Prom 2016

I was so excited about prom this year because Kami and Caden worked it out so that they could be in the same group! One of Caden's friends was over here one night as he and Caden planned out the date, and I told them that I would love to be in charge of the dinner.  They took me up on it!!

Prom ended up being a whole day project for Shawn and I, between helping Caden with the day-date and getting the dinner stuff ready.  For the day date, they canoed the river.  Shawn helped Caden get the canoes down to the river by our house.  Then after 2-3 hours we went and picked the canoes up and hauled them home while the kids stayed and played volleyball at Beaver Dick Park.

Kami and her date Cody Sharp on the day date:

We had been planning to have the dinner upstairs on our outside deck, but just as I was ready to go string lights up there and hang some paper lanterns that the girls and I made, a huge rainstorm blew in.  Soooo... we quickly changed our plans and put everything into the dining room.  Not as cool, but it still worked:)  We hung some sheets over the dining room door so that they would be in their own space and not see us hustling and bustling around in the kitchen.

When the kids came back to the house they were all gussied up for pictures (which Caden took with some timer device that he has):

Then they came in and we seated them for dinner l-r: Ashley, Caden, Kamille and Cody:

Grant and Kenna:

Caden's best friend Andrew with his date Kennalee:

Great group of kids - they were so fun!  We (mostly Kami) made a centerpiece that went along with their theme of the dance that was something about the 1920's:

The room after the dinner:

We served courses for the dinner.  I invited Cody's parents to come over because they are friends of ours, and I was so glad that I did!  I didn't realize how much I was going to need Cindy's help getting those plates loaded and ready for our waiters to serve!

We started with these strawberry hors' devours:

I have seriously been saving that idea for YEARS.  So glad that I finally got to use it!

Next course was artisan bread and a wild rice chicken soup.

Main course was asparagus, twice baked potatoes and some chicken malibu that Shawn and Blake worked on out at the grill:)

And finally some cherry boston cream cake:

These boys did such a great job waiting on the table.  They were a little hesitant to do the job at first so I bribed them with doughnuts or a trip to the dollar store:)  They agreed, but were nervous to do it once the prom kids arrived, and wouldn't go in and get going, so I brought them in with me and said, "I'd like to introduce your waiters for the evening..."  That seemed to break the ice and after that they were great and the kids got a kick out of them trying to peer up onto the table to see if they were finished with a course so that they could remove their bowl, plates, etc.  I could hear them saying things like, "How is your food tasting?"  "Is there anything I can get for you?"  They kept a really good eye on things:

They're still talking about how much fun they had.  I guess we all are!