Party Day... in bullets

The weather forecast said something like a high of 16 or 18 degrees, grey and overcast and a 71% chance of rain. We had the cold, the grey but fortunately, no rain. Because I hired one of those kiddie ride cars and thankfully, I got my money's worth.

The weather also means I took crappy pics because I can't shoot in non-sun weather. On the bright side, it was COLD, GREY weather which I still do love.

Seriously, my pics indoors are so terrible. Hopefully my friends got some good ones. But I did take some nice ones, mainly of people, outdoors. Shame - I had to tell Cat's daughter, "please come outside for 2 secs so I can take a nice pic of you". Best? She listened. Amazing age!

This is the only one I got of my two the whole day.



I do have some pics I took while they were getting dressed but haven't looked through them all yet.

• Everyone pitched. Amazing since this is winter and kids are sickly (one of the twins stayed away).
• Thank goodness I got Nester and Nanny S in for some of the day. Everybody had a list this morning. I dread to think what would have happened if I hadn't stayed up late preparing.
• I still had to bake a last-minute cake. Somehow I'd miscalculated and bought too few cupcakes.
• I jumped in the shower at 10:19 for a 10:30 party... I figured it was more important to get some of the table pics first rather than get dressed on time.
• Not everyone wanted their pictures taken or wanted to play :(
• I was hurt by a comment and very irritated by another, both family. Par for the course.
• There were some tantrums. And some quick thinking by some mothers. E.g. my one friend eventually told her boy the battery on the kiddie car was flat so they could go home :)
• The kids got SPOILT tons and tons. They still have 4 gifts to open tomorrow. So far they have fought over a pram and a doll, and have been occupied for a long time with blocks and alphabet magnets.

Things I'm not sure of:

• having a 10:30 start time in winter. It works great in summer because it's warm but not too warm yet. 
• why I continue to have somewhat high expectations of family.
• if I'll ever get into the "themed cake" thing. It's the first thing my sister thinks about every year and she really gets into it. She does it herself and practises a week or two beforehand. I love it but it's not me
• how I'll ever transition to a venue party. I just LOVE having people in my house, even if it gets messy. All part of the fun. I love the buzz and the people and the taking it all down and restoring to order afterwards.

look at the sunroom - this is the cleaned-up version

I had to lie down with Connor this afternoon to get him to calm down and sleep. He eventually fell asleep at 4:15 and didn't wake for supper. He's still asleep in his t-shirt but I put tracksuit pants on him so he'd be more comfortable. You all know my motto - never wake a sleeping baby!

I also slept for 1.5 hours and then I've been up, tidying, sorting, starting to prepare for US.

One more before I jump into my warm bed... a silly pic with Connor




We so loved having everyone over. Even Kendra said so (and she's the shyest of the 4 of us).


Do you like having people at your home?
Or is the stress of the mess too much for you?

PS paper plates rule!

Hospitality and entertaining

I realised on Sunday morning that we suck at hospitality.

D's mother babysat while we went to see Crowded House (more on that later) and unbeknown to me, he told her to come early.

So that's my excuse.

I wasn't expecting her at 3:10 but still, I hadn't put out towels or prepared her supper.

Terrible!

At least the guest bedroom is always neat and tidy.

It's not like me and I said to D that since the babies, we are actually no longer good hosts. He says he doesn't think we were ever good :)

I don't think we were ever fantastic like our friends D & V who really are the most brilliant hosts ever.

For me hospitality is about thoughtfulness and making people feel welcome and at home. They do this in spades.

We felt so taken care of the entire time we stayed with them.

Then there's the other thing - entertaining.

Let's just say I have some issues with entertaining :) I'm not the best cook in the world but I do set a good table which is the most fun for me, and of course, the talking.

I love having deep, meaningful conversations with our friends. And laughing like crazy people about silly things.

Connecting.

I stumbled across a blog called the Reluctant Entertainer recently and she talks about letting go of perfectionism about the house, the food, the table, etc. and just focussing on the people aspect.

I thought, "I can do this" and so I took action and invited an "easy guest" for lunch, my friend, Natalie. That went well.

I ordered Sandy's book too and it arrived yesterday. In all its glossy yumminess :) (there is nothing quite like the smell and feel of a new book)

I'm hoping I will let go of more and more perfectionism around entertaining in a house that's not 100% clean.

Now here's the thing - I have a not-so-easy guest this weekend for lunch. It's an old, old friend but she's a bit of a princess :)

I say that lovingly since I've been telling her this since we were both 17 years old at university.

How do you overcome that spirit of reluctant entertaining when you have a prissy guest?

I don't know. I will just do my thing and too bad if she doesn't like the food.

Are you a good host? Do you enjoy entertaining or is it stressful for you because of perfectionism? Any tips for reluctant entertainers like me?