Fun Fall Football Dance

This morning we got up, and Autumn couldn’t wait to go over to Papa & Mimi’s so she could play w/ Andrew.  We had breakfast and then watched some football for a while.  The kids wanted to go swimming, but only lasted for about 10 minutes b/c they said it was too cold.  Once Autumn & Andrew got dried off and went in the back room to play, I left to go do some major shopping for the big Single Adult dance that our stake was in charge of.  I went to Costco and got 2 cakes, chips & fixins for nachos, veggies, ranch dressing, lemonade mix, etc.  Then I went to WalMart to get the few things that Costco didn’t have.

I finally got home 3 hours later from all that shopping.  We had a shrimp boil for lunch/dinner and it was so good!  We love doing these so often b/c it feeds a ton of people and is such easy clean up.  Plus, it’s so fun to eat w/ our hands and just squirt our condiments right onto the tinfoil covered table.

After we ate, the kids wanted to get in the hot tub (Papa had turned it on earlier) and play.  Mimi was a good sport and got in w/ them, especially b/c Jackson wanted to play and not be left out of the fun.

After warming up in the hot tub, they felt brave enough to try jumping into the cold pool.  I guess they’re just practicing & getting ready for the annual New Year’s Pool Dip.  They got out these water squirters from the $1 store.  They had contests to see who could shoot theirs the farthest.  Then they made cool shapes w/ the water.  I love how I was able to capture this “S” Andrew made.

Eventually they turned their squirt guns on each other.  This picture cracks me up b/c they are shooting each other but both have their eyes closed.

Papa came out and went swimming w/ them while Mom played w/ Jackson in the hot tub.  I told Mom if Andrew’s eyes weren’t closed we could use this for our Christmas picture this year.  I hope these kids realize how lucky they are to have such GRAND grandparents.

I had to leave all the fun & festivities at 5:30 to go home and get all the food & crockpots and decorations from my house, load them in my car, and drive them 30 minutes to the church where we were having the dance.  Pete set up all the tables and chairs while I got busy working on all the food in the kitchen.  I forgot to take a picture of it, but we had cute cheerleader cones & pom poms on the tables as centerpiece decorations.  I got all of my decorations at the $1 Store.  Then I also found those cute football shaped platters at the $1 Store and used them for the veggies and ranch dressing.  This doesn’t look like much of a spread, but it really was and it took a lot of work!

I got 2 of these Costco cakes b/c I was told to expect between 100 – 150 people and each cakes feeds about 48.  I got one chocolate, and one vanilla.  Each cake was only $17.99 and I love that I was able to get it personalized and in a football theme, which went along perfectly w/ our Fun Fall Football dance.  We only ate 1/2 of the chocolate one, so I’m going to use this one for a Young Men/Women’s fireside tomorrow night.

We told everyone in our advertising of the dance to come dressed in their favorite team’s colors or wear their favorite football team’s jersey.  There were quite a few people who did.  The DJ was awesome, and we had a great turn out from what I heard.  I wore this cute referee apron w/ a yellow flag that Mom had.  I also wore my BYU visor (I heard they lost against our rivals the U of U) and my football earrings.  I heard lots of people say the food was great and they were impressed, b/c I guess usually it’s just a potluck thing and the food isn’t always that great.  I’m glad it was a huge success and am also glad our stake won’t be in charge of another Single Adult dance until July of next year!

When the dance ended at 11:30, everyone helped pitch in and put away all the tables and chairs, which was a huge relief.  I took care of the food and a few people stayed to help Pete & I load it all into my car.  I got home at 1:00 am and luckily Nick was still awake so I had him help me bring everything in so I could put away the stuff that had to be refrigerated.  My kitchen counters look like a tornado blew through there!  The bottoms of my feet hurt so bad from being on them most of the day that it took me a while to fall asleep, but I eventually did.