Celebration of Life

I think I have mentioned in the last month that my youth group was doing a big dinner for the seniors in our church to thank them for all their support of the kids.  We do the dinner every year, and it always has a different theme.  We make lunch, decorate, and provide entertainment.  This year, the kids chose the theme "Broadway".  As in ALL of Broadway!  It actually turned out to be one of the best COLs we've ever done.  We got so many compliments on the food, entertainment, and decorations!  It was really gratifying, considering Kelly and I worked our tails off for a month getting everything together!  We even shopped for the food on her birthday!

Here are pictures (I know, actual pictures!  On MY blog!!) of some of the event.

Each table had a theme of a different broadway show.  Here is The Wizard of Oz.  We have a witch hat and a bunch of memorabilia that came in a box set of the movie that Bill bought for Karina and me.  I don't know if you can see the little brown dog figurine, but he came from a dollar store and looks just like Toto.

 Aladdin.  Just an extra table because it was awesome.

 Beauty and the Beast.  One of our other youth leaders brought in the rose in a glass dome.  There's Karina's talking teapot.  We also used some books, a puzzle, some candles, and a booklet.  We took the crown out.  We had put that down when we were desperate for some decorations, but one of the kids brought some more so we didn't need it.

 Cats.  We used dollar store cat figurines and some actual broadway memorabilia that Kelly and I had.

 Grease.  I made fake records and we used some toy cars, sunglasses, combs, and two mini poodle skirts I made from felt.

 Hairspray (we had some other decorations that we added after I took this picture).  Those are ceramic, old-style TVs I found at the dollar store.  Don't they look retro?  And there are two blue kids' wigs.

 The King and I.  I was so afraid we wouldn't have enough for this table to decorate properly, but we ended up with tons, thanks to my mom.  There are some fans, a shawl that's actually from China but still looked good, and some photos from different broadway versions of it.  Too bad you can't see the little elephant figurine that is my grandmother's and came from India. 

 The Lion King.  You can see the stuffed lions, and the things from Africa are Kelly's.

 My Fair Lady was another one I was worried about not having enough for.  It turned out fine, though.  We used fake flowers (from my wedding; yes I had fake flowers.  I got to keep them that way.), two porcelain dolls that are mine, and a little bag made from my mom's old wedding gown.  There's a story behind that, too. Allow me to digress if you will: she is divorced.  She had the bag made for my first wedding and I used it before the ceremony.  I got divorced.  My brother got married and his ex-wife used the bag and got divorced.  When Bill and I got married, I did not use the bag.

 Oklahoma!  Straw hats, pretty obvious.  Oh, and there are two ceramic or porcelain dolls, too.

 My favorite, The Phantom of the Opera.  In my opinion, the best broadway show ever.  Got some fake roses, some masks, some broadway memorabilia, and I found the black box at Target, put one of Karina's tiny stuffed monkeys on top and gave him her little Musikgarten finger cymbals to wear so the box could be the famous music box from the show. 

 I made these broadway star posters for each youth member who participated.  It says their character and what show they were in. 

 One of the girls didn't get her picture taken, so she didn't have her photo on her sign. 

 

Serving

 Crazy kitchen!  I hate being in there, I am always in the way somehow.

 Here I am as Christine Daae from The Phantom of the Opera (sounds like die-ay).

 Me and Kelly.

 Kelly in character.

 One of the girls in character.  She's Nellie from South Pacific.

 Two of the girls as Thoroughly Modern Millie and Dorothy.

 One of our leaders as the sultan from Aladdin.

 Our entertainment included a special guest singer.  This young lady is not a member of our youth group, but is a student in the Sultan's class.  She filled in for another girl at the last minute and did a great job.  She sang a song from "Into the Woods". 

 These are two of our girls doing a Rockettes number that they choreographed themselves. 

There you have it.  I'm so glad it's over, even though it was fun and successful, I was exhausted afterwards!  A whole year til the next one....