The Summer fun continued. I was actually a lit bit nervous and anxious about hosting Ashleigh’s graduation party due to the money, time, and hard work that would go into getting everything prepared. Thankfully, due to help from my Mom, Bob, Jackie, and Christi, I think we all pulled it off. But we did have WAY too much food. Saturday afternoon, June 21, 2008 saw a lot of preparatory activity in the morning of straightening the house and getting the outside ready. This would be the first time that I had ever hosted people in my decent-sized back yard so I wanted it to look okay.
Earlier in the Summer, I employed Tru-Green to get rid of the rampant weeds (and they have done a respectable job so far) and then went along with Jackie to Lowe’s and took the step of at least purchasing lawn equipment. She assisted me in getting the wild hedges trimmed (where we found a nest of kittens living there) and then Jackie went way above and beyond the call of duty and gave the bushes a nice shave, scrubbed the mold off the back of the house, and edged the bush area, laying mulch around it. Now the outside of my house really looks like someone lives there!
Mom and I had also shopped the week before at GFS and we planned on serving BBQ pork sandwiches, chicken wings from Frickers, meatballs, baked beans, veggies, oriental salad, macaroni salad, peanuts, chips, cheese and crackers, soda, water, and Jackie decided to make a huge fruit salad. As you can see, we were sparing no expense and taking no chances that anyone could go hungry.
Christi and Creed came over that Saturday night and she straightened, dusted, and scrubbed the house from head to toe, while Creed played with Grace. Jackie toiled over a gigantic fruit salad. Everyone ended up spending the night and although I’m not sure what all I did, all I know is that by 3am, I had certainly worked up a sweat getting ready for the party.
Of course, I did take a little break around 6pm (okay 6:15 - I was late) when I went up to Tumbleweeds to meet up with my cousin Chris and his family. I was honored to be the only cousin invited along with the family to bid Chris farewell as he embarked for Italy the next morning. His wife Sarah had been there since January studying Art History and now he was going off to join her for as long as six months.
Sammy, Susan, Chris, Ed, Virginia, Grandpa Murphy (who was too busy to look at the camera), Bev, Andrew, and Karen admire the short waitresses of Tumbleweeds
A toast to Chris’ upcoming trip
It was a nice dinner that Bev and Ed treated everyone to and I enjoyed my big bacon cheeseburger. I think everyone enjoyed their food except for little Charley who walked out the door and immediately spewed it all over the sidewalk. I’ll miss Chris for the next six months and enjoyed having him around to hang out with and join Jackie and me on one of my little adventures. Hopefully, they’ll end up back in this area…and Sarah will let him continue to get out.
I was just sick about Chris leaving
One of Chris’ last memories of America
Sunday came much too early. After about four restless hours of sleep, I got up and immediately went to work cutting the grass, trimming, picking up the cake and soda, and unloading tables and chairs that Bob and Mom brought over. Everyone else did their share of getting ready too. Bob, Bryan, and Jackie put up the gazebos, Bob picked up the chicken wigns, Mom and Jackie got the food ready, Christi cleaned, Derek got out the cornhole set, and we all pitched in with creating a little display of Ashleigh’s school pictures.
Our little Ashleigh display
Ashleigh the scholar notices that Kroger forgot to put the apostrophe in ‘we’re’
Guests trickled in throughout the 2pm-6pm timeframe and I think everyone enjoyed the chance to be outside. The weather was relatively nice, and although it threatened to rain, it only spit on us a couple of brief moments. I was able to keep the iPod and stereo outside going without interruption.
Besides those mentioned, guests included Grandpa Murphy, Dad, Briana, Denise, Aaron, Adam, Diana, Tom, Cathy, Debby, Mike, Little Brad, Bev, Ed, Susan, Charles, Charley, Sammy, Karen, Joe, Andrew, Abby, Darlene, Zac, Joy, Bob, Pat, Billy, Jill, Dave, Sherry, Emily, Jason, Carolyn, Matt, Dede, and Ashleigh’s friends Kayla, Andy, Ron, and Trevor.
The cornhole gang: Creed, Christi, Briana, Ashleigh, and Andy
Ashleigh and Kayla, whom everyone kept mistaking for Briana
Christi illustrates the appropriate cornhole form, while Derek wonders where he left his pork sandwich
It was a good turnout, about twenty less than we had expected, so since we had erroneously purchased enough food for about 75 more than we expected, we ended up with enough to feed the entire state of Rhode Island. Oh well…I only have one daughter, so this wasn’t too big of a sore spot. And Ashleigh ended up raking well over a grand, so I was happy for her. I helped by contributing to her puchase of a new laptop computer.
Sisses
Denise and Adam amidst the Eds: Karen, Ed, Bev, and Abby
Darlene and Zac put their heads together
Jill and Billy. I think I caught Jill in mid-blink. She’s not actually blind.
Bob and Bryan try to put their heads together
Jackie, Christi, and Joy - maidens of the kitchen table
Ashleigh illustrates to Carolyn and her Grandma how she can utilize her new luggage in the event that I get mad and kick her out of the house
Creed auditions to replace Gene Simmons in KISS
Ashleigh and the proud parents
The time flew by as I socialized with everyone, presented Adam with the Geico Gecko that I had located for Denise on eBay, showed Adam the Geico Gecko on You Tube, watched everyone else show Adam the Geico Gecko on You Tube, and listen to Adam say repeatedly “Gecko, Gecko, Gecko, Geico, Gecko, More Gecko, Uppy, More Gecko, Geico Gecko.” But seriously it was nice to see some folks who I don’t often see. Jason brought a laser pointer which provided all sorts of fun.
The day of Adam and the Gecko begins. He excitedly shows his new toy to his Dad Aaron and another guy named Mike
Adam is actually saying Gecko here
Grandpa F can’t even eat his cake until the Gecko madness ends
Adam gets yelled out by me for touching the TV. Only the Gecko will keep him out of trouble.
Cleanup time was excruciating. After only four hours of sleep and the tireless effort to get everything ready, I was seriously ready to collapse. I fell asleep around 9pm, curled up with Jackie on the couch, watching the American Adventure episode devoted to George H.W. Bush. It was a nice way to fall into slumber, but the next day I would find that I would be paying dearly for the exhaustion…
2008 will continue…
Thanks for the great party, Brad. I tried my best to take care of the “too much food problem,” but I only managed to eat about 50 meatballs. Congratulations, Ashleigh. We are all very proud of you!
Aaron
June 30th, 2008
It was a very nice party. Your backyard was a great place to set up tents and play cornhole. Maybe you will have some more outside activities at your house. Sorry about all the extra food, but since we had no idea how many were coming we wanted to make sure we had enough. Anyway from what I’m hearing you guys have done a pretty good job on it this last week, so I don’t think it went to waste!
Mom/Barb
July 1st, 2008