In Celebration of the Teen

The teen will turn 19 on Thursday, so last night saw us enjoying the first of many celebrations.  We got together with his best friend from primary school - before he heads back to Uni tomorrow - his parents and sister, an old family friend and another of the teen's pals from secondary school.

The theme was 'Curry & Games' and, as usual, we had a ball.

We'd just recently been given a John Lewis voucher for our anniversary so we splashed out on new china and cutlery.  I think our black and white themed table looks pretty glam.

Our dining table had to get ditched in the garden as it's not big enough for nine guests.

This is our ping pong table glammed up by a damask cloth my Dad acquired as an antique dealer.

I'm ready to party.

Still hating the new hair.

As the current obsession in the Misfit House is 'Breaking Bad'

we ordered a rice paper cake topper from eBay for his chocolate birthday cake.

The 'cooking' reference comes from the series!

He was pretty impressed.

Once the meal was over we started on the games.  The Misfits are well known for the daftness of our parties and, thankfully, our guests are always willing participants.

We started with 'A word from a Song' - this involved single words on a piece of paper, picked from a hat and then we each had to sing a line from a song containing that word.  E.g: LOVE - 'She Loves You' or 'Love, Love me Do.'  The aim of the game is to find as many as possible containing the word.

Then we moved on to 'Paper Art'  - we picked a category such as 'animals' or 'things you find in the kitchen' and we each had to tear a piece of A4 paper into the shape of our chosen object.  We were surprised at how many cats and giraffes we had.  Then we had the lazy man's effort of 'a puddle of milk' for 'found in the kitchen'!

Next was 'Alphabet Story'  - we began at a random point in the alphabet and told a story line by line with each person starting the next line with the next letter of the alphabet. E.g:  Amanda went shopping.  But the shops were closed. 'Can't think what to do,' she said.

The game we played for the longest was 'Keep it going' - the teen would find a well known song on his iPod and we would start to sing along with it.  One example was 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.  While we were singing, he would suddenly turn it down so that we were unable to hear it and we had to keep singing to see if we were at the same point on the track when he turned it back on.  Much fun and laughter was had by all, and I have to say we didn't do too badly.

This then led onto 'Joint Bongos' with the teen and his friend taking half a bongo each and bashing out tunes while we danced - quite a lot!

Action shot!

Their hands were moving so fast, they're a blur!

I can't believe that these are the two boys who used to camp on the floor.

Fine young men to be proud of and a joy to spend time with.

And from our boys, I gained a best friend.

(and also a Goddaughter - not pictured)

A sneaky ciggie in the snow, 13 years ago, and we're still going strong.

'You had me at the snow!'

Ugh!

The worst part of a dinner party - the clearing up.

 

Mr Misfit and other menfolk were at the party but we seem to be short on photos - which, when it came to the dancing, is probably just as well!

 

We had a fabulous time and were all feeling a little exhausted this morning.  Now ... on to his actual birthday on Thursday.  But first, sleep.

Happy Birthday Baby Misfit

Son of Mummy Misfit turned seventeen last week.  How it happened I’ll never know!  It seems like only yesterday that I was giving my husband and sister murderous looks as Baby Misfit bungee-jumped in and out of my ‘fandango’ with the umbilical cord around his neck.

So what type of celebration do you have for a young man who likes things to be fairly low key?  Well, his oldest and best friend had turned eighteen the week before and had also decided on a ‘no fuss’ birthday, so we decided to get both families together (with another close friend) and have a dinner party quiz night.

As there were eight of us, our usual dining table wasn’t big enough so we had to use our ping-pong table which is stored in two halves under our sofas.  After manoeuvring the dining table through the hallway and across the kitchen to the back door we proceeded to try to roll it out into the garden.

We must have done this a dozen times before.  It’s not possible that the table has grown or the door frame shrunk but we found ourselves - The whole Misfit family - with it firmly lodged and refusing to budge for about 45 minutes.  Think ‘Krypton Factor’ or one of those really annoying puzzles which you have to jiggle and shake to set something free.  It was certainly ‘fun for all the family’ and I thank heavens I have such a patient husband.  Finally the table must have breathed in and it was released into the garden.  It must also have shrunk in the cold because there was no problem getting it back in later!

With everything now in place I could start on my decorations.  Now, those who have read my other blogs on party planning will know I love to give ‘good table'!  My son chose green and yellow as the theme - opting for a grass effect gift wrap with contrasting grass and flowered serviettes.  Grand total of £2 in Tiger!  I re-covered old drink mats with the paper and then coated with clear contact.  I then painted old party favour boxes and hubbie covered the lids to match the mats, finishing off with a paper daisy and filling with chocolates and Smarties.

My centrepiece was an old vase filled with oasis and decorated with more paper daisies.  The flowers were from Poundland!  Grand total of £4 - typical Mummy Misfit style.

So I think my table looks pretty impressive for the princely sum of £6!

