Bowls and Balls

Sunday was the first time I have been in the country during the superbowl since before Janet Jackson showed her goodies on national television. There is a week-long newspaper management seminar the first week of February every year that Will and I usually attend, and it's in a different place every year (usually in the Caribbean). So usually we watch the superbowl in a beach bar being broadcast out of Puerto Rico with nothing but cell phone and insurance commercials in spanish. We would have been watching it from Aruba this year, had we not decided that neither leaving Emily behind for several days nor taking her with us on a trip to Aruba were good options. So I decided since we were going to be at home this year we should have a superbowl party, since we have missed out on that experience for the past few years. I am nothing if not an optimist.

The party went quite well even though Will and I are out of practice as hosts. We used to entertain a lot before Emily was born but I have been hesitant to attempt hosting a party while having to care for a baby at the same time, but the food was good:

And Will played an excellent bartender:

I was surprised how many people were interested in the game, I didn't have most of my friends figured as football fans but everyone was pretty excited about it, which always helps. I enjoyed talking with my female guests as they periodically slipped out into the kitchen to get some snacks. We did realize that we need more seating in our living room, this is at the beginning of the night, before everyone had even showed up:


Another good thing about staying behind from the trip this year is that we were able to attend the Mardi Gras ball in Frederick. Usually this is a stuffy debutante ball hosted by the Frederick Women's Civic Club (a bunch of old ladies) but this year it turned out to be much more fun. In 1998, the first year I attended, one of the princesses wore a strapless dress. The old ladies were scandalized, fans were aflutter, monocles were dropping left and right. At least I assume so, based on the fact that by the time I was a princess the next year there was a rule that your dress HAD to have sleeves, and had to be approved by a member of the club before it could be worn to the ball. This severely limited my choice of dress, and I ended up having to wear a dress I didn't really like that 4 other girls also had.

But this year it was much more fun, and there were no dress limitations. Maybe it's because I can drink now, maybe it's because Will's cousins and sisters are getting older so we have more people in our age bracket to associate with, maybe it's because the old ladies actually chose a decent DJ, but we actually had a good time. I even saw one of the aforementioned ladies freak dancing with a high school boy to Sir Mix a Lot. That's the kind of grandma I want to be!

Now Tina is "out", she has been properly presented to society, and can begin to receive gentleman callers. At least that's the way it would be if we were in a Jane Austen novel and not the only place in the tri-state area that still has debutante balls almost 200 years later! That hussy Tina has already had 2 boyfriends before being properly presented though, so I seriously doubt any nice young man of respectable position will consider her now. She did look very pretty though :-)

Dancing with her dad, the former King Proteus:


Dancing with sister Margaret:


Sara, Will, Tina, Margaret and Brad:


Will, Sara (in her $17 dress), Margaret, Brad, cousin Ceci and Ben:


Ceci and Ben:


Glowstick origami:


The siblings goofing off:


-Sara