Monday, August 17, 2009

The Party's Over

Yes, the Open House Party is over now, but it wouldn’t have gone so well without the help of our friends!
From Open House Party
Emerson and Carol Dayton, from across the road, pitched in and did a lot for us. Emerson helped us complete the entry walkway. We had to add 70 concrete pavers, mostly under the front steps because the steps were sinking into the gravel that had been there for years. Emerson helped me move the stairway out and then later back in place. We’ll write more about that project in a later post.

Carol was a great help with the food. She prepared potato salad (ten pounds of potatoes!), a big spaghetti salad, and two trays of delicious brownies. She also brought some of her own serving dishes and utensils, then gave Suzy some suggestions on set up. To top it off, Carol took charge of the food during the party, so Suzy could visit with our guests. Carol has had a career in food service, including some years when she and Emerson owned restaurants.

There were 23 guests plus ourselves at the party. All but three are lease holders or long-term renters in our park. The one big mistake we made was in not including “Food Will Be Served” in large print on the invitations! Some of our guests had already eaten lunch, and others had enjoyed a big Sunday breakfast, so we had a large amount of food left over. That’s much better than running out, of course. We’ll be eating sandwiches, potato salad and brownies for weeks!

What did we serve? In addition to the food that Carol brought, we provided:

Sandwiches: we had bought 3 feet of 8-inch wide subs from Subway, with a variety of meats and cheeses. I got to split the big sandwich into snack sized servings.
From Open House Party
Carol put toothpicks in the sandwiches for stability.
From Open House Party
Cheese: Wal-Mart puts out a great cheese tray, with five different cheeses in cubes.

Vegetables: also from Wal-Mart, a big veggie tray with ranch dip in the center.

Bean salad: this is one of Suzy’s favorites, and we bought a huge jar from Costco.

Olives, black and green; pickles, sweet and dill; chips and dip, nuts, and a rice cracker mix.

Cookies: we made two batches of our famous Cowboy Cookies.

Here are Suzy and Carol with the table all set up and ready for company.
From Open House Party
Beverages: champagne, lemonade, coffee, ice water.
From Open House Party
We iced the champagne in big collapsible containers in our shower.
From Open House Party
Truthfully, we could have fed the entire RV park! Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and we certainly had a great time ourselves. Here are some shots of the group.

From Open House Party
From Open House Party
From Open House Party
From Open House Party
It was early to bed for us this night in … Our Life on Wheels.

7 comments:

  1. Glad to hear the party was a big success - it sure looked great from the pictures. The food looked awesome! That Costco bean salad is a favorite of ours too. Good idea too on the long Subway sandwiches and then cutting them up - we'll have to remember that!

    I liked your nice little "techie" Open House logo on the first pic too - pretty neat!

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  2. Just looking at your photos made me hungry! Looks like your party was a huge success and I'm glad about that for you. Looks like you selected a nice park to move into. Where is your park?

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  3. Hey Suzy & Jerry, I am so happy for you that your Open House went so well... The food looked awesome and everyone looked like they had such a great time.

    Have Fun & Travel Safe
    Donna

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  4. Sounds like a successful party and a great way to meet the neighbors.

    Connie and Art

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  5. Ohhhhh, the clean up must have been huge!!

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  6. Looks like you had a swinging shin dig! Congrats on the successful party!

    Wish we could have been there, but it just wasn't in the cards for a second trip to AZ, plus, I think the doctor tends to frown on airplane travel during the third trimester....sad!

    Have a great week and hope you don't have too much after party cleaning to do!

    Love,

    ~N~E~E~ and the active one

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  7. Looks like a GREAT party!!! Sorry we missed it. You all did good!!

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