The menu, with three fussy teenagers, (son’s friend’s sister is my God daughter, so was also there) was slightly trickier, so I opted for lazy nibbles to start - smoked salmon on rounded bread with cream cheese, parmesan crisps, stuffed mushrooms, nuts, tortilla chips and breadsticks.  The main was a safe chicken casserole, roast potatoes and veg - a winner for all!  Pudding was green and yellow cupcakes with a healthy dose of chocolate ganache.

 Cakes in the making.

The quiz comprised of six rounds for three teams of two - hubbie and I were in charge as we’d set the questions so couldn’t take part.  Some rounds were done before eating and the rest after.

Dogs - name the dog breed

Lyrics - what’s the next line?

Cryptic pop groups - who are they?  Eg: Nun on a toboggan = Sister Sledge

Number challenge - eg:  10GB H on the W = 10 green bottles hanging on the wall

Logos - name the company.

Totes random!  - how many objects can you find on the tray, within three minutes, beginning with the letters you’ve picked from the pot?

I think you'll see from the photos that much fun was had by all.

 

  Team one - 'The Drury Lanes', deep in discussion.

Team two - 'M&M'

Team three - 'The Birthdays' - who drew willies and testicles all over the dog round pictures!

Quiz in full swing.

Me and the boys.

Me and my boy - tall and skinny (him, not me!)

Some of the cupcakes in all their glory.

Misfit and the cakes

The winners, by one point!

The scratch card prize which revealed - a big fat ZERO!

 A gossip at the end of the night.

Music ranged from The Beatles to The B52’s to Bowie and, as is customary with these friends, ended on Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ with us all singing along, playing drums or spoons on the table and punching the air.

So I think that just goes to show that with the right mix of friends and at very little cost, you can throw a truly fun night.

Did you know that my Mummy Misfit books have remained in the Top 50 in humour on Kindle for the past week?  Go check them out - at only £1.91, what do you have to lose?

Fanfare Please!

So did you have a lovely long weekend of Jubilee celebrations?  Did you feel a little let down by our Great British weather or were you not surprised?  After all, Bank holiday = rain!

I was dragged, kicking and screaming (literally!) by my Aussie husband to see the gathering of the boats for the flotilla, down on the Thames at Putney.  This involved parking the car and then taking a rather muddy hike across the common to get to the river.  Relieved I’d ditched the sandals and gone back to boots, the trudge with lingering sciatica was still not good.  Neither was the fine rain in my hair or the pain in my cold ears.  Not a very happy bunny!

Once we’d seen the majority of the rowing boats set off, hubbie was still looking rather too keen for more.  ‘OK.’  I told him.  ‘I’m happy to drive along the river to see what we can see from the car.’  Son seemed happy enough with this too as he could plug himself into his iPod and become a non-communicative teen again.

Little did I know that we'd end up near Battersea Park, where hubbie had other ideas - to find a parking spot and hit the river again.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  I’m not a misery guts but by this point I had the hump.  I’m not a massive Royalist, I have a very annoying bladder (which tells me I need to pee if it knows it can’t) and I HATE crowds.

But we did it.  Aussie husband loves the spectacle and pageantry.  He got his way and I was then rewarded with pizza and wine.  Son enjoyed giving us a running commentary of what the Queen might be saying.  ‘Oh, Phil!  Hope I didn’t leave the gas on.’  And, ‘Gagging for a G&T old boy!’  A good time was (eventually) had by all.

Then, yesterday we had our street party - well what can I say?  It was very British - we were drenched but we sang through the rain and did our best to enjoy ourselves.  Community spirit rules!

But during all of the festivities and jubilation, the main thing in the back of my mind was the arrival of today.  It might be have been a busy time for Queenie but it’s been pretty full on for me too.  FANFARE PLEASE, as today is the launch of my third novel ‘Completing the Puzzle.’

If you’ve read the Mummy Misfit books, I hope you’ll continue on my writing journey into romance and see what else I’m capable of.  Fingers crossed you’ll like it because I’m currently working on my fourth novel (release date December) and if you all say you just want more Misfit Madness, I may cry.  A lot!

So here’s the blurb:

Middle aged and middle-of-the-road,

Fee Crawford has been drifting through life in a passionless marriage

and hurtling towards the menopause.

With her twin boys grown up and needing her less,

why does she still feel incomplete?

Coping with her elderly dad, increasingly distant husband

and flighty best friend, Cordelia,

her life seems to be spiralling out of control.

Will a chance meeting with a handsome vet

be the missing link to make everything fall into place?

From the author of the ‘Mummy Misfit’ books comes:

‘COMPLETING THE PUZZLE’

A tale of families, love and mid-life crisis.

So, what do you think?  If you’re tempted, head on over to Amazon to pick up your copy for Kindle for just £1.97 or in paperback at Lulu.

It will be a scary week for me as I watch my sales and wait for the first reviews to trickle in.  But I have a lovely book launch dinner to look forward to on Saturday.

Watch this space, I may post photos.

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All THREE of my books can be found at Amazon or Lulu - just look for me, AMANDA EGAN