Take me home, country roads – 6/14/08

So today is a going away party for some good friends in the neighborhood. They are moving to West Virginia, and everyone is very sad. It is probably Marshall’s best friend, and is certainly one of Sarah’s closest friends at the moment. But the playgroup in others in the neighborhood will be giving them a final send off this evening.

In honor of their future home, and for better or worse on our part, we are throwing them something of a “hillbilly” party. This probably makes us bad people to stereotype and all, but too late for that now. The party is at Keith & Katie’s house, which is decorated with a singing fish, a clothesline of tattered clothes, recliner in the front yard, multiple beer signs, tables with newspapers for tablecloth, plastic flowers with wipee canisters as the “vase”, and every table complete with a flyswatter. The cake had an initial inscription “Happy Birthday Karen”, which was crossed out and “We Will Miss You” written underneath. On the beverage menu is Miller High Life (actually, my favorite domestic brew), Natural Light (aka Natty Lite), Budweiser (full flavor, not light; and actually probably my #3 domestic brew), and even a 6 pack of Schlitz tallboys. For the non-beer drinkers, we have 2 bottles of Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill, and a vodka-soaked watermelon. Of course we have juice boxes for the kids, and caffeine-free (and alcohol free) drinks for the pregnant/nursing attendees. Such considerations I don’t remember having to make in college, which this party-planning felt like at times.

Most of us dressed up as well, Sarah in a pair of uber-cheap Sears jeans, cut off naturally, and her red boots. Keith looked like a slimmed-down Larry the Cable Guy in his sleeveless plaid shirt. Katie in a Budweiser tank-top (around her pregnant belly, mind you). Others came in old hats, trashy t-shirts, etc. All of the kids we had running around just in diapers. Marshall had no pants, but we did have him in a shirt: a red shirt we cut the sleeves off of. Best part was that the honorees weren’t fully aware of the theme of the party, and came dressed quite nice. Luckily, they seemed to find the humor in everything.

I somehow got nominated to be DJ early in the week, and spent several nights amassing a collection of fitting songs. Ended up with a 3-volume set which included mostly old country (David Allan Coe, George Jones), southern rock (Skynrd, Georgia Satellites), 70’s classic rock (think more Rick Derringer-like as opposed to Zeppelin), some bluegrass and of course John Denver. I think it was well received, and some of my selections certainly generated intrigue in my musical interests.

Party was a great time all in all. The boys were rather well behaved, and think they had a good time. They enjoyed the badminton court, running around with the racquets and watching the birdie fly back and forth when the adults played. And the bouncy house was a hit as always. Layne went to town when the watermelon (not the soaked one!) came out; advantage of him being only in a diaper made clean-up easier. The honorees seemed to enjoy themselves as well, and appreciated the sentiment. They will certainly be missed, they have been good friends. Who know, maybe a vacation to West Virginia is in our future.


badminton


mmmmm, watermelon


Susie napping...on the porch