Our Messy Party: The Origins of the Name

Life is sort of messy, isn't it? Well, mine is at least.
A few years ago, I saw an idea online to throw a messy party.  I immediately began planning for our own.
I'm always telling the kids not to get messy; not to make a mess.  But a day where we all purposely get messy?  Yes!
Our first ever messy party was a huge success.  My two oldest children had 6 friends ranging from 5 to 24 years old over to play with us.  My husband and our baby stayed out of the games but took lots of great pictures and video clip.
Boy, did we get messy.  We played four or five games, mostly involving whipped cream and chocolate syrup. Everyone had a ball!  Our children smelled like spoiled milk for a few days afterwards, but it was worth it.

I decided that Messy Party had to be an annual family tradition.  When else would you be able to take fun pictures like this?

A year went by and since we were no longer living in Eastern Europe, I decided to get the cousins in on the action.  And then I thought I'd play the "Hey we haven't seen you for 3 years card, so you need to participate in Messy Party with your grandkids" card (it totally worked!) and even my parents played in our 2nd annual Messy Party.
This time we had 6 adults (my parents, my sister and her husband, my baby brother, and myself) and 7 children playing.  My dear husband sacrificed again by being the designated photographer.  My youngest, then 22 months old discovered the joys of Messy Party and enjoyed eating the remnants of our jello fight.  It was awesome.

My "baby" brother gave me a kind hug thanking me for planning Messy Party.  It was so sweet.

Don't worry, my son got him back when we played Duck Duck Mousse.

So, when I started thinking through a blog, I kept coming back to Messy Party.  I can't think of enough posts about Messy Party to sustain a blog (nor would I want to), but Messy Party sounds a lot like life.
Our family is messy.  We make messes, both figuratively and literally.  Not every day, or even close to it, is a party, but we have so much to celebrate.