in the jeep for H-Bomb JUST IN CASE the glue didn't dry by the time they got to school. Thank goodness it takes almost an hour to get there!!!