Ugly Party Time!

Sometimes winter just never seems to get over. In Alaska where I
live, it can last until the end of May! It makes for bored kids and
listless afternoons and weekends once they get tired of the snow, and
then again between 4th of July and Halloween they get kind of rummy,
too.

One day I was wracking my brain trying to think of an activity for the
kids, and I came across an old polyester suit in the costume box. This
suit is so ugly that we don't even use it for a costume; all the others
are chosen and the suit just stays in the box. It gave me an idea;
let's have an Ugly Party!

The ugly home-made invitations said, "Come ugly ~ no pretty costumes
allowed!" Of course I got a lot of phone calls asking just what that
meant, and it meant just what it says: Get as ugly as you can and come
party with us! Everyone had a great time, getting ugly is much easier
than choosing a costume for a kid, and almost anyone can come up
looking ugly without having to buy a thing!

We had ugly food, like fruit salad made with chocolate whipped cream ~
if you've ever tried that, it's pretty ugly when the colors of the
fruit mix with the chocolate whipped cream. You can find a lot of ways
to serve bananas that have browned but taste good, like cut them in
chunks and put nuts and chocolate syrup on them and let them sit out
for a while. If you cook hot dogs in water colored green with vegetable
dye, the dogs come out looking very ugly! And if you mix enough kinds
of fruit juices (making sure that one of them is green), it'll turn an
ugly brownish color that tastes great!

We played ugly games too, like finding the prize while bind-folded, in
a bowl full of cold cooked pasta, or peeled grapes. We played the one
where team members race to a box at the other end of the yard, grab a
balloon out of the box and sit on it to pop it before running back and
touching the next person in line; that looks pretty funny. If they're
over the age of ten, they'll think it's ugly, too.

The best ugly party we ever had was the one everyone hated before they
came. The rule was, boys will be dressed as ugly girls, and girls will
be dressed as ugly guys! By this time I'd gained a reputation for my
ugly parties, so they all wanted to come, but they all balked and
complained, and I worried nobody would show. But, they did, and it
turned out to be the best party of them all! Once the ball got rolling,
it was a blast, and the pictures ~ oh, the pictures! I have great black
mail photos for all of them, now, including my husband! :)

He wore an old prom dress we'd found at a thrift store, and it was a
strapless blue number with chiffon all over it, and he wore his work
boots in place of shoes. It was kind of fun putting make up on him,
once I got him to sit still ~ he's a handsome man, but as a woman he
could give a kid nightmares! I wore that polyester suit with a giant
clown's tie and hubby's house slippers. Many of the kids brought their
costumes over to the house to get dressed, not wanting to walk through
the neighborhood wearing them, understandably. It actually makes the
fun start earlier when they all get ugly together.

The boys had a great time with the make-ups! They really dolled
themselves up and had a blast; even after 12 year-old Garrett (who'd
already been labeled as a girl magnet) turned out to make a real pretty
girl! And, you can't believe the ideas they can come up with to use
pantyhose for! The thrift store also has a great selection of ugly
earrings, beads and belts for them to wear.

The girls liked slicking their hair back and drawing on mustaches and
beards with left-over Halloween make up! Some of them came in football
uniforms, some of them in their dad's old suits and pajamas.

Coming up with ugly prizes was a challenge, but I found them; you can
get real ugly stuff at thrift stores, and I gave out huge used shoes
filled with finger puzzles, a nicked up old lunch box full of candy,
fake wax teeth from Halloween supplies at the party store, etc.

When it was time to clean up after the party, I made it a game. They're
each given a plastic bag and the one who cleans up the most gets a
prize, so they all ran around snagging wrapping paper, popped balloons
and candy wrappers to throw away. Then I gave them all prizes anyway;
they did what I'd have to do, otherwise. All I had to do was wash the
punch bowl and the bowls and things used for the ugly food.

It's fun and even if they balked and complained, they still say it was
the best of the ugly parties yet! It holds them over for a while, until
the next holiday, or until the weather breaks.

It's that time again; still snowing outside in mid-March. I just hope
it doesn't last until May.