Sharing the bounty

DH and I have invited 37 of our relatives to share "living in the sticks" next July. It is called a family reunion. So with this in mind, I am doing research on how may people can use the septic, shower schedules and such. Today I picked up a children's picnic table for use by K and other small people. It has always been my opinion that one reason to invite guests over is that it makes me clean my house and cook a great meal. Hopefully guests reading this will not be hurt by being used. In my case this will cause me to do some serious interior decorating and landscaping. This blog will show the before and after of a lot of projects I am sure. My blog teacher is watching to make sure I am posting regularly so here is the second one.

My university class in entertaining

On Saturday I threw a party for Dear Husband (DH ) to celebrate his 60th birthday. The last six weeks were spent in serious planning. After studying several library books on how to successfully give a party for a large group, I decided on a Mexican theme. Extensive lists were made covering the menu, the ingredients needed, serving pieces required, decorations, and a time line to accomplish it all. I did look at it as a class to learn how to successfully give a party. The day after the party we critiqued our work. All in all it went well. Almost everything on the menu was made from scratch, so the food did not taste like I got it from Taco Bell. The primary lesson I learned was that the things I did not write on the planning schedule were overlooked and were a bit problematic. But, I am very encouraged and plan to do this over many times - maybe not with 40 guests each time, but plan to use the process. The picture is DH trying to break the pinata.