Success and Exhaustion :-)

PIRATE NIGHT WAS A SUCCESS!!!

Over 600 people attended. We were expecting between 400 and 500 so we were blown away. We had 50 cakes for the Cakewalk and had to shut that down an hour before the end because we ran out of cakes, we had 450 pirate hats to decorate for the kids - THEY were out by 7. The games went well, the book fair made a ton of money, fundraisers were mostly picked up, and all of the comments we received from kids/parents/teaching staff were positive. The basket raffle brought in over $700, so instead of spending the $1000 that we were supposed to, we actually ended up only spending $200. The traffic cop never showed up and that was supposed to be a $400 expense, so that certainly helped the budget!

I forgot my camera - I wish I had it. The decorating committee for the social was headed by 2 professional artist/designers and it really showed. They made a ship out of cardboard boxes that looked JUST like a pirate ship - complete with raggedy sails. There were 'portholes' in the ship that were strong enough to let a child go through them - the games looked so professional that the Principal asked to keep them in the supply room for future games at the school. Yay parents - they really came through.

The cakewalk was fun - I had never been to one before. My friend Cheryl had told me that it wasn't the tasty cakes that were picked first, it was the fancy cakes that were 'eye candy' to the kids. So. I used fondant on cakes for the first time. Wow - it was fun - like working with polymer clay! The next time I will flavor the fondant a bit more, I think it was 'too' neutral, but the cakes were #1 and #2 gone so I consider that a success :-) Here are Barbie and the soccer field - and they were really so simple that they were both decorated in about 45 minutes...

The work continued on Friday as I made phone calls to the 19 winners of baskets in the basket raffle that hadn't picked up their winnings - so my first 'breathing' day was Monday - but that's okay. The best part of the process was working with the women on the committee - their energy, their ideas, their enthusiasm was contagious and really helped. So, until the spring (when I'm responsible for another social) I can relax a bit.

The fall view above is from my front door. It's supposed to be windy and we're to have rain later, so I'm not sure how much longer the spectacular fall leaf show will be around - but I'm enjoying every minute of it. I'm taking the long way to places and driving through the beautiful New England countryside that I'm part of and loving it.....It's all good.