Housewarming Party and 40th Birthday...

Last Saturday was our housewarming party. We had a really good turnout; about 36 guests throughout the night and maybe 12 kids or so; friends, relatives, co-workers, and almost all of our new neighbors! We had planned to have the food and big part of the party in our garage (yes, I know it's November in Minnesota, LOL), and we still did, even though the temp was only 40 degrees. It figures that it was beautiful the weekend before and in the SEVENTIES three days before, but alas, we still had a great time.

I spent the week running errands; getting food, cleaning, hanging pictures, finding home decor items. Thanks so much to my mom, grandma, aunt and sister-in-law for helping with the food. Our menu consisted of Sloppy joes, Greek salad, chips, cheese & crackers, veggies & dip, and several desserts: Cream cheese bars, pumpkin bars, brownies, and chocolate cake. And of course, the beer, wine, and drinks were flowing!

DH got the garage ready that morning. We had carpet on the floor and he fired up the space heaters. It climbed from a cool 39 degrees to almost 60 F! I was amazed at how many people stayed out there in the evening. There was plenty of room inside and we had tables set up all over.

I was a poor photographer though, and got no pictures of everything set up; only a few pictures later in the evening. I didn't even get pictures of the signs that Brian had made at work saying:

Welcome to our Housewarming party which has absolutely nothing to do with Kim's 40th Birthday on Monday, November 13!

But, you get the drift! We received some wonderful housewarming gifts - plants, wine, etc., but the best part was sharing the evening with our friends. Honestly, I haven't had such a fun and relaxing time for a long, long while. It was nice to just sit, visit, kick back, eat, talk, drink, and know that I didn't have to drive anywhere!

The girls had such a good time playing with the kids and then between 7-8 p.m., my sister-in-law took the girls to her house, along with my niece & nephew, where they stayed overnight and my niece babysat.

Later in the evening, all the party moved inside, with some dice shaking going on downstairs and girl talk going on upstairs! The party broke up around 12:30 a.m. and one of my girlfriends stayed overnight, so of course, we were up a little bit later chit-chatting.

As for my 40th Birthday on Monday, it was pretty uneventful. I received a bunch of very beautiful cards and gifts. I spent the days with my girls and they loved singing to me. We went out for a family dinner at the Country Kitchen. Did you know that you get a free dinner and ice cream sundae on the actual date of your birthday? Brian got off pretty easy with my dinner free and the girls split a kid's meal.

Oh, I did get a nice compliment the other day, when I told someone I had just turned 40. They said, "No WAY! I thought you were about 32!" Hey THANKS!

I'll be a hunting widow this weekend. Brian is leaving on Friday and will be back on Sunday. It's going to be a fun girls weekend, hanging out with Lindsey & Sydney and my girlfriends. Hmmmm....what kind of fun food can we whip up while we're sitting in our jammies watching movies?