Family Valentine's Day Dance

On Saturday night our ward had a Family Valentine's Day Dance Fundraiser to help the Young Women raise money for girl's camp. There was a dessert auction, cookie decorating, valentines making, snacks, and lots of fun music for dancing. Our kids kicked off the dancing since they were some of the first kiddos there. No shyness at all.

They had the best time. Andrew was cracking us up the whole time with his dance moves and Catie and Ryan did pretty well too. Andrew also just ran around with his buddies the whole time and got lots of energy out. I'll have to post some videos here later when I have more time.

Catie managed to collide with a bigger kid within the first 20 minutes so that soured the evening a bit, but the arrival of two of her buds helped her shake it off and get her dancing groove back. My favorite was when all the kids were dancing and singing around to the Frozen soundtrack.

Ryan only wanted to steal other people's cups and decorate cookies at the cookie station.

He made at least three, never ate them, and then proceeded to roam to try and steal other cookies he found.

At one point I saw him stealing entire handfuls of sprinkles (see the giant cup in front of him... I didn't notice that) and big pieces of licorice. He was in heaven.

Here in this album are a few more photos of the decorations that I got to help with as well as the amazing desserts that got auctioned off. Kevin made peanut butter bars for our auction entry. He also watched the kiddos practically all afternoon Saturday while I helped set up at the church. He is a rock star!

The Young Women made almost 4,000 dollars which means that each girl will only have to pay for half of camp out of pocket now. So exciting! The idea for a ward dance was such a great inspired idea from our Young women's president and everyone had such a fabulous time. I hope we'll get to do it again next year!

I am so exhausted after being on my feet from setting up and then dancing and then chasing after Ryan all night, but it was totally worth it. What a great night!

Friday Valentines Fun

and other Valentinesy fun...

We hosted our first couples Valentine's Day Party this weekend. This little dude was my super helper... and especially loved "helping" frost the cake (meaning, lick the bowl and knife after I was done).  

On Friday afternoon I was thinking I might be throwing the party by myself (since Kevin was delayed on his flight home from Kentucky)... but all prayers were answered and he arrived home 15 minutes before the party started. Hurray! Throwing a party with eleven couples plus me might have been a bit of a bummer, though I had resigned to make it fun whether or not Kevin made it.

We had loads of treats and goodies and each guest brought either an appetizer or a dessert. I restrained myself and only made a chocolate cake and bean dip appetizer (usually for parties I make 4-5 things). I also grab some festive Mrs. Fields cookies. :)

Kim and Jules sent along a little Valentine's Day gift that we snacked on too... "we" meaning me and Kevin while we cleaned up. Yum!

Every time I make a bundt cake I just never quite know if the frosting is going to look good. This cake turned out really pretty though and I love my new cake stand from my mom. I don't think you can ever have too many cake stands (this is maybe my 6th?)... and this one is especially adorable.

I fully support women buying flowers for themselves. Fresh flowers just make me happy. There were so many gorgeous flowers at the store, but I loved this bouquet the best. Kevin always gets me some for our anniversary or Valentine's Day (next week), so I figured these could fill in until then ;)

(table before all the other food arrived)

The party was a smashing success. We laughed because for the first hour we felt like we were back in middle school with the boys in one part of the house and the girls in the other... but then we mixed things up a bit. I snapped photos of anyone who wanted couples pictures in our makeshift photo booth...

and we played an intense version of the Newlywed game. Can you feel the concentration?

These four lucky volunteers got to play while the rest of us cheered them on and attempted to answer questions ourselves. The game was seriously hysterical. It was fun to learn some new things about everyone- and get to know some newer friends better.

Cara was the mastermind behind the game and helped co-host the party with me. She is fabulous!

I definitely want to make this party an annual tradition... I am so grateful for the inspiration from creative party hostess Hayley. We used to go to her V-day party every year when we lived in the South Bay, so now we're spreading the love to the East Bay. :)

The best part of the party was that our kids went to sleep, we were insanely loud for almost three hours, and they NEVER bothered us. That was unexpected and awesome.

Our Friday night party was only the beginning of the weekend party festivities. I am exhausted and will blog about all the other fun events later this weekend/week.

Off to go eat some more leftover chocolate cake!