How to Throw a Citizenship Party

You become a citizen exactly one time in your life.  Whether it's at your birth or after the naturalization process, it ONLY HAPPENS ONCE.  So this begs the question:

How do you celebrate a Once In A Lifetime event? 

Here's your answer:

With a Citizenship Party, of course!

Here's a glimpse of how ours went down.

Yard spinners were strategically placed.

Outside decorations were essential.

Bells were hung, along with a <3 shaped sign
and a patriotic wind chime.

Sweet tea, soft drinks, water, and underneath the mosquito netting
we had some homemade hummus, carrots and pita chips,
and let's not forget the watermelon.

In order to plan a proper Citizenship Party, we had to have some patriotic activities and accessories.  I called up a friend of mine, Zach, who has always been our music guru.  He's known us since the hubs and I met in 2004 and is a dear friend, even when he lives across the country and we rarely talk outside of FB.  He sent us a party music mix (and a totally sweet after party mix, too).  Some of the magical, USA party-appropriate tunes included Graceland, Shout, Jailhouse Rock, Sugar Pie Honey Bun, One Fine Day, California Girls, and many, many other easily recognizable and fun hits.  The tunes lasted all the way until the kids needed a movie to entertain them.

Also, I created an "Order the Presidents" activity, starting our guests with #1, Washington, and #44, Obama. It would take the collective knowledge of the group to fill in Presidents #2 through #43.  How do you think you'd do?

The "Order the Presidents" game, with some framed photos from the
swearing in ceremony hung too. I built a clue into the game, in that every other
president was either on a blue piece of paper or on a white one.
As the group got closer and closer to being finished, that built-in clue came in very handy.

Just in case it was hot outside, I created some patriotic fans.

Blue with Stars and Red and White stripes kept us cool
(figuratively, not literally, because we had perfect outdoor party weather).

I also pulled together a sampling of the questions that the hubs (and all candidates for citizenship) had to study prior to taking the test.  I thought it would be eye-opening for our native-born guests to be exposed to questions they *ought* to know the answers to.  Could you answer any of them?

19 out of 100 questions that we studied prior to the hubs' test.

We saved the test for later in the evening, and we had the Order the Presidents going on beforehand.  Also, we set up a small liquor bar, but folks mostly stuck with beer and wine we had in coolers outside. The baskets up top (in the photo below) held the cutlery, which eventually were relocated to the food table (duh!).

And no, canned Fresca isn't typically
included with a liquor spread.

The dessert table was covered with an American flag cloth.
This table filled to overflowing once folks started to arrive.

Even the W.C. got some USA attention
on both the toilet and the towel rod.

Toilet decor. Seriously. I went there.

So the invites were sent out early, and we anticipated around 50 folks to come and celebrate with us.  Including our bun in the oven, we had exactly 48 revelers.

After everyone had gone, we took a photo of ourselves
since we had neglected to get one earlier.

The bump and I were beyond exhausted, and OH SO HAPPY!

Amazingly (or perhaps not so much so), we never once played Miley's "Party in the USA". I might be the only one slightly disappointed over this in hindsight, but I'll survive.