Let's Get This Party Started!

Here at Myszkaville, we love a good party. Which is why we have so many. I thought it would be nice to give a little insight about the evolution of these parties, and a little of the planning that goes into them.




Our summer party started as a general beach party. It morphed into a 60's beach party. Then an 80's beach party. Then it turned into a White Trash Bash after getting the idea from a movie. I think we like this one the most, just because people can dress down, it's hilarious, and has only ended in gunfire once. 
60's Beach Party

80's Beach Party

The party is outdoors. Kids are welcome. We provide hotdogs, chips and sodas. It's a BYOB party, so it doesn't cost a lot to host. We trash the yard a little and get wood for a couple of fire pits. It's easily the most laid back party we throw. It rained a little for the 2014 party so it wasn't quite as fun, and then there was a completely unrelated shooting up the street late that night. I hope this next summer's party has much less excitement.


1st WTB
2nd WTB (this party attracts the trashiest neighbors)




This past summer, unbeknownst to Eric, exactly 4 weeks after the White Trash Bash, I had a secret half birthday party planned for him. I had been planning this party for over a year. I set up a secret Facebook event and tried to get in touch with everyone I could. Since his birthday is near Christmas, and he was turning 40, I thought it would be easier to celebrate during Sturgis Falls weekend since most of our friends come home that weekend. The weather wasn't particularly cooperative, but some key people were able to come that made it a success. Eric's brother Woody and family came up from San Antonio. This was a week after they moved into a new house. Despite their chaos, they came to help celebrate. I told Eric I secretly asked them to come to Sturgis Falls, and that's all he knew. Same goes with a friend of his from California, Jerrod. With the help of a few friends on food duty, and his mother on arrival duty, we were able to delay his coming home after the parade which gave me a little extra time. Some friends hid behind the garage and when he arrived home, I pulled him out of the Tahoe before he could ask why a tent was set up and everyone screamed, "SURPRISE!" from behind the garage. Eric has always said he doesn't believe in half birthdays, and every time he said it, I got to think to myself, well you will this year. It was stressful but fun, and I'm glad it is just a one time gig. 









We have thrown 6 Toxic Waste parties here at Myszkaville. The first had 1 keg and an attendance of 34 people. The last had 2 kegs of beer, 107 attendees and a port-o-potty, for which our single toilet house is very grateful. 




The idea for the party started when Eric was working on foreclosed homes and at one house we found a giant metal barrel. We had already discussed having a Halloween party, and Eric wanted a theme since he used to help host a party when he lived in California. We decided on Toxic Waste, since that's what the barrel looked like. We painted it yellow and added a skull and crossbones and a toxic symbol to it. It's where you can find one of the kegs.




With junk from houses, jugs from RV antifreeze used in the winterizing of the foreclosed homes and Eric's poor Monte Carlo that had been crushed by a tree in a storm the summer before, the setting was complete. We provided food and beer, and Eric almost died trying to finish the keg by himself late that night. We used to rent tall tables and a popcorn machine, but now own those things since the party just keeps getting bigger. 



















For a Toxic Waste 2 he built a nuclear reactor that lights up and blows out smoke. 









For Toxic Waste "3 Mile Island Meltdown" he built the Moon Tower which holds a disco ball, a projector, and a DVD player.






For Toxic Waste 4 "Fallout" he painted a friend's really old truck.






 

For Toxic Waste 5 he made a giant clock for the Five Minutes Til Midnight theme. 









For Toxic Waste 6 he built a rocket to go with the theme China Syndrome, as well as a large sign reading TOXIC that stands on the roof of the garage. He assures me nothing will be built for Toxic 7. I don't believe him. 









Eric starts getting ready for the party over a month in advance. He starts pulling out all of the outdoor decorations from storage and starts setting them up. It takes quite a long time for him to get things the way he wants them. I can bet on not seeing him much for the month of October or the duration of the set up, whichever is longer. 




The inside decorations took longer the first couple of years, but since the party is really outside, we don't do as much. We remove the dining room table and put in a bar height table for people to stand around. We used to set up the basement, but it's so crowded with work stuff, and no one ever went down there we don't bother anymore. We do clean up my semi attached garage though and turn it into a bar area. I get hot dips and meatballs to feed those poor drunken souls, and this last year we had a HUGE treat when someone brought 210 Scratch cupcakes with them. This past year we also asked for donations, because we put a helluva lot of effort and money into that party. Any donations went directly into the Toxic Waste fund and will be used to make Toxic 7 even better.




Since 2012/2013 NYE was a kid free year, I wanted to throw a fabulous dress up party. This is the one party Eric likes to be a part of, but doesn't understand my level of desired ambiance. I want fancy food and drink and music and a great atmosphere. We put Christmas lights on the ceiling for ambient light, remove the dining table, use real wine glasses, have fancy cheeses and other heavy appetizers. The part of this party that sucks is that we have room for only about 20 people in our house. So we have to cull the invitation list. And we have too many awesome friends. So I start with neighbors that can walk home, and others I think will be able to make it, and go from there. 2014/2015 NYE I wanted to do something different and have a murder mystery party. It was a lot of fun while it was happening but planning was a bitch because people HAD to show up. So I had to harp on people to see if they were coming, rearrange parts to make sure key characters were covered, and I probably pissed off some people as they weren't the first ones asked. So as much as I love the NYE party, because I get to dress up and be fancy, I equally detest it because of the size of our house and the limited guest list. Although...I'm not sure I could afford fancy food and drinks for more people! 









Big Projects




So we tend to get projects done around our house when a party date is looming. We built the main part of the deck before the beach party. It looked like a dock, so it was perfect. We finished it for the Toxic Waste party. I decided I wanted the house to "look" like a winter wonderland for the Glitter and Snow Ball, so between Christmas and NYE of 2012, we painted the living room and dining room a pale blueish green color which I wanted anyway, but thought was a good excuse to get it done because that color is much more relevant to the party than the beige walls were. That party saw a lot of damage to the carpet in the way of red martinis, so once we purchased the house in March of 2014 I started ripping it up. There was no quarter round and there was still carpet under the TV when we realized we needed to get it taken care of before the 2014 NYE party. I had also dreamed of painting a wall full of birch trees. There was no better time the right before the party, so I painted the walls, we removed the carpet, put in a lot (but not all) of the quarter round, changed out kitchen light fixtures, changed out the dining room light fixture and painted the kitchen and installed tin ceiling tiles as back splash. That last project is not fully completed, as I realized I was running out of time pre-party...so it might take until Toxic Waste 7. Pictures of these latest projects will come in a separate blog post. 




I hope everyone who has ever attended a Myszkaville party has enjoyed themselves. We enjoy planning and hosting them. In closing I'd like to paraphrase one of my favorite movies: Be excellent to each other and ... PARTY ON, MYSZKAVILLE!