There was no question as to where and what I was going to do for the hub's birthday this year. It was just a matter of finding the guests, buying the favors and dressing up. If you ever get the chance to go to the Magic Castle, in Hollywood, you should go. No questions asked just go. My first visit was with my parents a few months ago during Sunday Brunch, my second, was over lunch with the member and last night, a group of 10 of us went for dinner to celebrate my hub's 33rd year of birth. 
If you can pick the time you can go, you should most definitely go at night. Why? ...Because after being at all 3 possible settings, it's the most fun and alive at night. Not to mention the food, especially the filet mignon and mash potatoes were sooooooo yummy!! Joining us for an evening out was the Regul's, the Hinojosa's, the Sam's, Ms. Krueger and Ms. Burke. We arrived at the Magic Castle only to find that Jon, Danielle and Krueger, yes, Krueger, were already there. Of course, we made jokes about the terminally late Krueger being on time and arriving before the hosts. Did we enter the twilight zone? To quote Regul on Krueger's early arrival, "It's Magic!" The Sam's (Caroline & Minh) and Cindy had carpooled with us so when we arrived only the Hinojosa's had yet to arrive. All of us ordered some drinks. We decided to hang out in the lounge with the ghost of Irma while waiting for the Hinojosa's to make their way out of crazy 101 traffic. Irma likes to entertain the guests with her piano playing skills. Krueger was skeptical about her afterlife skills but we assured her that Irma does indeed know how to play everything on the piano. I think Krugs may have pissed Irma off with her over zealous disbelief, as right then and there Irma decided to take a break. Which was ok, as it gave the hub time to open a gift from the Regul's and chitchat. It wasn't very long before the Hinojosa's arrived with what appeared to be a hatbox. Everyone hugged and caught up before their present was opened. I must say that the group looked especially nice that night. Everyone was dressed in cocktail attire and looked mighty festive. I must note, that Danielle, who had gotten her hair all done looked especially pretty in her black dress, fake diamonds and lush curls. Whatever she did she did it right that night. I had a little moment in my head where Regul asked her to marry him due to her looking like a princess but it didn't happen that night. Krugs had bought a short, sparkly, shiny, grey cocktail dress, which I totally appreciated after hearing her stories on trying to purchase something. Caroline, the fashionista had this beautiful long gold satin dress on. Now that girl always looks like Hollywood when we go out! Michele wore a pretty blue, short, I want to say, ballerina type dress that could have been taken from the flapper 20s'. She also sported a new hair color. No more blonde! Now she is a red head. Finally, I wore my long grey velvet dress from the AMC days with my great grandma's pink diamond bracelet. It's the one dress, besides my wedding dress that I dearly love. When something calls for dress up, it's the dress I pull out of the closet. The men all wore various suits and all looked very debonair. There was something magic about the evening with us all there in our fun dress up clothes and sitting there in the lounge laughing and having fun. Our good time turned into a great time when the hub opened the Hinojosa's gift. We all immediately began laughing when we saw that that the famous "Garbanzo" beans had been gifted to the hub. The history of the garbanzo beans is long and lengthy. Let's just say that can gets passed around within our group for special occasions and no one ever sees it coming. I wished the fun in that lounge would never end but alas, it was dinnertime. They seated us in our own private room, which I had nothing to do with, but was pleasantly surprised. It was the room where they held the Harry Houdini séance’s. The room was decorated with all kinds of photos, news clippings and even his own personal wand and straightjacket! As we all took our seats I had fun handing out party favor bags. Inside everyone received a wand, a magic trick they had to learn and perform for everyone, a deck of cards and a list of magic terms. I of course also had cheesy hats for everyone to wear. People took turns showing their magic trick but my personal favorite was Minh's cups trick. He performed it very well! I wasn't sure what dinner was going to be like but it was very good. The house photographer came and took our picture. Hocus Pocus Focus he made us say. The food was 10 times better then the Sunday Brunch and regular Friday lunch. Apparently they are known as a steak house. Who knew? So of course, I ordered the cow! I know both Krugs and I enjoyed our filet mignon very much. After dinner we had tickets to The Palace of Mystery show and saw the amazing Alonso, who oddly, looked a lot like Kramer from Seinfeld. The 10PM show was really fun and I am still trying to figure out how he pulled a goose out of a straight jacket while wearing it! Next we went to an 11:30PM show in the Parlour of Prestidigitation with Magician, Dick Barry and Regul got called to be Dick's helper. The magician shredded Regul's jacket on stage and like magic it was back to new again. After that we saw a 12:15AM show in the Close-Up Gallery. We totally ran people down to get into that 22-seat theatre, as it was the last show of the night. Now this magician, Amazing Adam Grace looked like Jason Bateman in my opinion and he had this really cool voodoo trick that made things hot and cold. Whatever he did happened to this girl that he picked out of the audience. No one could figure out how he did his stuff. Then after that show we went downstairs and were planning to hang out at the various bars but we ran into a magician from Argentina who gave us a private show. Now somehow my husband magically disappeared. While the group was entertained the hub went into another room and watched another magician. The Argentine guy who performed for our group was really amazing! All of us got to partake in the magic. His little show turned into a big show when more people came downstairs to watch. Its hard to explain everything he did but all I can say is that Danielle and Jon experience some good vibrations and Krueger had fun with a red car and I had my ring disappear out of thin air. There were magicians roaming around the castle doing little tricks but we got a full fledge private show from this guy. It was way cool. We were at the castle till 1:30AM and then a few of us came back to our house for a mini photo shoot. As we couldn't take pictures inside we wanted to get some pictures to remember the night. I do have my Hocus Pocus Focus group shot picture, which will have to go up on the friend’s wall in the office. The picture came with an invitation for 8 people to go back to the castle. So back to the Magic Castle we will go, I can't wait. So I will close by wishing my hubby a very Happy Birthday! I hope you had fun visiting the Magic Castle.
