Homecoming at Home

I have been completely missing in action the last week or so, because I agreed to do a very daring thing.  I guess Brendan isn't the only brave one in our family, after all.

He was going to his first Homecoming dance on Saturday, after asking in a dramatic way a few weeks ago.  My husband and I encouraged him to have a few of his friends and their dates come to our house for dinner instead of going to a restaurant.  We figured that the food would be better, it would be cheaper, and it would be fun for our family to work together to prepare and present this kind of evening.  We told him that 8-10 people would be a perfect number.

When a bunch of his friends got word of the event, they wanted in.  As in, at the final tally, we served 35 teenagers dinner.  Yikes!

  
 

We accommodated everyone by pushing all our furniture in our family room to the sides and bringing in tables and chairs conveniently stolen borrowed from our church (we did give them back, I promise).  Two other moms who are a-maz-ing cooks (amazing to the point that I have to really try to not feel completely jealous/insecure around them in the kitchen) did the majority of the cooking.  I made a bunch of decorations earlier in the week, and then I (with help from my mom and another nice mom who volunteered at the last minute) decorated and hosted.  My husband hauled tables and chairs like a maniac, vacuumed and held down the fort with the younger kids and their soccer games that afternoon while I worked feverishly all day to prepare.  The younger kids all pitched in, too, working like house elves.  Literally, see?



Hey, even House Elves need a break.  S.P.E.W., unite :) !

House elves, because their Homecoming had a Harry Potter theme.

Is that not the coolest Homecoming Week theme ever!!?!  

Anyway, in homage of Harry Potter, we served the guests butterbeer as they were arriving and taking pictures.  It was pretty good, by the way.  Fairly close to the stuff we drank at Harry Potter World last February.

About a half-hour before we were due to start, I was worriedly mulling over what a fool I am for taking on projects like this when I seem to have enough to do just keeping clean underwear in people's drawers.

But half-way through the evening, I got one of those happy, "this was worth the sacrifice" kind of satisfying feelings.  Having 35 teenagers in our home was a delight, our carpet remained unscathed despite serving sparkling grape juice (don't quite know why I approved that idea :) ) and I think it'll be something they will all remember for a long, long time.




Anybody else bitten off more than you can chew lately, but loved every minute of it like I did :)?