What It Takes To Throw a Party

While Tim is not teaching all the English classes for the junior high and high school, getting lesson plans prepared, grading, and being the head of the English department at AVA, and while I (Jill) am not making our meals, experimenting with local foods, keeping house, helping out in the office, being a mom and wife around the clock and waiting days for laundry to dry,we are the 9th and 10th grade class sponsors. We get to know this group of students a little better, we host different things at our house, and the annual Valentine's Banquet falls to us each year. So, we got together with these 14 students, did some brain storming, and figured out how to make this a special event.



One thing you must realize. We can't just go to the "party store" and get all we need.
We have to:

• ask around to see if the store exists
• get directions
• ask again to make sure it's still there
• check out the school car
• load up the students who want to come
• try to find the place while obeying the traffic "laws"
• hope it's open that day and that particular hour
• look around to see if they acutally have the item in stock
• ask the person at the counter, who says no, it's not in today, and doesn't know when it will be
• go to the next store to see if they have it

It took well over 2 hours to go to 4 little shops, to find the decorations we needed...TO MAKE! Yes, only the materials are here, we have to purchase them to make what we want. No fancy table cloths, cutouts ready to use, balloons ready to go...no no...we have to make this all from scratch, or rather, from crepe paper and a ruler.

Decorations, practicing special music, getting the supplies to make stuff, importing the tables from another city (only 30 minutes away) for the night, gathering and carrying chairs from the school (it could rain at any moment too!), cutting the fabric for table cloths; all part of the fun!

Spaghetti and meatballs, simple enough right? We made about 300 meatballs from scratch, rolling away all afternoon. Sauce from scratch also--lots of stirring going on, no Italian seasoning in Brazil, so we used some we had from the States! Also, Valentine's Day is not celebrated here, so we had to find someone to make us homemade chocolate hearts for the evening; it was a nice personal touch on each place setting.


The day of the banquet, preparing the fruit, making the garlic bread, skewering the dickens out of the watermelons. These students are used to setbacks, making things out of nothing and working HARD!

Finally...ready to go! The couches are moved, signs hung, millions of sparlkies hung from the ceiling...the stage is all set! "It Happened One Night" restaurant is open and ready for the crowd!

"Love me tender....love me sweet" The king would have been proud! No party is complete with out games--we found some good ones online (when the Internet happens to work!).



Cheers! The upper classmen give their approval of the evening.

Yugo and Ivan, the dessert servers, give it two thumbs up.

Ahhh...it was a nice evening. We had 32 high schoolers and teachers come and enough food leftover for next year! Nobody leave yet, because now we get to clean it all up!!!!!!!!!!!