The Party

So, yesterday was my husbands' birthday. What, you didn't know? (Just kidding.)  I thought, since I've bored you to tears talked about this party an annoying amount a lot in the past few weeks, that I'd share it with you. Everything happened exactly as I had hoped. My husband was so happy all day. He got to go golfing in the morning and see a lot of friends that he hasn't seen in years. One came from as far away as Arizona (we are outside of Sacramento) to help him celebrate. As I write this I am still recovering. A full week of getting ready and a full day of entertaining and staying up late and several cocktails makes for a tired Dorothy.

There were lots of fun decorations. I am big into pictures so I bugged family members and dug through my old boxes of photos and plastered the house with them. Mel loves Tapatio hot sauce (he puts it on everything) so that was one of the take-away goodies. I couldn't just give away plain bottles, so I spruced them up a bit.

I think the dessert table was my favorite thing to put together. I have no idea why. (Wink, wink.) I had originally wanted to buy a pennant banner to hang but couldn't find one I liked. I'm glad I didn't spend the money - it was super easy to make. I will be posting recipes for the cake and pops soon! And see those huge containers of M&Ms and Reese's? NONE of the Reese's got eaten. I think I'm going to try this recipe with the leftovers. And make ice cream. And gorge myself sick on them.

There was lots of food.

I have a few good recipes I want to share in the coming weeks. The photos aren't great, unfortunately. Have you ever tried to line up great professional-looking photos at a party where hungry guests are waiting? Not. Easy.

There was dart playing.

And kid playing. I think they had fun. I don't know, I wasn't allowed in their lair.

There was cake.

It was chocolate. And peanut butter. Recipe soon. I promise. I have a bunch left over. (Thank God.)

By far, my favorite thing at the party was the photo booth I set up for the guests. I totally stole this idea from Katie at Loves of Life. She did it for her daughters' birthday party and as SOON as I saw it on her blog I knew I had to do it. I set up a tripod with an old camera on it. I set it for timer and made sure to adjust the settings so it wouldn't power down automatically (thus erasing the timer setting). I made an instruction sign so everyone would know what to push.  And we made a paper Mel for a prop.

What is a paper Mel? Have a look:

We traced my husband using a roll of paper. We painted his clothes and printed out a photo of his face and stapled him to the fence. I had a really fun time over the past few weeks talking about paper Mel. He's still out there. I kind of don't want to take him down.

It was such a great party. My husband had a great time. Thanks for indulging me. Recipes to come soon, I promise.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! What did you do?

(I'm linking up this post with Kim today. She has an awesome blog. If you don't read her, you're missing out. Check her out!)