April, Devon, and Tommy Came To Our Ward Auction!

 Back in April, the Relief Society presidency was in charge of our annual ward auction fundraiser.  We had been planning it for months, and I've always loved the auction and was extra excited this year since I helped plan it.  I told my sister how much fun it is and invited her to come, and guess what?  She was able to take a weekend trip and come up for a visit and attend our ward auction.

My mom helped me decorate the night before, and we had a few men there from setting up chairs that helped us put things where we thought was good.  It took us over an hour, when I thought it would take 15 minutes. I love how all the banner signs turned out and my mom's bright table cloths really made things look nice, as well as the fold-up celebration paper wheels which we hung from the curtains on the stage.

My mom brought 2 office chairs to auction off, and Bro. Peterson and the Bishop sat in them to attest to how comfortable they are.  Bro. Winn was our auctioneer, and he always does a great job.  This year we were lucky to get him, because he was still recovering from surgery.

 We staked out front row seats which gave us plenty of leg room and space for the littles to spread out; however, we ended up taking them into the relief society room where they just ran around and played with Lily as the babysitter.

The service certificates are one of my favorite things to bid on, and I bid on almost all of them.  I offered 2 certificates for bidding: 1 heirloom brandywine tomato plant delivered at the end of May, and 1 Thai-inspired dinner for a family at my house.  The tomato plant was won by the Heaton family who bought it for $6.  The Thai dinner was bid up and up and up until the Allred family won it for I'm not sure how much, but it was maybe like $80.

At the back, we had a bake sale, but we also had a snack table that had free nachos and popcorn for everyone.  There were silent auction items placed on tables all around the edges that had themed mystery bags, baskets of donated goods, decor, etc..  The mystery bags were my idea and I think they did really well.  I handed out 45 bags at church and almost all of them made it back to the auction!

Here's a picture of me and the girls with our hefty service certificate hauling!

With April in town for the weekend, we had some fun!  My mom came over and taught Tommy how to play the uke!

One day I introduced everyone to the new park in Fort Duchesne.  We had a lot of fun there and the sun warmed us up!

Later in the month, after April had left, I had the Thai dinner for the Allreds at our place.  My mom came and decorated the table for us (bless her sweet, ever-serving heart!) and I made all the food.  We had fresh spring rolls~

Shoyu cucumber salad (I know that's not Thai, but it's good, and the Allreds have a family of 10, so I needed another side dish).

A yummy fruit platter- which, by the way, was devoured.

Here's the table setting.  The lighting in the photo doesn't do it justice, because it really was stunning.

 Each place setting had a little bamboo boat with a fortune cookie on it, just for fun.

For the main entree, we had massaman curry and jasmine rice.  None of the Allreds had ever had Thai food.  They were all very gracious, and no one complained, but I noticed the real winners of the night were the fruit platter and dessert!

And for dessert we had a tropical cake, a recipe I found in the Lion House cookbook.  It was a TON of work (especially the spring rolls that took 2 hours of assembling and rolling), but so worth it.  Good times, good food, good people, it's really worth all the effort.