saturday night dinner party

This last Saturday I held the annual Young Women Leadership Appreciation Dinner. This is an event where I invite all the women (and a guest/spouse) who help run the program in our church that works with teenage girls (20+ dinner guests total). It is a particularly difficult event to pull off because all of the ladies I would normally ask to help me with it are the ones that I'm trying to not have anything to do with it so they can just show up and be appreciated. Thus, this year I owe a big thanks to my dear friend Ashley, her husband Brandon, my husband Doug and the other two men living in our house right now, my dad and my friend Rick. (Did I mention my life is crazy right now?) I love this event because I get to recognize all of the hard work these women do and I get to embarrass them with praise. I thought the dinner went beautifully down to the smallest detail. Every year I give them a favor to take with them and this year Ashley and I made raspberry butter for everyone. mmmm. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy of our lovely evening!







p.s. Funny side note - the orange berries in these jars were on a bush outside of my classroom on campus. I brought my dad to campus and asked him to pick berries for me while I was in class. A friend of mine in the program came into class a few minutes late and said "I'm almost positive I saw your old man in that orange bush outside picking berries". It was hilarious all of the strange looks he got. People thought he was a confused old man who was desperately hungry. Ha! Sorry dad!