Ash's Barn Party VI 2016

We had a lot of fun with old friends and new friends at Ash's sometimes annual Barn Party. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then here's 20,000 words about the party:

Aneira, Dr. P, Ash

Dr. P (on right) and his buddy.

Our group: Bob, Miranda, me, Kevin, James, mom (Ana)

Christina, Dan, Hudson and Aria

Ash having lunch with Aria and James

Chilling with Ash

Hudson and Carter playing upstairs

Miranda and Aria fighting over Kevin?

GW Girls: Christina, Ash, me (See also James with Frisbee head)

Hannah and her parents, Jennifer and Mark

Soccer friends

More friends whose names I don't know

Nana decided Miranda (age 2) needed some lipstick

Pool time!

Jack, James, and Carter having fun together

Kate getting a massage. Miranda trying to figure out how to sign up.

Miranda showing off her hat to Jack

Miranda charming Ash's parents

More new friends whose names I can't remember and Stevie in the middle

We had fun!

Astoria Book Swap 2014

On Saturday, Kevin had his second book event, not a reading this time- but a book swap- at the Astoria Bookshop in Queens.  For once, I don't have to write all about it because Kevin already did on his publisher Black Balloon's blog: http://airshipdaily.com/blog/kevin-clouther-we-were-flying-to-chicago-book-swap.

Here are some fun pictures I took of the Book Swap:

Kevin is the "Swapper of Honor" at the Astoria Bookshop book swap

Enjoying some free wine

 

Buy a book and have it signed by Kevin!

The Rules of Book Swap: Talk (a lot) about book swap.

Swapping books!

Mingling

Becky, Miranda, Jon, and Ben

Christina, Ash, and me

Signing books!

Celebrating our April babies!

Kevin introducing Miranda to some Black Balloon friends

With Buzz and Jen

Kate, me, Miranda, Christina, and Dan

Also, here's a new awesome review of the book in LitReactor's Bookshots: http://litreactor.com/reviews/bookshots-we-were-flying-to-chicago-by-kevin-clouther

Kevin also did  and interview with THE AIRSHIP and ended up talking about cars and grace and real estate: http://airshipdaily.com/blog/05052014-kevin-clouther-interview

• Kevin's first book event for We Were Flying to Chicago at Stony Brook University, May 2014

Ash's Barn Party IV 2013

Two weeks ago, we attended Ash's annual Barn Party. Ash's Barn Party theme this year was "Everything Summer," so the evenings festivities began with a game to guess some summer cocktails. I didn't play this year, but put Kevin in as our Clou representative, and Janice volunteered Darren. Our husbands did not represent us well, and givien the somewhat girly nature of the beverages, Janice and I would have done better ourselves. I drowned the shame of loss in the pina colada leftovers. Yum!

   

Ash serving the summer cocktails

Darren being a good sport

Kevin taking one for the team

Everybody playing

It's pretty fun photographing people who are blind-folded because you can get right in their face and wait for them to do something picture worthy. Ash's sister, pictured below trying to relearn how to use a pen, and Ash's cousin both won some prizes for their efforts at identifying drinks.

Aren't they cute? Ash's sister Aneira on the right.

As usual, Ash had tons of delicious food, and she even set up a little entertainment for kids, a little pool with inflatable toys. James hung out there for most of the party.

James training the seal to balance a ball

Me, James, and my mom having dinner at the party

Group! Fudgie, Darren, Janice, Ash, Aneira, me, Kate, James, Kevin

James taking Fudgie for a walk

Good times!

Ash's "Happy Everything!" Party 2012

Barn Party III! My buddy Ash threw the most amazing party last weekend which is why it's taken me all week to sort through the photos and write this post. Her barn parties are epic anyway, and this time her theme really took it to another level. Though it wasn't a costume party, her invite encouraged us to celebrate every holiday before the end of the world.  The decorations celebrated every holiday, as did the food, drinks, and entertainment.  It was all the reasons you love holidays (all of them) and parties rolled into one. I have been to a lot of theme parties (because I attended UVA law) and this out-themed 84-days of costume parties.

Michele, Ash, and me celebrating EVERYTHING!

In order to fully document the awesome, I made it a goal to photograph each holiday. We started with a holiday drink taste test.  We were blindfolded and asked to remember 6 holiday drinks and the corresponding holidays.  We had champagne (New Years), Sex on the Beach (Valentines), Guinness (St.Patty's), tequila (Cinco de Mayo) , mulled cider (Thanksgiving), and egg nog (Christmas). Michele won the game with a perfect score of 12. I missed 2 and wasn't even in the top 3. These people are hardcore. Since the first thing we were served was champagne, and we drank too much, I'm going to call this my New Years picture.

Holiday Drink Taste-test

Putting together these shots was also a really fun way of getting to know all the party guests I hadn't met before.

The "sexy shot" for Valentines Day!

The we're wearing green and smiling impishly shot for St.Patrick's Day

Um, bunny ears and an Easter basket (see in the middle) for Easter. Um?

Okay, well obviously, by this point we'd been celebrating for a while and the structural integrity of our shots was a little weak. But that just makes it more fun right?

Our next game was breaking open the piñata for Cinco de Mayo! It was hard to choose 1 photo and it's my blog, so I didn't.

Whh-smack.

Poor little guy just lost his leg

It sort of looks like the piñata is winning in this one.

I think my favorite was the sparklers for Independence Day. I never played with sparklers as a kid, yet they make me feel like a kid.  I think the first time I ever handled a sparkler was Independence Day in 2008! I know, right? I've been so deprived.

Woo Independence Day!

Labor Day is a tricky holiday because while everyone enjoys a nice long weekend, there aren't too many symbolic representations of it. Lucky for us, Michele's birthday is Labor Day weekend, and since the party was pretty close to the actual weekend-- Ash lovingly made her a cake and surprised her with it.

Michele blowing out her birthday candles for Labor Day!

Halloween was the easiest. Being the holiday-lover that I am, I had brought a bunch of costumey headbands and Ash had a few costume props as well, so we mixed and matched holidays and we had Halloween.

Halloween with the late-night party-goers

Eak and Gonul, Halloweening it up in the dark

Thanksgiving is best known for family and food. It also happens to be Ash's favorite, which you might have deduced from all the amazing food at the party. Dinner was like someone had come in and catered Easter and Thanksgiving. Except that person was Ash. She even had pies! Plural! Plus we played Pin-the-hat-on-the-turkey!

Ash made us some yummy pecan pie for Thanksgiving!

Pin-the-hat on the turkey!

Below are my Christmas representatives- Kate and her brother Matt-- who must have had awesome Christmases growing up because they both picked it as their favorite holiday. Additionally Ash kept some egg nog in her freezer from last Christmas, and I am not ashamed to say that I had it for breakfast and in my coffee the next morning- YUM.

Christmas Kate!

Nothing says Christmas like snowflakes and feather boas.

Of course, the best part about the night was that we didn't have to wait, month after month for the next great holiday treat. Everything was happening at once! All the holiday joy multiplied in the mix-and-match. Happy Everything to you!

The Easter bunny and Uncle Same are besties 

On the one shoulder I have an evil angel, and on the other a pirate.