turn out the lights

The last couple of weekends have been very busy. Who knew Valentine's would be more hectic than  Christmas? First a weekend full of school dances and then a banquet at church. Both fundraisers; both very successful; both loads of fun.

At the Valentine's banquet, we always play a few games. This year Chan and I searched NBC's Minute It To Win It site for some new game ideas.

Baby bottle rattle involved LOTS of gumballs. Instead of a timer, we made it a race to see who could move the gumballs from the one bottle to the other the fastest. The trick was to hold the bottles almost sideways to move the gumballs faster.

Chan found Hanging by a Thread. It was challenging! Each player was given sixty seconds to hang as many nails as possible on the fishing line. Bryan added a little pressure to Mr. Jimmy after he had gotten one nail to hang.

Things got a little dicey with this game - we paired up father and daughter to compete against mother and son-in-law. I tried this several times and never got the five dice stacked - this family was very competitive and stacked dice quickly.

The youth kids not only served, but were assigned jobs during the games too. Laynie and Megan modeled this game of passing a lifesaver from spaghetti noodle to spaghetti noodle.

And then the real competition began. We had a great laugh during this game.

And we ended our night with the traditional "Not So Newlywed" game. It's a classic and always fun.

My brother, sister-in-law, and their oldest

Lovey, his brother, and mother

Baby Jus and his sweet girlfriend. Last year Just was part of the youth. I think it's great that he came back this year to support the youth group.

Hannah is part of our youth group - she worked and provided some of the entertainment. I've never gotten to see her dance. She did an amazing job. On carpet. In a tiny little area. Amazing!

My sister and friend Kelly. They were part of the kitchen crew and worked the entire night. And thought they were staying behind the scenes. But I couldn't let that happen.

And after two weekends of running, today I'm not feeling so great. My body always knows just when it can cave to germs. After the party was over last night, and I was driving home, I could feel the germs winning. I came in, grabbed some sinus medicine, and collapsed on the couch.

This morning Lovey made himself and Jus some pancakes. I opted for just coffee. And the couch.

Apparently, the critters feel about the same way I do. They haven't moved much at all this morning.