Love These People

Last weekend, Bob and I spent the evening with some very special people. It was a celebration of Emily and Nicole's birthdays. These friends are the ones you can not talk to for weeks or months and it is like you were never apart. They are all so warm and friendly and hilarious. I seriously have never laughed as hard in my life as I did last Saturday. We all gathered at Emily and Tyler's home for food and a crazy game of BINGO.

Emily, Michael, and Katie
Can you tell Emily and Katie are sisters?!?


This family is extremely talented and they have recently taken up various string instruments.
Emily and Ginny showed off their talents (sort of).


Tyler's mom indulged both Emily's new hobby of guitar and mandolin with her extreme obsession with all things Twilight with guitar books for the soundtracks to the first two movies. She was ecstatic!

Nicole LOVES the outdoors and even has her own camper! She just purchased a new camper and is decorating it with Scotty dogs. Her "mom" got her a stained glass scotty for the camper window.

Ginny can play any instrument she picks up. It is really sickening!

So...this family plays a hilarious version of Bingo. The winner of each round gets to choose a prize from the table. The prizes are white elephants gifts that all of the players have brought. Each prize can be "stolen" twice before it is frozen with that last person. It is really amazing to watching people fight over a used board game or cooler. I had completely horrible luck. As evident from the picture above, I went a whole round without any of my numbers being called. Bobby, who had never played Bingo in his life, had beginners luck and won two rounds. Although, I did get a prize for a clean sheet.

Katie snagged a very coveted prize - a kite! Bobby really wanted this kite, again because he has never flown a kite in his life, but couldn't steal from sweet Katie.

One of the loudest, fiercest competitiors was Tyler. He was hysterical - as always.

I am not sure Michael won a round either! But, as always, he was so cheery and so very funny. He has the most recognizable laugh ever and you can't not laugh when he does.

Costume Party

Each year, my in-laws and Bobby and I throw a costume party. We have food, a bonfire, and a costume contest and always have a good time. Here are a couple of pictures of our night...

Ashley working on Bobby's eye makeup...

Katy was a turn-of-the-century belle
She won best prize for the teen category for best costume.

Sarah and I....she's getting way too big to pick up. She was a black kitty cat and I
was "Earl - Mechanic for Hire." I got to wear a mullet and had grease stains.

Bobby and I after getting into costume.

Self-portraits.
Bobby won the Adult prize. Since we are the hosts we try not to get in the contest
but we had no choice since he won by a landslide.

Brooklynn was sick so she did not wear her Snow White costume
but Michelle brought her by for a few minutes. She's always a doll.

Michael is the biggest flirt I have ever seen....and he's only 18 months old!
He was a bubblebee - complete with antennas and a little stinger.

Mom & Dad - Dracula and the Wicked Witch

Ashley and her future sister-in-law, Mary.
Mary was a butterfly with cute orange wings. She won the under 10 prize for best contume.

Bobby, Jimmy, and Vera....

(Jimmy, Bobby, & Vera)
Saturday morning Bobby and our friend, Jimmy, decided to make a potato gun. They went to work designing and building their new toy and within an hour, they had their masterpiece. The gun, now known as Vera, is an interesting contraption. They stuff half of a potato into Vera's barrel and then use a combination of Lysol spray and cheap hairspray to activate the spark from the trigger. They used a small lantern liter as their trigger. I was very surprised Vera didn't blow up in their faces. I managed to catch a couple of pictures and videos (hopefully to come later).