1968 Themed Dinner Party

A couple of weeks ago I got an invite to attend a themed dinner party at a friend's house. It was 1968 and I wasn't quite sure what to wear until I found a Lilly Pulitzer dress at a thrift store that worked perfectly. I forgot that a lot of her stuff reads 1960s. With that discovery, I knew I could attend! 

The funniest part of the whole thing was that the host chose food from her grandmother's recipe collection of "gourmet" items that would be served at a dinner party back then. Ya'll, I am not kidding when I say that the idea of good food back then was grossly misunderstood! We had a lot of food that was turned into gelatin, cheese spreads/balls/loafs, green olives and canned meat. It was the height of convenience food which had really just come out. So many things looked very mysterious and shaped by molds. Funny enough, there was a lime salad there which is something we make every year for Thanksgiving, except our yummy dessert like food had the additions of pimentos and celery. SO weird!

We also played some fun 60s games like charades, trivia and singing songs with only the word "groovy" so that others could guess it. Let's just say there was lots of laughter!

It was a fun time had by all and while we gave out hostess lots of grief about the food (she was also in on the criticism), the adventure made it special and certainly something to talk about. I just wonder how much of the leftovers will end up at our church potluck today!

Other happenings....

Paige is the President for Junior Beta Club and a Junior Scholar, which means she aced her PSAT!

Meanwhile, Anna is participating in group activities at the school by using the name Your Mom. Yeesh.

Patrick and I also did our early voting this week and the girls and I managed to slip in some flu shots, which I am proud to say they handled pretty well. 

Fall Break Fun!

I tell you something....I cannot hang like I used to! All this Fall Break Fun has me worn out, but in the best way. 

On Thursday, I picked up Paige early since she had a half day. She had to participate in the Hispanic Awareness Month school assembly by playing in the orchestra. So she was definitely ready to head home by the time I got her mid-day. We did a bunch of cleaning, chores and prep for her sleepover that night. After practice, her new friend Madeline and two other cross country buddies, Abby and Kylie, joined for a fun evening. Paige planned the whole thing and I found it hilarious because she made a note on her phone about all the details and then sent it to her friends. These sweet girls know exactly how meticulous Paige is and loved all the things she had laid out for their evening. I just love that they embrace her for the planner she is! 

Her list included a pasta dinner with special drinks made by Abby, a candy salad, secret exchange ice cream pints, board games, an escape room that Paige designed, watching a movie and generally staying up late. My only rule was that I needed to not hear them when I went to bed which they did great on. Interestingly, I didn't end up in bed until midnight and then I was up early to get some breakfast casserole going. When the girls left, Paige said to me: Mom, that was the best sleepover I have ever had! I just love these friends so much. 

Meanwhile, Anna and I watched Twisters in my room and got some things ready for our big trip. She and I headed out around lunch time on Friday after Anna got some work done in the morning. Our first stop was Optimist Hall in Charlotte, NC. It's a fancy good court where we went around and grabbed small samplings at several stalls, kinda Gimore Girls style. We wanted to try things we don't usually get so it included pork dumplings, spicy chicken Asian noodles, Indian sweet potato deliciousness and a falafel bun. For dessert we got some gelato and I grabbed some coffee just to put some pep in my step for the rest of the day. It was such a cute place and we were definitely well fed for a while. 

After we checked into our hotel downtown, we got all dressed up for the Morgan Wallen concert. This was supposed to be a July show, but was cancelled at the last minute and rescheduled for the ONE weekend in October we both happened to be available. Whew! Anna was SO excited and could hardly contain herself! Our hotel was less than a mile from the Panther's Stadium so we walked there along with the throngs of other concert goers, picking up a cowgirl hat along the way. 

We got there around 4:45 and took pictures as well as found our seats. They were in the upper deck on an aisle to the side of the stage, but honestly we could see everything and they were great seats, especially when we realize the REALLY big guy that was sitting in front of Anna was going to sit the entire concert, allowing Anna to see well. 

There were three warm up acts, including Cole Swindell. All had good music and by the time Cole was done, we were ready to hear the big guns. The only thing was....it took 45 minutes to get all the set stuff changed over and for Morgan to actually come out! He didn't get on stage until 9:15, but when he did, we were pumped. I had practiced all the songs and lyrics for months so that I could be an awesome concert buddy. Sure enough, I knew the songs and even could guess which one they would play next just from the opening instrumentals. I nailed it! Anna was screaming and singing and jumping and having the time of her life. He did put on a great show with lasers, fire, lights, wrist bands that blinked, some surprise set changes and good music, even if he did sing a lot about alcohol, ha. 

