Dinner and a Show: Run-Down

So, if you want a fun dinner, DO THIS!
No kidding, a spaghetti sauce potluck is so. much. fun.

So, our ward provided the salad, bread, & spaghetti noodles.  The families brought a batch of their favorite pasta sauce.  There was all sorts of marinara variations (some with traditional meatballs, some without, some Prego---which was perfect too since it's their fave, some with Italian sausage, even some with ELK MEAT!!!!).  There was even this scrumptious looking white sauce with chicken, mushrooms, & garlic.  I almost think this was cooler & a bigger hit than the chili cook-offs!  Great stuff, you must try this event.  Dessert polished the meal off as the ward enjoyed brownies & vanilla ice cream (as in ice cream shoppe ice cream!)....there were so many satisfied smiles!  Thanks to all who helped with the brownies, couldn't have done it without you awesome ladies!

Now, when you think "Dinner & a Show" or "Dinner Theater" you probably think of being entertained while you eat, right?  Yeah, but not in our neck of the woods.  So we set that idea on it's ear as we were one another's entertainment.  Instead, while all were eating they were planning their skits for everyone else's entertainment!  Each table had a grocery sack filled with random-ish props & their skit assignment: a particular scripture story & the style for their skit.  Then one by one, each table took their turn at sharing their interpretation of the assignment with the rest of us.  A few people snuck out so they didn't have to embarrass themselves, or they had other appointments.  Guess ya can't win them all the time.  Regardless of not having each table full that we'd anticipated, the skits were so much fun!
There was a musical "Daniel & the Lion's Den" (the kids were soooo cute singing "Follow the Prophet")...We had quite the western version of "The Prodigal Son" and his issues with sasparilla, as told by an extremely twangy narrator....Mr LKP and a couple little fellows put on an entertaining melodrama of "Noah's Ark" (i got to hold the audience cue cards)...Our chick flick version of "Jacob's Wives" was HIL-AR-IOUS!!!  The family took a "Who's Line..." approach to incorporating ALL their props-in-a-bag into the skit.  Each time a certain audience member gave the "ding" they had to work with another prop.  Was amazing what people can do with their imaginations!....The sci-fi version of "David & Goliath" was out of this world!  Tons & tons of aluminum foil everywhere for that one, and they put a Star Wars spin on it!...Our foreign film was "The Brass Plates," and one of the little boys (dressed in an oriental shirt & a french beret) counted to ten in spanish so it would be "foreign."  Too funny!....There was an action flick version of the story of "Ammon."  It was a blast, as one of our quietest brethren on Sundays was this booming-voiced King Lamoni!  There was some swordplay as the bad guys lost their arms, and some cool matrix flying action (with the help of "Ammon's" fellow cast-mates...and some of our sweetest older ward members had the adventure movie assignment with the story of the 2000 Stripling Warriors.  They used the part where they got the Lamanite soldiers drunk and then stole back their people who'd been kept prisoner.  Seeing brother Robbins with a "Braves" cheerleading sweater tied across his torso was GREAT!  Fit perfectly cause the 2000 were very brave!  (Turns out in this version, the prisoners who they freed were a mouse & a moose!  What good sports they are.)  

The awards for each performance tonight was cute as it all fit so well.  The western won Jolly Ranchers.  The chick flick won Peeps.  The action flick won Crunch bars.  The foreign film won Swedish Fish.  The musical won Symphony bars.  The adventure movie won Lifesavers.  The silent film won Milk Duds.  The sci-fi won Smarties.  Since some people left, the tables that weren't done were romance, comedy, & reality tv.  The family that did the chick flick were great about an encore performance, so they were given the mystery of Joseph's Coat.  They dressed up some of the kids that ran around on stage & the audience had to guess which one was Joseph through their clues.  By that they earned an extra award of Whoppers.  Romance would have won Hugs & Kisses, comedy would have won Laffy Taffy's, and reality tv would have won 100 Grand bars.

It was a great, great time!  Only way it could have been better is if a different Saturday had been open so more of our youth could have participated.  Today there were also 2 youth conferences going on all day & night (P/L & T/MM).  Sure missed those kids.


So there you have it, the run-down.  There will be pictures up as soon as I've sifted through the truckload of stuff that came home & I locate my camera.  The gym lighting's bad, so there are only a few.  =)
Have a great Sabbath!