Well, it went well...

About a week ago, someone at church mentioned that one of our graduating seniors was not holding an open house, which is SO traditional here. We talked about it and I volunteered to host a surprise one for her at our house--it gave me a good reason to spruce things up.

We changed a regular Wednesday night Mutual activity into her open house. We sent out an email to parents. We invited others to help with treats.

And tons of people came!

We had a perfect May evening--sunshine, light breeze, almost 70 degrees.

Not too warm for those in the house and not too cold for those outside.

When the house was filled with people, they spilled out onto the deck, then into the backyard. The youth became involved in frisbee, soccer, and badminton. (And we finally had to tell them to go home--they were having too much fun to realized they were the only ones still here.)

People came and stayed. Several mentioned how fun it was to have a party and it seemed like half the ward was here. They sat and chatted as groups formed, and then

reformed with new additions. There was a lot of laughter.

And our yard was complimented many times. Of course, it is at its most beautiful right now with the apple trees in full blossom, as well as the lilacs. The strawberry patch is covered in blossoms and the veggie garden still looks neat and comely with baby peas, beets and spinach in their neat rows. The grass is full and vibrant green with no dandelions showing--

thank heavens for fertilizer!

And it was pretty stress-free for me as well. I only had to clean up the house--and this is a good time to look at things with a critical eye and make some changes and clean up woodwork and kitchen cabinets--and move the piles of papers that always accummulate near the computer; repaint the front door to cover up the stains from last year's bird nest, and get the yard looking good, which meant a lot of weeding of tree-beds and flower beds.

But I get to keep all those improvements!

Oh, and I kept the punch bowl full of lemonade.

Three and a half gallons were disposed of!

I almost had a difficult time going to sleep last night, I was so buoyed up!

It's a great feeling when an event turns out so well.

I was happy to be a part of it.