It's 1:00 in the afternoon and the party just ended.  It started at 5:00 last night and like so many of those things, we had no idea who would show up.

This was a fairly impromtu open house.  We had planned on throwing Ty a party after he graduated this spring but it didn't seem like there was a huge hurry and everyone was so busy, the timing wasn't great.  Then he got his grad school stuff lined up and suddenly it was now or never.

We spent the last three days cleaning the house and making bars.  For food we got a big cold cut platter and 50 polish sausages from Kramarczuks deli up on the northeast side.  We love that place.  You can't even go back to Johnsonville once you've eaten the K-brats.

We tried to keep it simple.  Finger food: sausages, sandwiches and no cake.  No utensils.  No pop.  No keg.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn't it?

For adults we had several cases of beer, a half dozen bottles of wine and some cocktails.  We bought a huge package of little plastic cups before my folks shindig in June so we had a ton of those.  We filled a big Gatorade cooler with lemonade and we had a lot of bottled water for the kids.  A few of them looked disappointed when they were told no pop but not nearly as infuriated as I look when I'm cleaning up and find dozens of half empty cans scattered all over the house and yard.  We did have a secret stash of rootbeer but only adults got that.

For dessert, we made bars.  I asked Ty what kind he liked and he requested every type of rice crispy bar that exists.  So we had mashmallow rice crispy bars, fudge crispy bars and peanut butter bars with chocolate frosting.  We also had brownies and coconut bars that are to die for.

We invited all of Jay's family and all of my family and Ty and Katie invited friends and some people who work with Ty, and neighbors.  Some of Jay's fam couldn't come but most of mine did so it was even.

Actually, the two branches of our family get along really well.  The Pivecs and Hubbells grew up in the same neighborhood, going to the same church and generationally they overlap like crazy.  My Mom was expecting Mary Jeanne the same summer Pam Pivec was expecting Matt and they used to hang out together at the park, watching Jay's brother Tom and my brother JP play baseball.  My sister MJ was good friends in highschool with Blake, who is now married to Jay's neice, Molly.  They all came to the party.

Many years ago, Zack made this observation; "The Pivecs and the Hubbells are almost exactly the same, except the Pivecs all smoke and have tatoos."

So that's who came to the party.

A large band of kids went down to the park to swim, leaving the adults to have fun in peace. 

A crowd of large young men played basketball in the driveway and my Mom only got hit in the back with the ball once.  She got no sympathy from the crowd.  All those years of living at the Hubbell Gardens, she should know better than  to sit with her back to the game.

There were three babies here.  Two little boys, only one of whom could walk.  At one point in the evening he came toddling out onto the deck jabbering excitedly into my dvd remote.  In the other hand he had the cd changer remote and after shouting into one he turned and babbled into the other.  He was having quite a conference call.  The other little boy was a blue eyed charmer who wasn't at all phased by a crowd of strangers.  The baby girl was absolutely adorable with huge brown eyes and black curly pig tails.  She was also very ready to charm strangers.

At one point in the evening, a small crowd of women adjourned to the front yard, pulled all the chairs into a circle and did NOT smoke  any cigarettes.  Mom.

Some of Jay's former players came.  Some who played with Ty and some who remember Ty as the towel boy.  It's always great when any of them show up.

At about 10, Josie asked me if some of the cousins could stay over.  Particularly, Meg, Hootie, Finnie and Woody.  I said that would be fine but then Vince, who's only five would've freaked out.  I had no problem with Vince staying but if he did, how could we exclude the other five year old, Molly?

Now, I love Molly.  Love her to death.  No way in God's green earth am I letting her sleep over.

Here's the thing: Molly's the one who I KNOW  would wake me up at three in the morning, dripping wet from having gone down the the park pool for a dip, saying "I want pancakes."

"Worse than that," her mom said "She'd wake you up, dripping wet, saying 'I made pancakes'."

It's a testament to how much Katie and Heidi wanted to ditch their kids for the night that they managed to pull off keeping the Great Sleepover Plan from Molly till they got her out of here.

By 11:00, the only guests left (upstairs) were Tyler and Katie's friends and Mary Jeanne.  Three times after 11, Ty found me to say thanks, they were all going downtown now, and then ten minutes later, I'd find them all dancing on the porch instead.  They finally left when they realized the special K bars were gone.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Josie and the pussycats had decided to watch a movie.  She asked me to put it on. 

"From Justin to Kelly?" I read.  "You're kidding."

"The boys want to watch King Kong, but this is what Meg and I want to watch and it's my tv."  Josie explained.

"But this?  We have so many good movies."

"This is good.  And I haven't seen it in a long time."

So I put it on.  Ten minutes later Josie was back upstairs perusing the dvd shelves.  "We've had all we can take of that other one," she said.

They watched the fourth Harry Potter Movie, which Hootie, Woody and Vince hadn't seen yet.

I hate sleepovers.

It's not just the mess and the crabby, cranky kids, it's the noise.  I'm at an age where I really need my sleep.
This was the first time we've ever had a bunch of kids stay and they didn't keep us up.  When we redid the basement a year or two ago, we insulated it and it really worked.  Zack went down with the kids after all of Ty's buddies left and he told me this morning that the kids didn't sleep til after 5:00.  All I know is that when Jay and I turned off the lights we were able to get right to sleep.

Everyone slept till 10:30.

Jay and I read the paper, had coffee, cleaned up the kitchen and yard and then watched it rain for awhile before any of the kids made a peep downstairs.  That eventual peep came in the form of Vince, requesting sausage with his breakfast.

Jay tried to tell Vince that we didn't eat breakfast around here, but Vince wouldn't bite.  Zack made blueberry pancakes and sausages for everyone.

Around 12, Katie and Mike showed up to collect their own kids and take the Hubbell boys back to that foriegn land; West St.Paul.

The trick to throwing a good party is to invite fun people.  Works every time.

 

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