We did it! We survived the Grinch party! It was awesome. Mike worked so hard on this and so many people helped. A few days after the party I saw Jonathan Tanner at the grocery store. He told me that his six year old daughter Evie asked him how he liked the party. He said it was fun and asked her how she liked it. She said, "I think it's the best thing we have ever done." Hahahaha I love that! Recency bias is a real thing, but still that's awesome! Mike and I spent all day long setting up. Carlee and Elliot Spencer were here for much of the time as well. The bishop came over and helped. I have been in contact with the other two wards that share our building. One is doing a Whoville party tomorrow morning and one has their Christmas party tomorrow evening. Wanderwood set up the lights on the ceiling and the Christmas trees. Lone Hollow had lots of awesome Grinch posters/characters they had made. Wendy Clark spent a lot of time here. She is the stake president's wife and just had heart surgery. She is in the Lone Hollow ward and made lots of beautiful Grinch drawings. She also knew Brent and Kim really well. Bryce Johnson's parents came in with a Grinch tree. They are in the Lone Hollow ward and Bryce's dad is going to be the Grinch for them. So many people helped and the party was amazing! Stockton and Jorja even came down from Logan. What a day!
Setting up
Kayla Mogenson made the chimney in the picture above. It is a basketball game. Presents can be thrown in the chimney. The Young Men are doing that. Anyway, in order to get it here, Carlee and I went in her truck. We stuck the chimney in the back and I held onto it as we drove back to church. I was so glad it wasn't raining! I spent most of my time on the balloons. Carlee helped me a ton. I'm glad I did it though, because the balloon arch turned out really cute.
Mike, Bishop Callister, Carlee
Mike brining the slide over. He rented a u-haul trailer for it.
Elliot, Mike and Bishop Callister putting the slide together
Mike had labeled the slide at home in hopes of putting it together easy. Still it had a few hiccups. I remember hearing Bishop Callister saying, "You're killing me Mike!" Hahaha I wasn't sure if it was because this is the first time he saw the slide or if he had to hold the heavy piece for a long time.
Stockton and Jorja came down. The timing worked perfect. Stockton had a 'nerd conference' down here. One of his classes was giving extra credit if they went to this conference, which happened to be held in Sandy today and tomorrow. Stockton, Max and Luke all came down for the conference. They gave Jorja a ride too. Once Jorja got here she helped me set things up. Maysen helped me for most of the morning too. It was so much fun! I'm so glad Stockton and Jorja were able to come down for this. We have been working on it for so long I'm glad they didn't miss it.
Jorja
Mike putting lights on the arch
Progress
Stockton & Mike
Stockton
And now it is time for the event! Crazy how much time we put into an hour and a half party. Haha. It was fun to see the expressions on people's faces as they entered Whoville. It was awesome.
One of the Clark twins
Goins Girl... love her face!
Speaking of faces, I love Asher's face as he finishes the slide. He was the first to try the slide. Safe to say he loved it.
Camee!
President Back ~ Mayor of Whoville
Mike liked calling the ice rink a giant playpen. It's true and it was amazing! I have a picture in my mind of looking up and seeing one of the boys playing in the ice rink holding a cotton candy...just living his best life. I did not think this would get used as much as it did. I thought it would be more decorative. Maysen grabbed some balloons that had fallen off of the arch and started hitting them around. The kids loved that!
I didn't get pictures of all of the different stations. Hopefully I can get them from someone else. I'll write them down here in case I need to reference them ever again..... it was great because in ward council each of the different auxiliaries chose a station and we trusted them to follow through. We did have contact, but not a ton. All of them were great.
Ice Rink (obviously) ~ Ward Activities
Cindy Lou Who Hair Salon ~ Young Women (Who hairstyle and face painting)
Winter Games ~ Young Men (present basketball & reindeer ring toss)
Whoville Bakery ~ Sunday school (cookies for the kids to decorate)
Whoville Sweet Shop ~ Bro. Baker and President Back (cotton candy)
Whoville Post Office ~ Ward Missionary (wrote letters to ward missionaries currently serving)
Max's Photo Studio (Kayla took pictures here)
Whoville Dairy Company ~ me (free samples of Who pudding. Not a big hit. I should have had someone handing out the samples like at Costco.)
Whoville Charities ~ primary (collecting items and gift cards for the Boys and Girls club. This was a success!)
Whoville Chit-Chattery ~ Relief Society (Finger foods and chairs where people could eat and chat)
Mt. Crumpet ~ Mike (the slide that left people with their jaw on the floor)
Whoville Theater ~ Elliot Spencer (he had the Grinch playing in the priesthood room where people could slow down and eat popcorn)
That's it! That was the plan! We wanted the food in the Relief Society room, but they wanted to have it in the Chit-Chattery. It was crowded, but turned out okay. We thought about doing a fancy dinner with Roast Beast and having the youth serve. Our thoughts were each family would get a number and then someone would call out for them when their table was ready. We did something like this in Georgia. That would have been cool, but this was way less stressful. We also thought about having a Noise! Noise! Noise! Noise! room in the primary. Just with pot lids and whatever noise things we could think of. Didn't go through with that one though. Anyway, it was amazing! Sister Newman contacted the bishop and said she thought we should do this every year. Hahaha - Glad people liked it!
Jorja
Hair Salon
Kevin Liu
Maysen
Mike and I started getting worried because there was only thirty minutes left and the Grinch had not shown up. We were planning on him taking pictures in the photo studio. Right as I sent a text to him from Mike's phone he came! (Kanani said he was being particular about his makeup. Haha. Monson was the Grinch.) It was kind of cool though because he made an entrance. The kids loved it! Monson was so funny. Perfect Grinch.
Grinch
Grinch addressing Whoville
Max, Grinch, Bryce
Cute pictures
Monson the Grinch
Max & Grinch
Grinch with his adoring fans
Max & Grinch
Preston, Grinch, Jorja, Stephanie, Maysen
Mike, Stockton
We opened our Christmas jammies over Thanksgiving break. Mike and I were planning on wearing them to the Grinch party. I didn't realize the other kids would wear theres, but I loved it! If I had realized I would have shown Preston where his was before I left. Whoops!
Ice Rink
I love President Back's cotton candy stand
Whoville
At the end we had they Mayor get everyone's attention then we gathered around the ice rink and sang Silent Night. The Grinch was so funny! He stayed in character for the entire song. Made me laugh.
Kids helped clean up
Maysen ~ basketball chimney
Stephanie & Maysen
Lone Hallow ward came at the end and told us what stuff to leave for them. It was awesome working so closely with the other wards. We threw lots of things right out into the dumpsters. (Elders Quorum helped with clean up.) Brother Nash called Mike while we were doing this and told Mike he posted the party on social media. Someone contacted him and asked if they could borrow some decorations. Too bad we had thrown some away. We put the rest of the stuff in the garage and they are going to come on Sunday. Anyway, that's a wrap! So glad it was a success and no one got hurt. What a fun day! Glad to be done though. LOVE my family. Glad they are all with me!
Preston, Maysen, Stockton, Stephanie
Jorja, Mike
Max and Luke slept in Stockton's room tonight. Jorja is home too. I love it when my family is home. Today was just perfect.
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