Partying and School Shopping

Folks, I've been scarce, I know. Thank you so much for still visiting to check in on me and our little cottage. We had a farewell party here on Saturday night (which I think went great!) and then I've been up to my ears in school shopping for the girls. They register on Thursday on their first full day is Monday! Though my little one has one more year at home, we shopped for her, too - and clothes shopping for three girls who have definite opinions on both fashion and comfort...whew - it is not easy! For instance, I always start shopping at my favorite childrens consignment shop. They carry loads of really nice quality barely used new looking and often *brand new* items. I like to try to find the girls jeans there (jeans run from 5.50 to $12 a pair...can't beat that!) So I found tons of jeans for my middle girl to try on...probaby about 15 pairs. Of *all* of them, she found *one* pair that she liked. ARgh!!! There were many others that I liked and that looked great on her, but I knew that if I bought them, I'd have to listen to complaints everytime she wore them. After the consignment shop (where we saved $20 off our total purchase because I had a completely stamped frequent shoppers card!), we headed for The Children's Place, Ross, Old Navy, and Kohl's and found lots great deals. Oh, and we shopped on the state-wide "tax free" day (no taxes on clothing, school supplies, and computers) which saved us a lot of money. Today we have to shop for shoes, a zip up sweater for my oldest girl,...and more jeans.

The farewell party here on Saturday was nice. It was warmer in the house than I wanted it to be, but other than that, everything was perfect. Oh, except for the part where I was *getting in the shower* at 6 pm (guests were to start arriving between 6 and 6:30). Hubs was here to greet guests, so it didn't bother me too much, that is, until I came out of my room at almost 6:30 to find that hubs was not here, lol. He had left to go and pick up the guest of honor and our children were the ones that greeted the guests instead. I was wondering why they kept coming to my bedroom door and saying, "Mommy! Somebody else is here!". I would say, "Oh, ok!", thinking that hubs was present all along. Oh well, these are are dearest friends so I don't think they thought much of it...and I had appetizers out, lol.

Dinner was lovely and guests brought great food! The food theme of our party was "comfort food" and I made "Chicken and Cheese Corn Chowder" and "Potato and Bacon Soup". We had garlic parmesan bread, fresh veggies and dip, and my oldest girl made herbed tomatoes. She also made fresh lemonade:) Of course, we had sweet tea and champagne, too:) Someone else brought chili, and we also had carrot cake, a yummy cake with coffee liquor, and Mississippi Mud Pie. Silly me forgot to take pictures of the two dining tables we had set up, but I was so pleased with how it all came together, I'm going to "recreate" it and take photos to share. I found some photos of friends that I had printed up (lol, just a couple of hours before the party!) and I strung a long piece of wired twine across the mantle and attached the photos with little wooden laundry pins. Under that was the table for gifts and cards.

It was very cozy sitting around our little living room with all of our friends after dinner, sharing funny memories and thoughts from our hearts. One of my favorite sayings is, "Friends are relatives you choose for youselves" and I truly felt like we were having a family reunion, which made the "farewell" part of the party a little less sad.

So...that's what we've been up to as of late! Hope everyone is doing well:)