let's start at the very beginning

You, know, that Susie Sunshine is a powerful force. A force to be reckoned with. And while she is a'reckoning, she's charming you with sparkly eyes and the sweetest voice.
So.
Susie called my house one day a while back and cooed over the phone: Jen's having a party and you are coming. It doesn't look, in print, as smooth as it sounded over the phone. And let me tell you it was smooth. We were feeling kinda blue that day and I pooh-poohed her. She had talked to K about it too and he was non-committal. And then, on Christmas, K said that my last present was the air-miles to fly to Chicago...to see my pals and go to this party.
Had I ever met Jen? No.
I had a vague sense of who Jen was, but had missed meeting her on my last trip.
It didn't matter, though, because Susie wrangled me an invite. And I wasn't the only one.
Poppy, Wendy, and Carol From Texas were all going to be there. Some had been invited and some were crashing.

All this to say, I went on Friday.
Wendy picked me up, with two tots in tow...



Oh yes, my dear friends, there was plenty of girl goodness in the minivan as Trixie and Ellie met me too. Could you just spit? It was all I could do to keep my seat belt on and not take a lunge into the back to eat them UP.



Trixie called me Buuuuuuhrrrrrrd. I'm loving that.



And she liked me to pick her up a lot - which is especially delicious when she's wearing the footy jammies and she's all warm and snuggly.

We ran around for a while - doing all those things moms do, getting lunch, getting Ellie off to school and going to the supermarket for supplies (my TEA and my WINE).
Wendy has a big boy too - the delectable gentleman, Glen. But he was off at school.

The Coolest Grandma In The Midwest arrived, in her cashmere hoodie, to babysit and Wendy and I went out to find Susie (arriving on the train), Jen (hostess of the party) and Carol From Texas Who Is Blogless And Works For The Lord. I hadn't met Carol either but I knew she was friends with Jen (I think) and another Jen and everyone else.

We went thrift shopping with Susie...

We saw many wonderful items -



Plate on left: creepy, slightly dead looking baby, asleep with puppys. WHAT?

Plate on right: WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN THIS SCENE? We had several theories of barter and housekeeping and garden tools that I'm not going into here. Often, with these collectible plates, the reverse side can be helpful with explanations.




Not so much with this plate. German readers, feel free to comment.



The market for plates seems to be big with the thrifters.



This one is called Susan's World. Susan's World seems to imply leaving a toddler alone in the woods without EVEN A SWEATER. I just realized that I'm going to start threatening Youngest with it - as in: IF YOU DON'T GO PRACTICE YOUR TRUMPET I'M DROPPING YOU OFF AT SUSAN'S WORLD.
Damn it. I should have bought that plate.



This one is labelled: Old plate with papal head.
I'm not clear about what decor scheme this plate EVER went with. I haven't a clue what we'd do with it now. But I'll bet if Maggie Mason put it on her etsy site it would be sold in a heartbeat and people would be all OH PAPAL HEAD PLATES ARE THE HOTTEST IN MID-CENTURY DECOR.



Look here! It's a portrait of The Cardinal. IN THE LOVE ROOM.
Yes, there was a whole room dedicated to Love.



Because nothing SAYS love like a portrait of The Cardinal.

I have a list of things I'm not willing to purchase at thrift shops - underwear, bathing suits, sheets...and now I can add another -



I don't even have a erudite explanation. I can only say NO.

This was when we thought, for a moment, that we should each buy a bridesmaid dress and wear them to the party -



But we didn't.
Which is fine, because we all ended up looking PRETTY DAMN GOOD for that party.
And THAT is a story for another day.

Jen and Carol From Texas Who Doesn't Have A Blog But Works For The Lord showed up and we did a boatload of shopping at Ten Thousand Villages.
(The website is not nearly as impressive as the brick and mortar store - go find one.)
Inexpensive and beautiful treasures were loaded into the van.

AND THEN we all went back to Wendy's house for a big pizza/wii party and had a ton of fun and stayed up not too late and people went home and I got snuggled into the bed in the guest room and had a good long sleep...AND I'LL TELL YOU ABOUT SATURDAY TOMORROW.



Oh!



Pinkie update: still broken. We have an appointment with a hand specialist on Wednesday for yet another kind of splint.