Fun with Paper at a Dinner Party

I was in bed, but had to get out because I kept coughing. I've had a cold for ages now, and it doesn't seem to want to totally go away. So I'm sucking on a cough drop, and thought I'd just do up a quick post while I'm waiting.

This weekend, my sister Selby and I, and our two cats, Trotsky and Oddly, went home to visit our parents. Oddly curls up in her carrier and falls asleep as soon as she gets into the car, but Trotsky is a bit more a nervous traveler. He will have none of a cat carrier. I can't even force him into one! So he just gets to roam around the car. Finally he found a spot he was comfortable in.

Look at all of his fur on the car seats! Little gaffer was shedding up a storm!

Our parents have some great friends who live across the street from them: a mom, a dad, and a little boy. (P.S. Go on over and give the mom some blog love! She's new to the blogging world!) It was Sandi's birthday on Friday, and her wish was to have a big family dinner at our house. What I mean by that is that we consider them family, so it was the joining of our two families for a fun birthday fest. We also invited some other dear family friends, one of whom has a one-year-old little girl.

Selby and I took the reins and got to work. My dad has some clients who are Hutterites, and they give him gifts from their farm every so often. He got a big turkey from them that was taking up room in the freezer, so we decided to have a pre-Thanksgiving turkey fest.

The food was amazing, but my table concept was really fun, too! Not a novel idea by a long shot, but I covered the table in kraft paper, and put plenty of crayons on the table for everyone to decorate it with.

 

And bunting for the birthday girl's chair!

I traced a big circle for each place setting and then wrote each person's name above it. Here's my place setting before dinner:

And here it is after:

Everyone had fun, especially the kids. The 6 year old Daniel created a Harry Potter masterpiece:

That is Professor Quirrell with the big purple turban, a marauders mask (MM), Professor McGonagal (M), Lupine (L), and Black(B)

And Rachel, the one year old had fun too:

The next time you're having a dinner party, consider using paper as your tablecloth. So much fun! But you might want to state this rule in writing as well:

(This rule was meant for my father, by the way, not the kids)

P.S. And at your next dinner party, you should definitely make Spiced Pumpkin Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, too. Yum!