this ain't no "animal house" toga party.

okay, the toga party last night was OUT OF CONTROL.

first of all, the hub decided at the last minute (read: the morning of the party) that it would be a great idea to rent a costume. so off we went to alicia's costumes to find him something to wear. and as you can see, i ended up getting one too. i just couldn't let him make a fool out of himself alone. besides, i can wear the fabulous gold dress to something else. maybe i'll rock it at the shower MIL's putting together. heh. but the funniest part was when we got dressed and started driving - and realized we were out of gas. my poor husband had to get out of the car dressed like this and pump gas. i thought i was going to pee my pants, it was so damn funny. and he'd smile and wave at everyone who did a double-take. awesome.

so anyway, although we were fully aware that this was going to be a no-holds-barred kinda party, we were still damn shocked at the opulence of it all. and dammit, the hub wouldn't let me go crazy with the camera like i wanted to. i SO wanted to capture it all - from the over 200 guests in togas (in various forms, from towels sewn together to couture grecian-style gowns), to the chandeliers hanging from the trees, to the half-naked male and female models passing around food and fanning the crowds with feathers, to the uber-cushy red velvet lounge furniture scattered throughout the 2.5 acre property. not. even. kidding.

i managed to snap a pic of this chariot, though - i'm fairly certain that, had we arrived on time, we'd have seen the guest of honor making her grand entrance perched on this, carried by the hot, six-pack sporting (did i mention half-naked?) male hired gods.

the food was yummy and plentiful - lots of hot and cold hors d'oeuvres, chunks of cheesy focaccia bread, hand-carved meats, turkey legs - plus a huge chocolate fountain complete with all the typical dippin' goods. there must've been 30 servers there! plus, there were two separate bars on opposite ends of the party, and the hostess threw dry ice into the pool to make it look smoky and mysterious. a-maze-ing. she also had a great live band who played all sorts of fun dance music. they were still going when we left around 11:30 - i guess when you're on 2.5 acres, your neighbors aren't close enough to complain about noise. and they had a perfect place to perform - on the stage in front of the PERMANENT dance floor, surrounded by auditorium-style seating. just, wow.

in other news, my friend R alerted me to the presence of teasers from my maternity shoot on crissy's blog! you can see the rest of them here. as always, crissy's talent and artistic eye were spot-on. too bad i'm sporting an extra chin or two, but at least some of them are shot from a distance and you can't tell so much ;) okay, seriously, i LOVE these and can't wait to see the rest of the shots! we took so many, and i'm dying to see how they turned out. if they're half as good as these, it'll be difficult to pick a few to frame for the new casa. and you can see how much fun we had over the three-hour shoot - there are lots of giggly shots. i also remember being particularly sweaty - it was really warm, and crissy would shout to the hub "give her a kiss on the forehead!" and he'd look at my shiny ass dome and wrinkle up his whole face - "i don't wanna. it's yucky!" hahaha!

i also owe crissy a huge thank-you for the lovely photos she took of some of my invitation samples that she blogged about. with the amount of traffic her blog gets, it's a great plug that'll maybe get some attention!

so because i have to stick to my tradition, here's this week's self-portrait. maybe i'll do something with my gallery of these things later on. at least the bean can see what a doofus her mom is, although i'm sure it won't take her long to figure it out for herself.

and lastly, a big "happy birthday" to my dear mom! she's, oh, *mumble* years young today. yay!