eight cows. . .

Every Spring our ward puts on a theme dinner. It is seriously one of the funnest church activities we have ever gone to! People sign up to host tables and as hosts come up with a theme, decor, and food assignments for the other couples assigned to their table. We have three families in our ward with celiac disease so of course we all go together. Last year Mike and Terri were our hosts and did a cowboy theme with dutch oven cooking. This year I signed up to host. J suggested we do an island theme since haystacks are so easy to do gluten free. Someone had told me that an island theme had been done a couple of years ago so J came up with Johnny Lingo and we added cows to our decor. Here we are, Johnny and Mahana.
Janay went with me early to help decorate, and supplied me with tropical bowls and serving dishes, as well as the tableware. Love that lady! Here she and Scott are with Randy and Elizabeth. Doesn't Randy make the best Mr. Harrison? He wasn't even trying, but I thought the hat and beard were a perfect fit for that character. Since I couldn't find cow pictures I ended up drawing my own (I wish I would have thought to have every couple's picture taken in front of them), and J suggested adding a sign above the cows that said, "Every woman is an 8-cow wife," but I thought the thing started at 7 (actually started at 6), so I ran out of time. Oh well.
I came upon these little cow chocolates at TJ Maxx the day before; couldn't believe how perfect they were! Everyone thought they were hilarious. And I got the cow tales at the Dollar store the day of thinking I could pass them around as an ice breaker and have everyone tell their engagement story, but the conversation was fun enough on it's own that I forgot to use them!
Denise brought the yummiest gelato for dessert; a coconut flavor and papaya/mango blend. Mmmm, I'm craving it just thinking about it. She served her mission in Hawaii so she had the flavors down! Anyway there she and her hubby are at the end of the table with Brooke and Scott to the left.
And here we are with Mike. Terri couldn't make it this year because MoTab is in the middle of recording. Missed her!
And you see why Mike is such a great Scout Leader! Always goofing around. Seriously though he is so patient with AP and the rest of those boys, we are really grateful to have him working with them.
There were some great tables there; people get pretty serious about their decor and it's so fun to see how creative people are! I really wish I had gotten pictures of the other tables. There was a Sound of Music table, Happy Days, Nascar, Pirates, Chinese take-out, game night, and 80's prom (complete with reflective disco balls and prom pictures). Hilarious! In fact, I'm already looking forward to next year's dinner. . .