My good buddy, ol' pal, LaRee (pet name: LaRoo) chose Applebee's as her birthday dinner destination. I rounded up some of her friends from church and the rest is history....

Do you like my hat?

We had everyone take a pic of the ladies sitting across from them.
LaRee and Jessie Cornell:

Me and LaRee:

There was an odd number, so I had to get my pic taken twice...
Margaret Loveless and me:

Janice Crook and Dianna Byron:

Tessa Carnegie and Cami Segeberg:

Michelle Byrnes and Janice Crook:



I brought a chocolate banana cream pie from Costco. I would highly recommend it. Yum!
I also brought a box of candles which had exactly the right amount for the age LaRee was turning. I didn't plan it that way. hmmmm:

Some of the yummy dishes:




I asked the waiter to take pics of all of us. Unfortunately I trusted that he said they were good and found out later when I got home that they weren't. Schnikeys!
By the way, for some reason Kristi Richmond and Mireya Redd (shown at the very right) didn't get their pics taken from across the table. Sorry guys...



LaRoo with our awesome waiter (un-awesome picture taker):

Last weekend we had a Book of Mormon Reading Challenge "red carpet" party for all the senior Primary kids in our stake who took on the challenge (and some junior too). Before it began some celebrities were spotted in some of the rooms and hallways of the church:

Abish and Moroni:

Samuel the Lamanite:

Nephi:

Joseph Smith:

Captain Moroni:

Abish again:

Lehi and Sariah:

All the kids were waiting patiently for the celebrities to make their way onto the red carpet...


...when suddenly, along came Nephi!

Joseph Smith:

Moroni:
Samuel the Lamanite:

Captain Moroni (okay... yes, I did make the Title of Liberty):

Abish:

Lehi and Sariah:

We were very blessed to have our Stake President present (pictured to the right). He even cut his business trip short so he could attend. Both his counselors came as well. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We know how busy your schedules are.

After the red carpet introductions, our "celebrities" went to their separate rooms and shared their stories and answered questions with each group of kids. We had seven different groups that we rotated around to each room. In one of the rooms they got to taste some of the foods that could have been eaten back then: flour tortillas, wild turkey (we used chicken taquitos from Costco), salsa, dried mango and apricot.

Here are some of our celebrities in action.
Captain Moroni:

Abish:

Nephi:

Samuel the Lamanite:

We were so grateful and amazed with all the hard work that our special Book of Mormon heroes put into this special party for our primary kids. Everything went even better than expected and the kids had a wonderful time! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

L-R: Nephi (Shannon Thompson), Joseph Smith (Jason Fowers), Abish (Monica Anderson), Moroni (Ralph Knight), Samuel the Lamanite (Jimmy Wise), Sariah and Lehi (Sherry and Larry White), and Captain Moroni (Errol Holcomb).

After we all gathered back into the gym, we took a group shot of the kids and our celebrities. Soon after, they were served ice cream sundaes with all the toppings.