Anniversaries, Hunting Camp and Fancy Nancy

Party dresses, tuxedos, cupcakes, tea, cookies, wedding anniversary, hunting camp, elk, roses and a magic show.  You might wonder if  these things have anything in common.  Well they all happened on the 23rd day of October 2010 right here at The Bookstore.

Bill and I celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary on Saturday.  It happened to be opening day of hunting season.  He left for hunting camp on Thursday leaving behind a note and a card specifically telling me not to open nor read before Saturday. (I was good and  followed those instructions)  The card was beautiful and the words

he wrote even more beautiful.  A dozen roses were delivered to me that morning.   He bagged his elk opening day and slipped back into town to wish me a happy anniversary in person and then just as quickly went back to camp.

We hosted a Fancy Nancy Tea Party and Magic show the same day.  I had no idea what to expect.  I advertised in the local paper and I dropped off 180 invitations to the party at the elementary school.  I also failed to include an RSVP on either the ad or the invitation. 

We were thrilled when guests started to arrive.  Beautiful, twirly party dresses, one Tuxedo, fancy hats, shiny jewelry and big smiles.  Not sure who had the biggest smiles, those of us hosting this soiree or the guests.  I started out keeping track of the attendees.  The first two that arrived were greeted by my fairy princesses and me.  They were taken to the face painting table, shown where stories would be read and where the magic show would happen.  They were escorted to the tea party room, served tea and a cupcake.  I dutifully marked two on my sheet of paper, went into the kitchen to check on something.  I stepped back into the Bookstore and was stunned to see 30 people milling about being cared for by my staff.  According to my records we had 2 people at the party because I never did get back to my record keeping.  My sister, Cindy, was in charge of tea and cookies and she estimates that we had at least 70 children plus their guests (parents, grandparents, aunts.....)

We had necklaces, rings, feather boas, red shoes and of course tiaras to share.  It was an amazing day.  Luke's magic act was outstanding and we were all amazed at the tricks he pulled out of his hat.  The facepainters placed wonderful works of art on the faces, wrists and ankles of the tea party people.  We had parents reading to kids and kids reading to kids.

It was a fabulous day.  Filled with books galore and so much more.