Karen and Mark and the Engagement Party
It always takes a lot of scheduling and re-scheduling, but when we finally get Mark and Karen to come out and visit--it is way fun. This time the theme was shopping for Karen’s wedding dress! Of course Grandpa David came out to for another mini reunion. I could go into all the fun of bridal dress shopping and bridesmaid dress shopping (for Katy), but let’s skip that tedium and go to the good news that Karen found a beautiful dress at the same small local shop where Katy got her dress (instead of from the evil empire that is David’s s Bridal). I would show a picture, but that would be bad.
The real fun time came compliments of Katy and I with support from Grandpa David and Grandma Myra (if I may brag). We threw Karen and Mark an engagement party at our house. It was a small, and we obviously didn’t have any of their friends to invite, but it was a blast nonetheless. We decorated our house and backyard with white lights, fancy settings, and good homemade food. Invited everyone we could get, and put on a great evening for everyone...oh yeah, and there was a total kick-ass live band! Our neighbor is from Nigeria and teaches traditional dancing and music from his country. Himself and three others from his band came and played in our back yard. There was dancing, amazing drumming, great stories and just a totally awesome time. They also performed a ‘traditional’ blessing that was topped off with the bride getting peed on (by a band member’s 2 year old) which was especially awesome!!
The night quickly spiraled into too many tequila shots and inappropriate uses of a chocolate fountain, roses and hair color but we think we made a good memory for the soon to be wed couple! Enjoy the pictures and the “dark” movies (you can hear the band!).
The newly engaged couple
A new do for Caden and Mark...yes these all need to be here
Molly and Grandma enjoying a glass of Chardonnay
Grandpa enjoying, uhm, something?
The party was good enough to get Ty to stop by before the night-shift!
The guests of honor
Caden with his own interpretation of traditional African music
The scene
The Dancing
Note the lit up deck!
The AMAZING Band
Fun in the yard and in the kitchen!
Then things started going downhill...boudoir photos
You can listen to (but not see) the band in these videos. They don’t do it justice. We were told days later that people stopped in the street around our neighborhood and started dancing--it was so good that one of the street dancers injured her hip dancing!