We met Mal and her family after the show as they were there and they walked with us back to the hotel so we wouldn't be alone. I mean the other thousands of fans were also out and about so it would have been fine, but we enjoyed catching up with them about the concert. All told, we were in bed a little after midnight and then it took me a while to get to sleep. 

But that didn't stop my eyes from opening at 6:10AM so we could get ready for our next part of our grand trip! Anna and I booked it out of our hotel by 7:15 and headed to Raleigh, NC to attend NC State's open house. It's on her list and we were only 2 and a half hours away. Anna slept a bit in the car while I downed my two shots of espresso and we arrived just in time to catch some sessions, ask questions at the fair, tour the student union and walk around campus. We both liked the campus and the pre-law student panel was great, giving Anna some ideas about what college students are doing with their interest in this area. We even managed to stop by the track and Anna let me take her picture under the balloon arch which made me smile.

I definitely had to climb over the passenger seat to get to my side because this person parked after me!

After our college visit, we stopped into Uptown Cheapskate where I managed to find an outfit for an upcoming 60s themed dinner party and Anna found some awesome high top neon Nike's. Then it was time for us to head home with a stop at Bucee's about half way there. We had lots of funny moments in the car and talked about more serious topics like the future. I really enjoyed my time with her, knowing these next couple of years are going to move fast and look really different as she prepares to leave on her next big adventure. In the meantime, I'm soaking up these special moments and basking in the victory of my awesome Mom-win. Let's just say the Mom-points are at an all time high right now. 

And if you are wondering what Patrick and Paige were up to-they went to see Wild Robot and took Jonathan with them. It was a good movie, but both of those book worms agreed it didn't hit the mark on accuracy and therefore, was disappointing. Then the two Ps chilled and got some work done. Both were very tired from all their adventures (the sleepover and a conference Patrick was at). So, the extra rest and downtime were just what they needed. 

The fun is done and now it's time to put our noses to the grindstone as we enter the 2nd quarter, new class and end of the cross country season. 

Mid-Week Meet

We don't have many Wednesday meets this year and I'm glad for it. Usually, they are against a couple of teams and we either host or have to leave school early to get to another school. In the end, it's a lot of work and disruption to the school week for not a lot of payoff. But they were able to not do them this year because of a rule change and I'm happy to have a little more normalcy during the week since our weekends are so packed. 

With that said, we still had to have a Senior Night to recognize all the seniors. This was another tough group to watch as they spread their wings and head off the new adventures. Mal especially has been like a third daughter to our family and one of Anna's best friends. She accepted Anna on the team as a little bitty 7th grader and they have been running buddies ever since. Frankly, I'm not sure who Anna is going to run with next year because Mal is the only one fast enough to keep up with her during practices! 

I was super proud of Anna for working so hard to make the event special. She organized the making of the shadow boxes with the other juniors, set up all the stuff for Senior night at the track and generally ran around like a chicken with her head cut off. I got a text from her one morning right before school started that really cracked me up:

Because she was so busy on Senior Night it did two things: she didn't cry so that was good and unfortunately, it made her super tired and she didn't have the best race. Honestly, the second one is fine because even though it wasn't her best race, she still came in under 19 minutes, Mal got to win the race and she pushed Mal to get under 19 minutes which was her goal. For some reason, Anna decided to go super fast and Patrick said, "Well I think she PRed in the 800!" It's good for Anna to know that even when that happens she can still push through and have a good race. 

Meanwhile, Paige finished with a PR! She kept Scarlett in sight the entire time and races another girl almost to the finish. The only thing that disappointed her was not meeting her goal of breaking 21 minutes which she missed by less than a second. I know that's frustrating! But a PR is a PR and she's working on not settling in the middle of the race. 

In other news, I started with my new group of students. They have Fall Break at the end of this week so I kept things light considering they looked like zoned out dead fish. Luckily Patrick helped me come up with an activity for class that was lowkey but emphasized some important points and it went really well. We'll gear up for heavy duty stuff next week. 

Anna and I also managed to grab these pics of the comet this week. So many cool celestial happenings! She and I will be heading to NC tomorrow for a concert and college tour. I can't wait to see what she thinks about everything, but I'm going to play super cool, chill mom. And because why not, Paige is having a sleep over tonight with some of the XC girls since they have the day off of school tomorrow. All the things!