Paul Porter's Birthday Bash (02-20-16)

Yep, my husband likes to party, and decided that his 60th birthday was a great time to test the party worthiness of the new house. 

Not knowing anyone in Havasu meant that all of our guests were coming in from out of town, and staying numerous days- more partying for us!

We opened the festivities with a birthday celebration for our friend Marilyn, whose birthday is a few days before Paul's.

Paul's brother and his family were on their way from southern California, and his fraternity brothers kept us updated on their estimated arrival time via Facebook posts.

In the meantime, I got the brilliant idea of hosting a PPPP- otherwise known as a Pre-Party Prep Party.

I invited all my girl friends on Friday morning, and we cut veggies, sliced cheese, made dips, and baked brownies.

Each person set up a work station for themselves..

Not me though, I didn't do any of the work- I organized and assigned tasks...

Lucky for me I have friends who think this is fun!

Feeling left out because they weren't invited to the Hen Party (their words, not  mine!) the husbands insisted on helping Paul with the last minute yard work.

By the time the rest of the guests arrived, we were all ready to party!

The early part of the day was spent relaxing- Paul and our family from California enjoyed the spa.

We spent some time enjoying our daughter, who drove in from L.A. for the weekend:

So much laughter with family and friends!

Everyone pitched in and helped out so much....

That I had a blast too!

The afternoon included a very competitive game of water volleyball (Thanks for the games, Tom and Sue!):

it ended only when those of us playing in the shallow end traded to the deep end and realized how hard it was to play while treading water!

Although we hired a caterer for a portion of the food, Paul chose to do most of the cooking himself- (with help from friends of course) His contributions included fresh tortilla chips...

 Enchiladas, and Chile Rellenos.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to him, Jess and Mike were preparing some Silver Patron for a toast.

Our favorite toast!  Arriba!  Abajo!  Al Centro!  Al Dentro! (down the hatch!)

Once dessert was served, we cleared the back patio for dancing.

I had prepared a 2 hour playlist, so all I had to do was hit play, and get on the dance floor!

We were so glad everyone enjoyed the dancing- even our littlest guest, 3 year old William, 

and Julie, who is sporting a brand new knee, so although she did some of her dancing on the dance floor, she also did some from her chair!

Some of our guests left on Sunday to head home, and some stayed until Monday, allowing us to squeeze in just a little more partying! 

Thank you to all our friends and family who made this weekend one of the best we've ever had!

Finished House Pictures (02-19-2016)

Well, it's hard to believe, but we've been in Havasu for over a year now, and the punch list for the  house is completely finished.  We sure have come a long way.....

The garage has gone from one massive empty cavern...

 To a garage that barely holds our 5th wheel!

It was hard for us to imagine, as the house was being built, exactly what it would look like once it was finished and our personal items "moved in".  Overall, I think we made good choices and everything seems to work well together!

The kitchen is very functional, and with the cooktop on the island, it makes a great place to hang out with friends while concocting dinner:

The Master Suite opens out onto the back patio, near the spa.

It's bigger than we thought it would be, and has plenty of room for a sitting area.

The master bath seems huge:

...and the walk in shower is one of our favorite features of the house!!

The main guest room has already gotten a lot of use:

and having an office that doubles as a second guest room has come in very handy as well:

and finally, the guest bath:

The yard has gone through a ton of changes, and has been a lot of work, but we couldn't ask for a  more usable space.  

The pool is finished, heated, and ready to use.  

 The finished product is a pretty accurate representation of my dream!

Just last week, Paul, with some help from friends,  finished building the permanent fence. There are now 16' gates on either side of the house. Paul made the gates himself, welding together fence pieces and posts.  He has also started (but not finished yet) the wall surrounding the pool equipment.

The temporary fence is now gone and has been replaced with the permanent one, changing the entire look of the yard.

Of course, there is still a lot of work to be done- the fire pit will sit outside the fence so the fencing won't interfere with sunset watching, and we haven't really started any major landscaping, but we've made great progress, so far!