Perfect Personal Progress Pajama Party

 Autumn & I came home to a fun new surprise in our yard. Dad & Nick had planted a bald cypress, b/c our poor magnolia tree isn't doing well. I'm so thankful for Dad and all that he does for us.

 Autumn & I got a few things together, loaded them in the car, changed clothes, and hurried over to the church to set up for Young Women In Excellence. Instead of taking over (like I usually do) I had the class presidents decide on our theme. They wanted to have a pajama party, so we made that theme work. Everything started with P. We decorated with Polka dots, and the D.O.T.S. stands for Depend On The Savior. I got the polka dot tablecloths, pink & purple plates, polka dot napkins, and pom pom decorations at the $1 Store!

 Those bigger pom poms on the stage are also from the $1 Store. I just sat & opened them up at night while I was watching TV. Easy peasy!

 The young women were encouraged to wear their pajamas, bring pillows, and put their hair in pig tails if they wanted to. The opening and closing songs both started with P (Praise to the Man & Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel). The main bulk of the program was the YW each taking a turn to come up and share something they have excelled at this year. Some were really prepared and did a great job while others just made up something on the spot.

I made a few remarks, the Stake YW rep made a few remarks, and then one of the Bishopric members spoke. After that, we watched a slideshow from pics over the last year that one of the YW put together as her project. It was my favorite part of the night.

 Then it was time for everyone's favorite ... the food! The girls wanted all sorts of food that started w/ P so we separated it out by sweet & savory. On the first table we had all sorts of pies. I'm glad we took a poll on Sunday about what type of pie they wanted. No one voted for cherry or blueberry, so I'm glad we didn't buy something they wouldn't eat. For ease of serving the pie we had them all precut and already on plates.  We also had pineapple, peanut butter cups, and popcorn.

For the savory table we had pickles, peas (snap peas), pretzels, pizza rolls, and all sorts of Pringles. For the drinks we had potable water & punch pouches (Capri suns).

 Here's our PRECIOUS pajama party picture. I'm so thankful I get to serve & love these incredible young women. I love each one of them so much and they are constantly in my prayers. I also have to give a huge shout out to the other leaders who just jumped in and started cutting pies, cooking pizza rolls, etc while I ran around setting up the gym. It truly takes team work to make the dream work.

A bunch of the younger siblings of the YW dressed up in pajamas, which was too cute. I got this polka dot wrapping paper at the $1 store and just wrapped it around a portable chalkboard so people could have a fun background if they wanted to take a selfie.

It's always a lot of work to pull off something like this. It was AWESOME to just order all the food on walmart.com and then go pick it up. That's the first time I've ever tried it, and I will FOR SURE be doing that again. It saved a ton of time not having to walk around the store and find what I needed. Super slick! Based on the few comments I heard, it was a great success.