Wine and Cheese Party

This post could be alternatively titled:

"Hungover husband regrets suggesting wine and cheese party."

or

"Huh, that's what a Guatemalan back scratcher is."

But never mind all that. It all started years ago when the hubby, Jesse, and I talked about hosting a wine and cheese party. It sort of became this thing that I never thought would actually happen, but a few weeks ago my husband said "let's schedule this thing" so we did. Little did we know how the evening would actually turn out. Most of it I won't get into because it's a "you had to be there" sort of thing to really enjoy it, but know that I haven't laughed that hard in a long time... or stayed up until 1 am (by choice) since before Riley was born... or discussed the merits of cracked pepper Triscuits with red wine...  or participated in acting out my friend's birth stories...

We asked guests to bring their favorite cheese and/ or wine. We provided appetizers: Reuben dip, fruit kebabs, hummus, salami, olive/basil/roasted red pepper/mozzarella kebabs, and of course, we contributed cheese and wine. Turns out I did a terrible job of taking pictures as I did not get any pictures of the cheese which was the star of the party! Update: a big thanks to Ashley who provided me a cheese picture below! I can tell you there were some mighty good cheese options: Manchego, Dubliner, Triple Cream French Cheese, Cheese with espresso (my favorite and I'm not a coffee drinker), cheese with blueberries, Gorgonzola, and more. Since it was a toasty 90 degrees most of the wine shared was white to my husband's dismay (he's pretty much strictly a red wine drinker). Lucky for him he had a backup box of red wine.

We ordered chalk board contact paper and planned on covering the entire table, but didn't quite have enough. We had real wine glasses and then the plastic 'sample' glasses in case guests wanted to try multiple wines. We cut up some of the remaining chalk board contact paper so people could put identifying labels on their glasses.

I finally grabbed my camera after one of our guest's 20 month old son (Grant) gave Riley an adorable hug goodbye. Missed camera moment, but you can't catch them all. We had a number of things the kids could play with: tent, tunnel, water table, easel, board game and ladder ball. The little kids embraced the water table; the older kids liked the board game. Above, Riley is already in her jammies after soaking herself at the water table. Guess we should have prepared all the parents as you can see some other kid's clothes hanging on the chair in the background.

My friend and co-worker, Adriana, grabbed the camera and started taking pictures. She noted that there aren't enough pictures of Riley and I together so she snapped a bunch of those. I was grateful that she helped capture the evening.

Riley loves to 'talk' on the phone. I'm seriously beginning to wonder if she actually thinks she's talking to someone as her 'conversations' are so animated and real.

A couple hours into the party and the box of wine is already on the table. Yes, yes... we know how to throw a classy wine and cheese party. This must have been after we went through all the bottles of red. Luckily Jesse had multiple back ups of box wine.

Time for bed! For the kid's, that is. All the kids started to hit the wall around 8/8:30 (which is way past Riley's bedtime). Here, Jesse is about to take Riley up to bed. Soon after the rest of the adults with kids went home.

Love that Adriana took this picture of Riley giving me a squeeze goodnight.

With 8 of us remaining we gathered around the table and eventually brought the rest of the food out until the bugs attacked... then it was time to move inside and this is where it kinda got crazy.

I really don't even know what to say about our conversations during this part of the evening. I recall an in depth conversation about 50 Shades of Grey (which I haven't read), a rose, the Guatemalan back scratcher, cracked pepper Triscuits and a plethora of other things that had me spitting up my wine.

At one point Adriana suggested we tell our "birth stories" and as she shared hers I suggested someone act it out. So, of course, Joanna did.

She should receive an Emmy or Tony... or some sort of award.

And then it was Jesse's turn to act out Ashley's imagined birth story of being born in Japan.

Haha. This picture looks so different from what was happening here. It looks like my husband is berating an upset Ashley. But that's only the pain of laughing so hard that it hurts. You know the feeling.

I can't be sure, but I think Adriana is acting out Tom's birth story.

Who acted out my birth story you may be asking?... I didn't share mine. For anyone who knows how complicated my family is you might think that the rest of them avoided mine so they wouldn't have to act out an hour long saga. When you have 3 moms, 2 dads, and 15ish siblings... well, let's just leave that for the next party.

After many guests purged by telling their birth stories it was naturally time for yoga. Joanna is a yoga instructor so Jesse asked to learn a move. Pretty impressed for someone who doesn't know yoga moves and is three sheets to the wind.

And this is what happens when you put Therapist themed words on your fridge.

Oh what a night it was. I ended up getting about 4 - 5 hours of sleep since I had to wake up with Riley. I might have been beat the next day, but it was worth the good laughs had with friends. Before the party, Ashley asked me if she would be the youngest one there. Little did she know that age obviously does not equal maturity as she was probably one of the most composed attending. Apparently, us old folks just get silly at get togethers. 

Annual wine and cheese party, anyone?