Mom and Dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary Pre-Party, September 17, 2010

Mom and Dad asked us all to come to the Butterfly Club for a family-only get together on their official anniversary.  These are just table pictures from the evening.  The highlight for me was sitting next to my brother Jeff as he ate 7 pieces, big pieces of fried cod.  I am sure nephew Roger had about as many! 

On Saturday we started the food preparation up at the Church.  Bruce and Dad peeled 40 pounds of potatoes, while Jodie, Travis and I fixed the celery, onion and eggs.  Once it was all cooked, I mixed up seven big bowls of the salad to go in the church's big refrigerator.  While I was doing that, Jodie was artfully arranging the vegetable trays.  Then we took a break to go down to the Corner for lunch. 

When we got back, we started on the meat and cheese trays.  Turns out it was a bit harder than it looked in the food catalogs!  We ended up coming up with some creative garnishes and some great ways to pile on the pounds of beef, ham, turkey, cheddar, provolone and colby jack.  Whew, when we were all done it was so nice to get out of there and relax. 

Wausau, WI Art in the Park, September 11 & 12, 2010

My crazy ornament neighbor...where can I get that hat???

My booth crammed in between the doors!

Wausau's Art in the Park is just one of several shows going on in town this weekend...it's all part of the Artrageous weekend of events put on by several groups.  Our part of the show was inside a couple of the buildings at Marathon Park.  Unfortunately, the other part of the show was full of buy/sell vendors  which always makes it hard on the artists who make their goods by hand.  The fine artists were downtown and it seemed that most customers shopped all areas.

One of the ways that the Wisconsin Valley Art Organization tried to keep customers on the art path was to line the path with butterflies--which were the theme of this years show.  Kind of a nice little extra way of helping us out.  The volunteers with the group were really nice and constantly checking to see if there was anything we needed.  I was a late application, and while I was glad to get in, the spot they put me in was less than ideal.  I was really out of the foot traffic path, which is never a good thing.

One of the nicest things the organizer did was have dinner for us on Saturday night.  The local Vets group had grilled chicken, pork chops and all the sides for us.  I ate with the gal across from me--a potter and a guy who did metal work.  Nice company and I got a few ideas for next years summer show schedule.   I also got a new bowl from the potter.  Hm, I should take a pic...

The Rotunda where the other Art in the Park artists were located.

The trip up was about three hours each way--and it was gorgeous!  I love the scenery in Wisconsin-- especially when the weather just starts to turn cool.  I did see one or two trees that had nice color on them.  I was daydreaming that they all had changed early...just trying to envision what it would look like in another month.  I really, really miss Fall.

Coming up next week is all the party stuff for Mom and Dad's 50th.  Will we make it?