Party With College Friends!

My dear friend college friend Julie and her kids were in town so we quickly contacted everyone we could and invited them over on the Friday.  Only Rich and Linda were able to come, but it was still fun!  Almost 30 years later, we still like each other; that's pretty rare.

Funnily enough, it looks like most of us unintentionally dressed to match our house theme: blue!  

Since Julie's kids, Avery and Noah, were coming over, I set up some games in the basement.  We had fun stuff to do in spite of the storage boxes we still have lining the walls down there.

Wooden 4-in-a-row and block-stack games:

I also set up rocket balloons and the marble run on the train table that stands in for a coffee table right now in the basement.

Board games on the big table:

We played gears for a little while, too.

I made lots of food, everything vegan and gluten-free.  I got good feedback on everything.

Chocolate chip cookies:

Grapes, carrots, baby tomatoes, and cucumbers:

Bell pepper slices, big fruit salad:

2 kinds of olives, nuts, pickles

Tortilla chips & salsa

Crackers & cashew cheese

Fritos!

My Mom and I had picked up that pretty wooden serving tray and it was perfect!

These are my new favorite treats: sparkling water flavored only with fruit juices of various kinds.  They're delicious and the cans are cute, too!

When we moved into our house, I found a HUGE stainless steel bowl in the recycling bin.  HUGE bowl.  It was icky - like probably something had been killed in it.  In spite of my squeamishness, I pulled it out, ran it through the sterilize cycle in the dishwasher, and it was as good as new!  I put ice in it and piled in the cans, which stayed VERY cold all evening!

There we are!!!

Linda (Rich's wife, who didn't go to college with us)

Rich

Julie

Me

Greg

A few days later, I got a sweet package from Julie, Avery, and Noah.  They had found me a cute BLUE fish vase!  It's sitting now in a place of honor on my bookshelf.  

Thanks, sweet friends!

 

Bonus content: I put a bench in the laundry room/mud room and it looks great there!