Look Away

Bears Birthday

John's birthday was last week and we had planned to have a family party at our house on Saturday night. But I kept the theme of the party a secret from John until an hour before the party. I had decided a couple weeks earlier that the theme of the party would be the Chicago Bears. John loves football and the Bears, besides I thought it would be a fun way to bring a little Chicago back into our lives. I know that John's family aren't particularly fans of the Bears, but I sent them an e-mail and told them about the party. I told them that they could wear blue and orange if they wanted to, but they didn't have to. And I let them know that I ordered a bunch of stick-on mustaches so we could all look like Mike Ditka! I really didn't expect people to dress up very much. But little did I know that John's family REALLY gets into a theme. I was blown away by the participation. It was so awesome!!

An hour before the party, I came out wearing a new Bears t-shirt and told him it was a Chicago Bears party. Then I gave John a t-shirt and a hat. I brought out the plates, napkins and hideous brownies I decorated. He was excited. Then we put on our mustaches and waited for our guests to arrive.

Okay, we just need to see pictures already.

Waiting for guests (he really was excited but it's hard to smile with a fake mustache)

I was laughing the whole time I was decorating the brownies. I won't quit my day job.

No party is complete without a tray of mustaches and a mirror in the kitchen

Our first guest showed up at our door and I almost fell over. I could not believe how awesome they looked! I don't know if you can see it, but they each have a letter on their forheads spelling out Bears. And orange and blue Mardi Gras beads?! And under eye black paint (don't know if there's a name for that)?! And balloons?! And pom poms?! We'll ignore that Cowboys shirt because it has blue on it and is football related.

I thought these first party goers were a fluke. But then our next guests showed up. And they also rocked the blue and orange! I love the tie and jacket combo. A totally unexpected twist on the theme. So some of the mustaches looked more like Luigi than Ditka, but we didn't care.

Oh and then. Then! The last three showed up and blew my socks off. John's mom, being the amazing seamstress that she is MADE these sweatshirts and hat. And they brought the Ditka aviator sunglasses!

And on the back of the sweatshirt she had sewn on our last name and numbers also! So amazing.

The resemblance is uncanny...

'E' is for effort

So after we all got sick of wearing the mustaches, we at some nachos, chili, and cornbread. Then the real festivities began. First we went downstairs and played pin the tail on the Chicago Bear.

My nieces and nephews at first wondered why we were playing pin the tail on the polar bear, but I explained that it was really a grizzly bear and that they just needed to imagine that it was brown. At the end I gave out a kid prize (gummi bears) and an adult prize (Bayer aspirin) to the winning tail pinners.

Then after some more mingling and eating we played Chicago Bears themed charades. Players acted out things having to do with bears, football or Chicago. I separated the words out into a kid bucket and an adult bucket so it would be fair. Some of the adult words were Smokey the Bear, the Chicago Fire, Walter Payton, and Soldier Field. Some of the kids words were pizza, panda bear, quarterback, cheerleader.

I think everyone had a great time and I will never again doubt whether John's family are up for participating in a theme party. I have to admit I was exhausted when everyone left and I told John I hate keeping secrets from him. It was so hard to plan it without being able to talk to him about my ideas!

Happy Birthday Johnny, maybe someday we can actually go to a real Bears game again!

Swabbing the Deck

John and I stained/waterproofed the deck last weekend when it was 78 degrees outside. Boy am I glad we got it done before today when all hell broke loose and I definitely saw SNOW FLURRIES. Anyway, point is, we stained the deck. It was our first time-consuming home improvement project. Okay, so I only helped the first day and then John put in a whole extra day alone.

(the bottom part is the stained part)

Roxy was annoyed that we wouldn't let her out on the deck.

A little late

Some of our Halloween decorations...

p.s. we made those wooden pumpkins and cat. I drew them on plywood and John cut them out. And then I painted them.