We hosted an event tonight that was our largest gathering in-house yet. We've had parties with thirty or forty; we've had pumpkin carvings in the yard with I'm not sure how many and we've even had an all-day event with meals, break-out rooms and seating for thirty-eight. What we haven't done is have seventy people at an event all in our house at one time before.
It was a logistical problem that I had a good time working on. At past events, we'd learned if you don't have a reason for people to go to a room or an area of the house, they won't go there. We discovered if you have food and beverages all in the kitchen, everyone will pack in there, no matter how crowded that space may be, even if there is plenty of open space in the next room or area.
The next large event we put wine and beer on a table in the corner of the living room. That worked well, because people went into the living room to get drinks, but no one wanted to go into the kitchen now. The following event we split things up, some food in the kitchen, drinks in the living room, main meal in the dining room with the chairs backed up to the wall so people could serve themselves directly and then carry their plate away to another location. And that worked well too.
So we took all that knowledge of what I'm going to call "Party Flow" rules and thought about how we could put something party-specific or interesting that people would want to investigate or eat or drink in as many places as possible, mostly because seventy people take up a lot of space.
We added the complication of having a two-phase party with the first half, including food, upstairs and the second half involving a presentation and surprise champagne toast, cake and guest appearance in the basement. And it all had to be timed appropriately, with the person running the event not realizing there was a big surprise for her at the end.
It all worked out, the party flow, the presentations and the surprises. I'm not sure it could have gone better. I think I gave my husband three high-fives at the end of the night when everyone had left, because I was so happy it had gone so well.
Oh, and I have to mention, one of the exciting surprises was a custom cake of our head of school, riding on a motorcycle, driving off to the location of our new school. Everyone thought it was wonderfully done, and I agree, it was.
The Big Boy Update: Plastic trains, wooden trains. He likes trains. He has two very different and distinct sets, one plastic and one wooden. The sets do different things and he likes each for their own merits. Today he decided he had had enough of the plastic trains and would I please put them up and bring out the wooden trains because he was ready for them now.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: The pacifier trauma. There was an accident today in which Kica, didn't realize my daughter had dropped her pacifier into the the toilet. She realized what happened just as she flushed. My daughter was so upset because she realized it was gone for good. We all tried not to laugh too much at Kica, because she felt bad about the whole thing. I "found" the pacifier by getting another one out of storage and my daughter calmed down. She needs to give up the pacifier, but we decided the night of a big party might not be the best day to go pacifier-free.
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