If you can pick the time you can go, you should most definitely go at night. Why? ...Because after being at all 3 possible settings, it's the most fun and alive at night. Not to mention the food, especially the filet mignon and mash potatoes were sooooooo yummy!! Joining us for an evening out was the Regul's, the Hinojosa's, the Sam's, Ms. Krueger and Ms. Burke. We arrived at the Magic Castle only to find that Jon, Danielle and Krueger, yes, Krueger, were already there. Of course, we made jokes about the terminally late Krueger being on time and arriving before the hosts. Did we enter the twilight zone? To quote Regul on Krueger's early arrival, "It's Magic!" The Sam's (Caroline & Minh) and Cindy had carpooled with us so when we arrived only the Hinojosa's had yet to arrive. All of us ordered some drinks. We decided to hang out in the lounge with the ghost of Irma while waiting for the Hinojosa's to make their way out of crazy 101 traffic. Irma likes to entertain the guests with her piano playing skills. Krueger was skeptical about her afterlife skills but we assured her that Irma does indeed know how to play everything on the piano. I think Krugs may have pissed Irma off with her over zealous disbelief, as right then and there Irma decided to take a break. Which was ok, as it gave the hub time to open a gift from the Regul's and chitchat. It wasn't very long before the Hinojosa's arrived with what appeared to be a hatbox. Everyone hugged and caught up before their present was opened. I must say that the group looked especially nice that night. Everyone was dressed in cocktail attire and looked mighty festive. I must note, that Danielle, who had gotten her hair all done looked especially pretty in her black dress, fake diamonds and lush curls. Whatever she did she did it right that night. I had a little moment in my head where Regul asked her to marry him due to her looking like a princess but it didn't happen that night. Krugs had bought a short, sparkly, shiny, grey cocktail dress, which I totally appreciated after hearing her stories on trying to purchase something. Caroline, the fashionista had this beautiful long gold satin dress on. Now that girl always looks like Hollywood when we go out! Michele wore a pretty blue, short, I want to say, ballerina type dress that could have been taken from the flapper 20s'. She also sported a new hair color. No more blonde! Now she is a red head. Finally, I wore my long grey velvet dress from the AMC days with my great grandma's pink diamond bracelet. It's the one dress, besides my wedding dress that I dearly love. When something calls for dress up, it's the dress I pull out of the closet. The men all wore various suits and all looked very debonair. There was something magic about the evening with us all there in our fun dress up clothes and sitting there in the lounge laughing and having fun. Our good time turned into a great time when the hub opened the Hinojosa's gift. We all immediately began laughing when we saw that that the famous "Garbanzo" beans had been gifted to the hub. The history of the garbanzo beans is long and lengthy. Let's just say that can gets passed around within our group for special occasions and no one ever sees it coming. I wished the fun in that lounge would never end but alas, it was dinnertime. They seated us in our own private room, which I had nothing to do with, but was pleasantly surprised. It was the room where they held the Harry Houdini séance’s. The room was decorated with all kinds of photos, news clippings and even his own personal wand and straightjacket! As we all took our seats I had fun handing out party favor bags. Inside everyone received a wand, a magic trick they had to learn and perform for everyone, a deck of cards and a list of magic terms. I of course also had cheesy hats for everyone to wear. People took turns showing their magic trick but my personal favorite was Minh's cups trick. He performed it very well! I wasn't sure what dinner was going to be like but it was very good. The house photographer came and took our picture. Hocus Pocus Focus he made us say. The food was 10 times better then the Sunday Brunch and regular Friday lunch. Apparently they are known as a steak house. Who knew? So of course, I ordered the cow! I know both Krugs and I enjoyed our filet mignon very much. After dinner we had tickets to The Palace of Mystery show and saw the amazing Alonso, who oddly, looked a lot like Kramer from Seinfeld. The 10PM show was really fun and I am still trying to figure out how he pulled a goose out of a straight jacket while wearing it! Next we went to an 11:30PM show in the Parlour of Prestidigitation with Magician, Dick Barry and Regul got called to be Dick's helper. The magician shredded Regul's jacket on stage and like magic it was back to new again. After that we saw a 12:15AM show in the Close-Up Gallery. We totally ran people down to get into that 22-seat theatre, as it was the last show of the night. Now this magician, Amazing Adam Grace looked like Jason Bateman in my opinion and he had this really cool voodoo trick that made things hot and cold. Whatever he did happened to this girl that he picked out of the audience. No one could figure out how he did his stuff. Then after that show we went downstairs and were planning to hang out at the various bars but we ran into a magician from Argentina who gave us a private show. Now somehow my husband magically disappeared. While the group was entertained the hub went into another room and watched another magician. The Argentine guy who performed for our group was really amazing! All of us got to partake in the magic. His little show turned into a big show when more people came downstairs to watch. Its hard to explain everything he did but all I can say is that Danielle and Jon experience some good vibrations and Krueger had fun with a red car and I had my ring disappear out of thin air. There were magicians roaming around the castle doing little tricks but we got a full fledge private show from this guy. It was way cool. We were at the castle till 1:30AM and then a few of us came back to our house for a mini photo shoot. As we couldn't take pictures inside we wanted to get some pictures to remember the night. I do have my Hocus Pocus Focus group shot picture, which will have to go up on the friend’s wall in the office. The picture came with an invitation for 8 people to go back to the castle. So back to the Magic Castle we will go, I can't wait. So I will close by wishing my hubby a very Happy Birthday! I hope you had fun visiting the Magic Castle.
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