What a week! Etiquette, Easter Eggs and Luke's Party! Phew...we made it!

This week turned out to be a very busy, but very fun one. On top of our usual dance class, soccer practice, baseball practice, soccer game, piano lessons, YW activities, etc. we had our YM/YW Etiquette night AND the Ward Easter Potluck Brunch/Easter Egg hunt AND Luke's birthday party. YES it was a busy but fun week. I kind of have a big mouth and volunteered the YW to be in charge of the Ward party, not realizing it was the same week as our Etiquette night. So we decorated Wed. night, had Etiquette Thursday night and Easter Egg hunt Saturday. I think my counselors want to put a straight jacket on me when I go to Ward council so I won't volunteer us for anything else :)

The Etiquette night turned out beautiful. We decorated with silver and gold, had lights hanging above their heads, with fabric draped. We used the fancy plastic plates that look like china and the plastic utensils that look like silverware. To start the evening we had the YM draw a girls name out of the hat and then a table number (so we could mix up who they sat with). Once they drew the name they proceeded to the YW room to pick up who they were escorting and then they gave them their arm and walked them down the hall to the cultural hall and helped her into her seat. They had a dinner...which I usually pawn this duty off on someone else because the thought of cooking for that many makes me SCARED! But I DID IT!!!! And I think it turned out great. In fact almost every plate that came back to the kitchen didn't have anything left on it! We served Ceaser salad, bowtie pasta with alfredo sauce mixed with spaghetti sauce, grilled chicken (which I marinated in Italian dressing for 2 days...mmmmm....) and a roll. Then cheese cake for dessert. Talk about relief that it is done. I fretted over the food for days and then it turned out to be a piece of cake to grill the chicken.

Then after they ate my stellar, amazing, wonderful, Laurel President, Christina Padilla (who is sadly graduating...not sad she is graduating, in fact that is wonderful, just sad that she won't be around anymore ) anyway she put together a fun Jeapordy game with questions from the etiquette handbook that she had put together. The winning table won pretzel M&M's with a "Most Mannered Award" certificate on it. The kids seemed to get into the game and the table that won were cracking me up because they spoke with an English accent pretty much the whole night :)

After the game we went to the other side of the room for dancing. It was fun to watch the Beehives all nervous and excited at the same time :) I jumped in and taught them all the line dances that the bishop played (did I mention that we have connections, our bishop is the DJ at all the Stake dances and he is WONDERFUL!) So the kids had a great night and I was EXHAUSTED but pleased by the end. THANK goodness for the wonderful leaders I work with who were stuck in the kitchen serving, cleaning, and cooking. I love and appreciate them!

The Ward party was easy...you make something potluck and it is smooth sailing, no stress. Emma brought her little friend Breanne from down the street and they went early with me and put table cloths on the tables and helped me decorate our pavilion. We ate and then the Primary Presidency took all the kids into the gym to run around and play games and then the YM/YW hid all the eggs. The Sr. Primary kids' eggs were around the building and the Jr. Primary eggs were out in the field next to the pavilion. There was one kid who got stung by a wasp (twice), and Eva pooped on my friend Amy, but other then that there were no complaints!

Then we hurried home and got ready to go to Luke's birthday party. Well I don't know if you can call it a party....more like a birthday get together. Last year he had a party with TONS of kids and I decided that they can have that kind of a thing every other year. So Luke invited 2 friends, Carver and Nicholas, to go play laser tag at Hard Knocks. Matt's old friend from work, Joe Wheeler, actually started this company after he got laid off from Hewitt about 5 years ago. Now it is an AWESOME laser tag place and very popular with the kids. They had a great time. Then of course we can't celebrate a birthday without cake so we went to my favorite cupcake shop for dessert.

After we took Carver and Nicholas home we went to Fuji Sushi for dinner as a family. It is a fun restaurant with the Teppan grills where they make the food in front of you. The kids loved it. They got a kick out of the chef when he made a volcano out of the onions on the grill and made the flames rise, and then he made our rice in the shape of Mickey Mouse and made it look like it was talking and telling Luke Happy Birthday. We ate WAY too much :) What a fun day. Luke was so excited because he got an awesome watch from his Grandma and Grandpa Rose (he has been updating me with the time all day AND timed the guy who said the closing prayer in church), and he got Tampa Bay Rays baseball game tickets! We are going as a family on Friday! He was stoked about that. But I think his favorite gift was a little cheap nerf basketball hoop that you put over your door. He and Gavin are having some intense games in the playroom, complete with fouls, dunks, alley oops, foul shots, and 3 pointers. So yes it has been a wonderful week but I feel like a walking zombie :)

ETIQUETTE DINNER...

Emma was my little helper for the evening...she helped decorate, serve food, clear tables, and she even got to have fun and dance :)

WARD EASTER PARTY...

LUKE'S BIRTHDAY PARTY...