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One of my favorite things every year at our party is seeing the children enjoy the animals. The animals really enjoy the children, too. They hardly knew which way to turn with cookies coming from every direction.
It was Clover’s favorite day ever.
I’m in love with the princess costume. I think I should get one for when I go milking!
The animals are always the hit of the party, for both young and old.
The attention was almost too much for Casper. He played dead.
Inside the house, there was a lot of food going on.
I turned the dining room table sideways to I could fit a second table in the dining room.
There was more good food than you could shake a stick at.
A whole table of desserts.
It was so much fun to have a houseful of people.
People spilling out onto the porch.
Georgia, with one of our BBB donors, CB in TN. (I made Georgia wear a name tag with an exclamation point at the end of Georgia. She was baffled by the number of people who knew who she was and told her how wonderful she is. Thank you!)
The eating and talking and eating went on for some time.
It’s always wonderful to meet so many of you and see your faces.
On the back porch, I had some of the same displays set up that I took to Heritage Days at the little school in town, and we also had a couple of demonstrations back there. Dede (aka wvhomecanner and one of my moderators on the forum as well as an admin on Farm Bell Recipes) demonstrated steam juicing.
I also had a butter-making demonstration and people enjoyed tasting the freshly-made butter with crackers.
Back inside, CindyP gave a soapmaking demonstration.
Evidence that I was at the party:
A crowd gathered for the Beulah Petunia milking. (Blurry picture taken while I was herding BP up from the hinterlands.)
I think a crowd should gather every time I milk BP. It would be so encouraging!
I said come one, come all, and milk Beulah Petunia!
I like to get other people to do my chores.
Only I didn’t have many takers on the milking. I think they wanted to watch me milk BP! What is up with that? I’ll have to send a stern memo with next year’s party emails. After milking, we retired to the house for door prizes, with prizes and numbers called out by Morgan and another teenager in attendance.
Door prizes included CITR 2011 calendars, BBBs, homemade soap, home-canned goodies, a handmade bird feeder, a hand-crafted table from Twiggity Rusticks, homemade potato soup mixes, and a hand-stitched pillow. (Many of the door prizes were donated.)
At the end of the evening, the teenagers beat each other with noodles in the driveway.
And I got a three-year-old to help me put the chickens up.
And that’s another party on the farm!
Thank you to Jerry, who always comes to my parties and takes pictures for me (some of the photos in this post are his). Thank you to Lisa deGruyter who brought a dulcimer to play during the party. And thank you and thank you again and again to CindyP, Natalie Cyphers, and Dede (wvhomecanner), who came ahead of time to help and stayed till Sunday. We had a little after-party on the porch with banana rum, which might partially explain my sluggishness yesterday.
And despite the fact that I didn’t cook any of the food, for some strange reason, the next morning, my kitchen looked like this:
But it was all more than worth it.
The most extra special thanks of all to those of you who came to the party, from near and far, from down the road and a number of different states.
I’ll see you next year!
P.S. For those of you who weren’t there, I’m giving away party door prizes on the Daily Farm page all day today, and I’ve also got a couple more party-related posts in the works–more details about the fabulous lavender and basil soap made at the party, and thanks to Jack’s former owners (who attended the party), I’m growing mushrooms. More about that soon!
Posted by Suzanne McMinn on October 4, 2010
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Lavender/Basil soap, huh? I’d never think to mix those two scents. I did want to thank you for planting the seed in my head of making soap! I made my first batch a week ago and made my fourth batch today! ;-)
You didn’t mention how fun and addictive it is…
My last three blog posts are all my first batch of crock pot soap.
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What a lot of hard work for you and your wonderful helpers, but repaid a thousand fold by the smiles on your guests faces.
I’m sure you deserved a slower day yesterday.
Has Clover and her fellow farm friends recovered form all that snacking too?
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Beulah is a special cow……….my Willow would be on the back 40 by the time all those strange people showed up……..and she would never ever let down her milk.
Looks like you had perfect weather for the party.
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Looks like there were more people this year than last. Yay!!
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On a different note, is there any chance you can put the calendar back on the front page? I’m lost without it (I know I can get there by clicking through to another page, but on the days when I have a lot of work ahead of me, I have to get my Chickens fix quickly).
Anyway, so glad that you had another fantastic party! Wish I lived closer.
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Just wanted to let you know that we had a wonderful time at your party! The kids enjoyed seeing all of the animals.
The food was incredible! 
The people were extremely friendly. 
I LOVED your porch! 
My son loved Boomer! 
He asked if he could take him home! 
If anyone is interested in seeing a few pictures I took at the party you can go here http://wvtreasures.blogspot.com/2010/10/our-trip-to-citrp.html
Angela
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Betty Holcomb
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I love your pictures und all those good things I may have a look
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And I’m sure you don’t even want to think about next year, but is the party always the same weekend (first Sat. in October)? I would have loved to be there but unfortunately have to schedule my weekends off waaaay in advance. If you could give a little more advance notice maybe some of us from farther away could also attend.
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I’m so glad you all had a good time but so sad I couldn’t come. I’m curious, Suzanne. How many people did come? It looks like a healthy crowd!
And thanks for putting the calendar back on the front page. I use it to make sure I haven’t missed any posts (because I’m addicted to this blog).
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http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=44774&id=100000162429418&l=d002aa9de2
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So glad you had fun.
Blessings from Ohio…Kim<
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And we’ll be there early to help
Amy