HP Warming Up Your Walls House Party

Just coming down from a high this weekend of spending time with friends and family. For the past couple weeks, even while we were all sick, we were prepping for this House Party

House Party is a website that allows companies a way of advertising through consumers by providing product for you to share. Typically the only expense you as the host have is for food, even then it depends on the type of party you have. The first time I signed up was when DiGiorno was promoting their all in one box pizza. It was great timing since we were moving and wanted to have one more get together before. They provided 6 Pizza/breadsticks/cookie boxes along with games, apron, pizza cutter and all I had to do is the inviting. We still have some of the bead necklaces from that party.

Setting out the food

In order to do a party you have to agree to certain terms usually very easy unless you forget to get a group picture or guests come in at different times which was very hard to get one picture. HP was promoting their mounted pictures and canvass. I had to fill out a survey to see if I would get selected once I did we were required to send out invites through their website. This is the only part that I had a hard time with because not everyone I was inviting either had emails or because it was from an unknown site it went to their junk mail. A little over a week before the party FedEx delivered a box full of goodies! In this particular box there were coupons galore, gift bags, brochures, chapstick, decorations (garland, ribbon, clothes pins, and paper clips), fun picture ideas, Christmas card examples, and command hooks.

Some of my best friends

It was a very easy process of choosing what pictures you want and then we ordered through Walmart.com or in store. The pictures mounts were done same day while the canvass took a little longer, about 28 hours but Walmart made sure to tell us to check in before we went to pick up. Even with a new person training they were courteous and did a great job.

Next came decorating for the party and making food. Since this was suppose to be about the holidays we tried to combine Thanksgiving and Christmas foods and decor. I am a little set to not do Christmas stuff at the beginning of November, maybe it is because I begin to hyperventilate when I know it is getting so close. We have a lot going on the week of Christmas. I placed out the fall decor and used the garland to hang leaves. The ribbon was used to display the Christmas Cards and the clothes pins and paperclips were suppose to be decorated to clip the cards on.

We made up the gift bags, made spinach and feta croissants, Southwest White Chili, Baked Mac and Cheese, and Pumpkin and Apple Pies for dessert. We didn't have as great of a turn out as we first expected because of sickness and time of year but I think it turned out better because it was some of our closest friends and family. We had a great time catching up and discussing the pictures but ended up not doing some of the crafts and things. Even the husbands came and joined in. Although we didn't get a group shot with all of us.

My husband has already took the 5x7 mounted picture to work for his desk along with tons of coupons to share and now I am trying to figure out perfect placement of our 16x20 Canvas and 8x20  mounted picture. I think I need to order more before I can make my final decisions.

Halloween to Remember

I know to keep my mouth shut when it comes to telling stories... remember the Disney World trip where my sister in law told us about her son getting sick when staying at the same hotel we were to be staying at and then both mine followed suite?

It started last Wednesday when the little boy I watch got sick. We all thought he either choked on food or bad reaction to formula since he didn't do it with me until 5 mins before he left and the next day he was fine. Thursday night we had a normal but quiet day, threw on the boys costumes and went trick-or-treating at Hy-Vee (will do again!) They gave out all sorts of treats, cookies, juice, apples, candy...

 

Off to have dinner with family which my youngest slept through and only had a breadstick. We did a little trick or treating in our neighborhood but were tired so we went up to cuddle in our bed and watch a movie. Here is where it really became an unforgettable night. The youngest, who only had a breadstick, just vomits all over our bed. No real warning except for seconds before saying I'm going to throw up. That was the start for us, got him cleaned up gave both a bath and sent them to bed and then we hear coughing...it was always our warning sign that my baby brother was about to get sick. We run in to find him still sleeping and throwing up. Once cleaned up again we hear the cough except it's our oldest...oh no... yep two at one time not fun. Ended up putting his bean bag chair next to the toilet because he ended up getting it worse. He is great about usually making it to the toilet but he was also sleeping through it, later we found this is actually something that happened to the other family that caught it. Just no warning at all. My husband fell ill Friday night and oh we had tickets to a football game for Saturday that we had to give up :( Luckily mine was just nausea but not sure if I was sick or if it was because I forgot to eat most of Saturday and running on 4 hours of sleep in 48 hours doing laundry and disinfecting the house. Yes it was a very memorable weekend that I am still trying to catch up from. Pepto Bismal, crackers, arm n' hammer laundry detergent, and vinegar helped us make it through the weekend.

Handing out candy before we headed to bed...