The World Party was great fun! Cookies, safas (platters Ethiopian dishes are served on), red lentils, wall hangings and coffee beans were in great supply:
We showed up at 9am to start the set up. This involved turning the empty hall into a decorated and organized place to hold the grand shindig.
Jordan and her friends made a bunch of tissue paper flowers that Brandy and I arranged in vases filled with red lentils and then filled the rest of the table with some fabric, napkins that one of my aunt's friends sewed (now a small undertaking by the way to make napkins for 100 people!), and glasses. My dad meanwhile had to get the enormous kitchen in the back working (thankfully he was a dishwasher at a restaurant way back when so he knew how to use it all) so that we could get the safas and glasses cleaned before going on the table. Then Laird and Sandor finalized the sound and projector so that we could show a slide show of pictures with sound, in addition to showing scanned pictures from a children's book Laird read to the kids that night. And John and Brandy set up an entire kid's region in the hall to contain a bit of the craziness. Then back to the kitchen there was mass cookie making. The food was all prepared by Tana, an Ethiopian restaurant from Pittsburgh, but the dessert was provided by our hands...literally. We found out after starting that there was no mixer in the kitchen which left us improvising and Jordan mixing with her hands!
This may look gross, but I'll tell you Snickerdoodle dough is possibly the tastiest dough I've ever eaten...I mean what is the purpose of making cookies if you don't eat the dough! We finished up cookies around 3:00 and headed back to the hotel to relax for a few hours before heading back for the main event...which was very well attended!
The guests were gone by 9:00 or so and then the cleaning began. My dad took charge in the dishwashing room again, Brandy and I took control of the main floor - unfortunately there was no broom which left Brandy vacuuming the entire place while I moved chairs to open up the room and John wiped up all the stuff that a vacuum couldn't take care of. By 10:30 we were heading out after a very long, but fun filled day!
We showed up at 9am to start the set up. This involved turning the empty hall into a decorated and organized place to hold the grand shindig.
Jordan and her friends made a bunch of tissue paper flowers that Brandy and I arranged in vases filled with red lentils and then filled the rest of the table with some fabric, napkins that one of my aunt's friends sewed (now a small undertaking by the way to make napkins for 100 people!), and glasses. My dad meanwhile had to get the enormous kitchen in the back working (thankfully he was a dishwasher at a restaurant way back when so he knew how to use it all) so that we could get the safas and glasses cleaned before going on the table. Then Laird and Sandor finalized the sound and projector so that we could show a slide show of pictures with sound, in addition to showing scanned pictures from a children's book Laird read to the kids that night. And John and Brandy set up an entire kid's region in the hall to contain a bit of the craziness. Then back to the kitchen there was mass cookie making. The food was all prepared by Tana, an Ethiopian restaurant from Pittsburgh, but the dessert was provided by our hands...literally. We found out after starting that there was no mixer in the kitchen which left us improvising and Jordan mixing with her hands!
This may look gross, but I'll tell you Snickerdoodle dough is possibly the tastiest dough I've ever eaten...I mean what is the purpose of making cookies if you don't eat the dough! We finished up cookies around 3:00 and headed back to the hotel to relax for a few hours before heading back for the main event...which was very well attended!
The guests were gone by 9:00 or so and then the cleaning began. My dad took charge in the dishwashing room again, Brandy and I took control of the main floor - unfortunately there was no broom which left Brandy vacuuming the entire place while I moved chairs to open up the room and John wiped up all the stuff that a vacuum couldn't take care of. By 10:30 we were heading out after a very long, but fun filled day!
Hey Becky,
ReplyDeleteThank you SO much for posting this! We are biZZZZZZZy, with flu and homestudy adjustments and Jordan the Athlete and all kinds of goings on. This weekend we will finally wrap up the party, and send out a total for the funds raised. Yippy!
Love,
The BabaMama