How Difficult it is to Entertain Some People

Since I share my posts on Facebook, you may have noticed that lovely SmithBites blog post about the Memorial Day picnic at our house. It was a lovely, fun, party with food furnished by our kids. Debra and Rod brought all the yummy Mexican themed food. Cheryl brought
nachos and crock pot FULL of hot dip. She also brought really cute graduation hat cup cakes in honor of Taylor's graduation. I made my usual flimsy attempts to add something to the party.
I made Mexican Paletas (I think they are called). They are just blended fruit, sugar, and juice made into little popsicles. I also had Ginny James get quesidilla cornacopias from her Schwan man to
add to the menu. They even drove all the way across town to bring them to us. Then I totally forgot to get them out of the freezer. OH WELL!

The kids took care of all the classy, delicious parts of the party. And Debra has described it well on her blog. But all the silliness was planned by Don. He went to great lengths to plan the annual 500 mile race pool. Everyone drew drivers' names until they were all gone. He didn't even have anyone put in the usual $1.00 per driver. He came up with all the lovely prizes by himself. He gave everyone all the promotional items he has won at Hoosier Park this year.
Well, he didn't give all of them away. Believe me when I tell you, we can hold several more
contests.

Actually some of the prizes were quite nice, and the winners got quite a kick out of winning. I got such a kick out of mine, that I promptly gave it away to Austin, Tiffany's new boyfriend.
I was afraid we would scare him away from such a crazy family if I didn't bribe him with a nice prize. Don made quite a ceremony out of prize presentations. Cheryl got some steaks, Tiffany got some steak knives, and Lydia won the very coveted slot machine cookie jar. I hope she is
saving it for her hope chest.

Another much anticipated entertainment at all our parties are the gymnastic events. These fall into two
categories. The first is the replaying of the Christmas video from about 25 years ago. Tiffany was five and had received set of rhythmic dancing ribbons. I had put some wine in the very delicious punch, that everyone but Tiffany was allowed to drink. Sad to say that all the adults at the party danced with the ribbons. So, as usual, Don, the entertainment coordinator broke out the Christmas video once AGAIN! Lydia, Avery, and Taylor can't believe that their parents acted that way. I don't know why, because they still do.

Then, of course, we had to let Ginny Gymnast do her routine, after Don let her out of the storage shed. I think when I told Austin that we were letting Ginny out of the shed, he really was about to try and escape from the family. But, let me tell you about Ginny. When our Grandchildren were very small, I bought a Ginny Gymnast doll at a rummage sale and kept it in
their toy storage cabinet at our house. I actually think I bought it for Tiffany at a rummage sale at the lake.

When we sold the lake place, we brought it home for the grandkids to play with here. But, for some reason, Cheryl is the one who simply cracks up when the doll does her routine. (She is battery operated, does flips, hand stands, splits, and lands on her nose a lot.) Of course, if you know Cheryl, you know it doesn't take much to make her laugh. So one year on Cheryl's birthday, Randy, Elaine, Avery, and Lydia were here visiting and we were having Cheryl's birthday party and Rod and Debra's.

The girls and I got a sudden fiendish inspiration and wrapped up Ginny in a lovely gift box, and took it to the birthday party for Cheryl to open. Needless to say, Ginny was the hit of the party and has continued to come to many of our parties. But when Don and I moved five years ago, we somehow lost Ginny in the move. (Let's see - hmmmm - one of those Goodwill boxes?)
Then about a year ago at one of our parties, everyone talked about missing Ginny. So after the party I got on E Bay and actually found another one to buy!

So, Ginny is back, and hopefully will never be lost again. Even if we keep her in the shed, we love her. And, Austin, I hope you aren't too scared of this crazy family. We all liked you a lot.
And, I should mention that Ashley, Taylor's girlfriend, although not as new to the family as Austin, had never before seen Ginny. But we have no fear about Ashley, she seems to be as easily entertained as Cheryl.