The party
Our party was Saturday evening, so we spent some of the time Saturday getting ready for it.
morgan_lafaye & ravena_kade came by to help us carry all the stuff we needed out there.
And then we had a nice lunch.
When we got to the site about 4 in the afternoon, we found the site owner and the groundskeeper climbing the poles.
I guess they had been going up to fix the parking lot light when the hornet nest was discovered.
My wife showed me an on-line comic that pretty much sums up how I feel about this sort of thing: https://scontent-b-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/1385915_10153345245910078_901511589_n.png
So, I stayed well back while bug killing spray was used and a hoodie was tried as protection against them.
I did get the “checklist review” with the new groundskeeper to make sure all the things were in place before and after our party.
(We’ve rented the site for faires, christmas parties and done more than a dozen shows there. So, this wasn’t an issue for us.)
blue_micha showed up and started the decorations.
She also made a selection of cupcakes as a back up desert for folks who did not want the cake.
(Our godson Ben does not like chocolate. So, when desert came around he looked at me and said “oh, chocolate cake...”. I was able to say “but, there are special non-chocolate cupcakes just for you!” So, extra thanks to Blue_micha for that!)
I really can’t say how much I appreciated our friends helping in this. Without them it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as nice a time. I really, really, really appreciate all the help they gave us.
Just the work that went into those appetizer plates was incredible.
And, a lot of our friends helped out.
I spent a lot of time out looking for the caterer and possible lost guests. But, it was a nice fall day so this wasn’t so bad.
We had a couple of folks show up who are thinking of taking over the faire that we have done here for many years. So, my wife spent some time talking with them about how we had run our faire here 2 years before.
Despite what it might look like in this post, I did not get anywhere near as many photos as I had hoped to get. So, I’m hoping that some of the folks there with fancy cameras might have some to share too...
My wife was very worried about the caterer as she had had great trouble finding one and was worried this one might not show up.
But, they did show up and did a GREAT job!
By then around 15 to 20 folks had showed up. We had been expecting around 50. So we were wondering if we’d have a lot of leftovers.
I was very happy that my cousin and her husband came up from Florida for this party. Going more than 1000 miles and back in a weekend just to be at the party is very nice of them and I was very happy to see them.
Tom’s looking at the photos he took of our wedding 20 years before in the above photo. It was just as he started to work professionally in photography. He seemed to take a great interest in how he had done it 20 years before.
Soon, the rest of the guests showed up and we had the full house we had hoped for.
Much like my cousins from Florida our godkids and their parents drove up from Maryland (about 300 miles each way) just to come to the party.
Seeing them always makes me happy, but it was really special for them to come all this way for this.
After folks ate, we got them together for a group shot. This isn’t the group shot, this is just folks forming up for it. I was told I had to get in it for it to be a real group shot.
I had thought blue_micha and Devon were doing a “Wonder Twins Power Activate” thing. But, I guess that is because I’m old. It was really some sort of DragonBall-Z thing that I didn’t know.
I will be interested to see how the group shot comes out.
Once it was taken, we went outside for the fire show.
The fire show always looks better at night.
My wife’s fire eating is always impressive, but at night...
It was the first performance perrin_o_ravnos had done with us in more than 2 years. But some of that old “who can eat more fire” rivalry with Tom was still there.
Perrin and Blue_micha also did their tongue lighting.
Sorry that last one is blurry as it was a LARGE amount of fire on her tongue!
Of course, what fire show is complete without lighting Tom’s head on fire?
We also had the other fire tricks people have been practicing.
There is some video I took of Perrin on line:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hURAuB2DJdY
This is the fire silliness he mentions at the end.
He may not have performed in a while with us, but he still does quite well.
Tom finished off the show with his fire breath.
This isn’t a good shot of it, it was much bigger. But, it goes quite fast...
Then, we had desert and lots of visiting with people. I seemed to spend a lot of time in the parking lot as people left thanking them for being there. While I was quite grateful they were there, I did not mean to leave my wife to do the cleaning up.
But, soon things were in order and our guests were on the way home.
We ended up with a lot of extra cake, but that’s OK by me.
It was a wonderful party and I am very, very happy so many folks came out to celebrate with us, and join in on the fire show.
My thanks to all of them for being there, working so hard and being our friends.
And, most thanks to my wife who did all the organizing for this and made sure everything was perfect!