January 11, 2011: The Party of a Lifetime

6:30-8:30 PM was Omar's citizenship party. I decided when he first was applying for citizenship back before the 4th of July that we were going to have a "Welcome to America" party for him. After all part of my major was party planning, so we have to celebrate everything I can think of. I bought all the decorations after 4th of July to get stuff 50-75% off (that's the only way we roll around here-discounts and coupons) and have been storing them in our spare bedroom closet. I can say that now we are set for some hot 4th of July parties in the future with our yard signs, flags galore, lanterns, signs, and so on.

We invited people that Omar was friends with: The Schreibers, the Southerlands, the Jagodas. there were 3 families that weren't able to make it, the Hills, the Fosters, and the Clancys.

Omar grilled, we had hot dogs, and then his favorites: spicy sausages, potato salad, chips and cheesy chili dip, my Aunt Nancy's famous sweet potato goodness (everyone dies when they try this stuff). We also had coleslaw my mom makes this amazingly, but Omar doesn't like it, I just thought it is very American. Kelly made this yummy cake that was very patriotic, Wave Your Flag Cheesecake, and the cupcakes.

I had some games prepared but we only ended up really doing one because everyone was having a nice time without the games just eating and talking. There were kids at this party, which is not a typical thing for our parties since we really have nothing for children to do at our house. But we had a red white and blue blanket for the kids to sit on, they ate, they colored patriotic pictures, and thank goodness we actually had a movie for them (this was unplanned, but as a party planner you have to roll with the punches),  American Legends, they loved it. We were going to play a musical chair version game for the kids to get their cupcakes, but ran out of time.

The adults only played one game, see if you can become a citizen by passing the citizenship test. There were 2 prizes for those that got the most right, my mom couldn't participate to win as she knows every answer and it wouldn't be fun (poor mom). The first prize went to Allison Schreiber who got a U.S puzzle and the 2nd prize went to my sister Lindsey who won a U.S. Presidents trivia board game.

Every participant got a confetti popper, lets just say we should have popped them in our house, we STILL have that sparkly confetti everywhere in our yard and the neighbors (oops). Then on to Omar's fireworks to end the night with a bang. This is all he cared about and he had actually snuck outside to do some testers while we played the game in side, he is so child-like! Some of our neighbors came out to watch the show and the neighbor kids did sparklers with us. We pre-warned the neighbors about the fireworks so we wouldn't have anyone made at us, good move on our end. The party was very fun...and there will never be another one like it again.