Fortress Party Retrospective 2003

Room themes: 

The Citadel

Nirvana

The Widow's Walk 

The first sign-in sheet! Estimated attendance: 30. 

This is the Widow's Walk, so named only because it is on the second floor of the house. This is the room that would one day be the nursery. 

This is the first time I remember taping a sign to a wall directing guests to different named Fortress rooms. 

Nirvana had fake snow, real rose petals, a backlit Buddha, and some Krishna Das music playing from speakers behind the curtain.  

                

And tortilla chips in a bowl. This is only remarkable because a few years later, we decided to stop serving snacks unless they were specific to the theme. Food requires tables, and tables take up valuable floor space. Plus, no matter how many snacks we bought,  they were always gone by 10 pm, leaving the unsightly dishes and crumbs everywhere. 

Since we stopped serving food, there have been a lot more guests getting sick from drinking too much, but I think that's a coincidence. 

The Leveques were always early adopters of the latest tech, so the camera she is holding is probably 3 megapixels!

This was the room called the Citadel. The name was chosen entirely because it was loosely a synonym with 'fortress,' rather than because it was actually a theme. Some guests found their first Fortress Party to be a little overwhelming. 

Steve was our first guest who traveled from a different state to attend the party. 

This was a couple weeks after Michigan beat Ohio State. These smiling fans don't realize that would happen only one more time in the next 17 years. 

After two years of temporary tattoos, we upped our custom swag game and had these balloons made. 

I go through thousands of clothespins, and there is no better place to keep them at the ready than the then in a 6 inch radius around the navel.