Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.

We did it! We did it!

We finally had our first, official, "dinner party" at the house. Okay, so we've had parties/get-togethers at the house before but that was always for a child's birthday and while it involved lots of food and people it was all just buffet-style where everyone helped themselves to, you know, chips and shrimp cocktail, chicken wings and salad, cheese, crackers, and all kinds of fruits and veggies cut up and served with dip...that kind of deal. This was an official, grown-ups sitting down at the dining room table and being served a plate full of food, kind of deal.

I thought it best to break in our Martha Stewart dinner party skills on my family because, well, they have to love me even if I totally forget that we don't have any place mats that don't have Dora or all the various Princesses on them...we don't have any napkins that aren't made out of paper - let alone napkin rings...we don't seem to have enough cutlery for large groups of people (I don't know where it all went, but I suspect the forks and socks are snickering at me from some corner of the house somewhere)...and I totally forgot that grown-ups are supposed to be offered some wine with dinner (they probably wouldn't have wanted any, I suspect, but I should have had some to offer at least!). But, despite all those things...I think it went quite well.

And, the important thing was Maddie and Jamie got to have a great visit with their cousins again whom they have not seen since last November. Sad. I know.

The kids played in the playroom and the yard while dinner was cooking and then ate at the "kids table" in the kitchen while their parents (my brother and SIL) and my mom had a great chat. It was lots of fun and we've learned lots to improve upon our soiree finesse for next time.

{My SIL is punching my brother because he is making rabbit ears over her head. Yep, we're all a bit goofy}

So, who shall be the next victims...er, I mean Guests?! We shall see....

In the meantime...

I also include in this blog entry my little Tackle It Tuesday which, this week, was to learn a couple of new, cool, skills in Photoshop. Thanks to the ever hilarious and always helpful Scott Kelby and his book "The Photoshop Elements 5 Book for Digital Photographers" for teaching me how to create a Poster Presentation (kids photo) and how to create a Digital Frame (adults photo). The snap-shots aren't much, but the effects are pretty cool!

(Tackle It Tuesday is, usually, some horrible housework task that needs to get done but the rules at "Five Minutes for Mom" state it can be anything on your "to-do" list. My Scott Kelby book is now over-due at the library and I still haven't made the time to try out all the cool techniques in his book...so it was definitely on my list. But, Hey, I guess the dinner-party in itself was a pretty big Tackle! At least it was for us...the dinner party challenged).

;-)

Wanna see a preview of next week's Tackle it Tuesday? Clearly, this won't be as much fun as playing in Photoshop...but, it's gotta get done. I think there is a shoe rack in there somewhere! And, possibly...my cutlery!