SMILE Day 3- Hearts knit together- The Decorations

This year Jim and Claudia will be celebrating their 40th Anniversary. It isn't until Sept. 12, but we wanted to surprise them with a celebration while Moc was in town. We've been planning this for months. We got a little paniced when Jim called and asked if we could go ride Thorns horses friday night. We said no! He was able to rearrange so we went on Wednesday instead. They felt a little in the dark about this whole dinner and I think a little bugged. They were unsure of whether they were even invited. They understand why we did things as we did now.

Jess came up with these fantastic decorations. She used vinyl records- carefully selected from DI. They had groups that were familiar or had a link to the family- like Marty Robins' Gunfighter Ballads. We used some for place mats, some as frames to hang pictures then melted some to make candy bowls as a party favor. It was so fun! She also used a little 45 to put the invitation on and delivered it to Mom and Dad about the time she went to pick up Evie (Jess was at girls' camp all week and Justin went up with the bishopric so Evie has been staying with Grandma and Grandpa). Dad started to cry when he saw the invitation. It was sweet.

For dinner Jamison made dutch oven chicken, potatoes and carrots and sour dough biscuts. We also had a green salad.