Offers advice on planning menus and table setting for different types of parties, including Texas barbecues, skating parties, and country picnics.

A guide to party planning shows how to select invitations, themes, menus, table settings, music, lighting, flowers, and decor for weddings, holiday parties, formal dinners, and cocktail parties.

Good Housekeeping takes the “luck” out of potluck with ten delicious seasonal menus that are always good to go! From hearty chili for Super Bowl Sunday to Syrupy Banana-Nut Overnight French Toast to sweeten up a Mothers Day brunch, these triple-tested dishes will be the star of any gathering. Advice on selecting a site, assigning dishes, and transporting your food makes it a cinch to throw a fabulous, affordable shindig! Festive menus include: Mothers Day Brunch * Potluck Patio Party * Family Reunion Picnic * Neighborhood Fourth of July Fun * Dinner on the Lawn Picnic * Fall Tailgate Party * Day After Thanksgiving Dinner Party * New Years Eve Potluck Party * Super Bowl Shindig * Midwinter Blues Bash

35 Exciting Outdoor Theme Parties for Kids! This book offers 35 outdoor party themes, complete with invitations, costumes, decorations, games, activities, food, cake, favors, variations, and helpful hints. The parties can be thrown in your backyard, a park, or any other outdoor space. Party ideas include: • Archeology Expedition, with kid-sized pyramids, mummies, and mystery maps; • Circus, with lion taming, tightrope walking, and clown cakes; • Hayride, with songfests, scarecrow making, and painting with hay; • Hollywood Stunts, with bicycle slalom, leapin’ limbo, and other physically challenging games; • Olympic Gold, with decathlon events, team sports, and trophies or medals for everyone; • Outdoor Theater, with reenacting of favorite movie scenes, trivia games, and makeup makeovers; • Space: The Final Frontier, with alien invaders, flying saucers, and model rocket building.

10 stories about odd encounters and personal exploration: A young man in search of meaning connects with his dead girlfriend's son. A group of men in Wisconsin start a poetry group while waiting for their favorite bar to be rebuilt. A woman discovers her husband has been hiding a secret. He also wants to rob a bank. A basketball player continually relives the last six seconds of his worst game. An amateur chess player encounters greatness. A girl attempts to leave a small town. But before she goes, she learns the story of one who stayed.