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Organizing Dinner with Friends – Part 1

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If your family is like ours, then you enjoy entertaining friends for dinner. My children often beg to have their friends over to play. To accommodate their desire to play and our wish for an enjoyable evening, we invite friends with children over for dinner. To save me time, energy, and money, I follow a six-step checklist that helps me in planning our evenings of entertainment. Here are the first 2 steps in my 6-step checklist:

STEP 1:  Choose a date that works with my schedule.

Since our children stay up late and are so wound up after spending 2-3 hours with their friends, we usually entertain on Friday evening. They can then stay up past their bedtime to settle down, and they can sleep later on Saturday morning. Also, our house is often in disarray due to all the toys getting rearranged. We need Saturday morning to get our house back in order.

STEP 2:  Choose my menu.

I tend to choose the menu before inviting our friends. Almost always, our friends ask what they can bring to help with the meal. By already having the menu planned, I can suggest one of the side items. If I did not have my menu planned, then I would need to spend time and energy calling or e-mailing to get that information to them. To simplify the process, I choose to plan the menu before sending invitations. Here is a sample menu:

  • Baked ham
  • Mashed potatoes and gravy or scalloped potatoes
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Corn
  • Applesauce
  • Bread
  • Chocolate cupcakes with icing

Entertaining can be lots of fun. By having a list to execute, I have found excitement in planning while avoiding the anxiety of possibly forgetting something. Next Tuesday I will continue this explanation with steps 3 and 4 of my entertainment checklist.

Organizing Dinner with Friends – Part 2

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With a busy schedule and a desire to entertain, I have found a system that works for me. By following the same 6-step plan, I am able to quickly plan and execute a dinner with friends. Last Tuesday, I shared Steps 1 and 2 of my 6-step checklist. If you missed that post, you can view it here. Today, I will explain the next two steps in my process.

STEP 3: Invite my friends.

After choosing the friends our family has decided to invite, I will send an e-mail one to two weeks prior to the requested date. In that e-mail message, I will ask that they respond accepting or regretting by a specific date, which is about 4 days prior to the dinner. If they cannot make the dinner, then I will invite another family to join us. I usually can fill our table even on short notice.

STEP 4: Gather my ingredients.

Knowing the menu that is planned, I take inventory of items I have on hand to prepare the meal. In looking at our sample menu, I have the ham, potatoes and gravy/scalloped potatoes, corn, and bread on hand. I do not have the sweet potatoes or dessert. So, I add the ingredients for the sweet potatoes and dessert to my grocery list.

As our guests volunteer to bring a dish to help with the dinner, I will suggest one of the side items that contain ingredients on my grocery list. In this case, I would ask the volunteer to bring sweet potatoes or dessert. If the volunteer agrees, then I can remove those items off my grocery list which will save me from spending that extra money.

Once I have my grocery list nailed down, then I begin looking for sales on those items in the weekly stores’ sales advertisements. If there are no sales and the item is carried at Aldi (one of my favorite grocery stores), then I will just pick it up on my next visit.

By the end of step 4, I have a date, a menu, guests invited, and all of my ingredients on hand. Next week, we will finish this short series as I share the last two steps in my entertainment checklist.

Organizing Dinner with Friends – Part 3

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Today I will conclude my entertainment checklist with the last two steps. If you have missed either or both of the other posts in this series, you can view them here: Part 1 and Part 2.  Now, that I have all the ingredients on hand, I am ready to execute my plan on the day of the dinner.

STEP 5: Make preparations.

  • On the day of the dinner, I do a quick clean up of the downstairs. I pickup the toys, sweep the floors and vacuum, and clean our half bathroom in the morning.
  • After lunch, I clean up the kitchen and set the table(s).
  • Then I begin baking the ham according to the recommended time frame. If my dinner is at 6:00 p.m. and the ham takes 2-3 hours to bake, then I put the ham in the oven at 2:00 p.m. The ham will finish baking around 5:00 p.m. I will removed the ham from the oven and allow it to cool. Then about 5:45 p.m., my hubby will carve it and place it on a platter.
  • While the ham is baking, I prepare the other side dishes giving myself time for interruptions. Once the ham is out of the oven, I can then bake any side items needed, i.e. sweet potatoes or dessert.
  • Wait for our guests to arrive.

STEP 6: Enjoy the evening.

I then relax, spend time with our friends, and enjoy watching the children play. My wonderful husband clears off the table and stacks the dishes in the sink. I will help put the food away, and then we relax. Cleanup is dealt with on Saturday morning.

This list has been adjusted and changed into a system that works for me. By organizing a plan, I can spend my time executing that plan rather than spending time worrying if everything will get done.

What items would you add or subtract from this list to save you time when entertaining guests?

 

Delegating Responsibilities

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Being a perfectionist, I prefer to handle all aspects of an event. If the event is too large, and I need help, then I get choosy about to whom I delegate. Here are my parameters:

1.       Use someone I have worked with before: If I have seen a person follow through with his/her responsibilities and complete them to the best of their ability, then yes, I want to delegate to this person. I would trust this individual with a large task.

2.       Use someone who is recommended to me: If the recommendation comes from someone I trust, then I would delegate to this person. I would put him/her on a team with others to evaluate their work ethic for the next event.

3.       Use a new volunteer: I will not turn away help. If I don’t know the person, then I would have the individual help someone else who needs some extra assistance in completing his/her task.

Why am I so picky? As coordinator, the event is in my hands. My goal is to provide the best event possible. I will use the best volunteers to oversee the main parts of the event: food, entertainment, advertising/printing, decorating, etc. I will then place others to help those overseers based on what I know or others know of their skill set.

Scheduling the Great Harvest Field Trip

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When my son’s teacher announced that she was considering field trips for a Community Helper unit, I recommended the Great Harvest Bread Company. If you are not familiar with this franchise, I highly recommend them. The bread is delicious. Each loaf is baked that day and from scratch. The price per loaf ranges from $4 to $7. I have purchased the apple cinnamon swirl bread and the blueberry cheesecake bread as gifts. Check here to see if there is a local Great Harvest Bread Company near you.

Our local Great Harvest store offers story time on the first and third Wednesdays of the month. The owner reads 3 books interactively with the kids, presents each child with a sugar cookie, and awards large (about 4 inches in diameter) cookies for kids who have returned their coloring pages from the last story time. (If you missed the last story time, you can download the current coloring page from their website.)

Knowing how friendly the owner of our Great Harvest is toward kids, I knew the students in my son’s class would love the opportunity to see the break-making process. To help my son’s teacher, I did the following:

1.       Coordinate with the teacher. I e-mailed his teacher, suggested Great Harvest for the field trips, and offered to help plan it. She replied and quickly accepted my offer to help.

SIDE NOTE: Most teachers love to have extra help when planning events. If you can give of your time to help, then please do. Our teachers need all the assistance they can get.

2. Research and inquire. When I took the girls to story time at the Bread Company, I arrived early to speak to the owner. I asked him about a possible field trip. He confirmed that he gave some tours. After discussing the cost, number of students, time frame, and age group, the owner decided that this visit was possible for this class.

3. Report back to teacher and check availability. After getting the information, I reported back to the teacher that the bread company was an option. I then asked for some possible dates and times for the field trip. Once the teacher supplied me with the possible dates, then I contacted the owner of our Great Harvest.

4. Schedule field trip and make note of special requests. The owner checked his calendar, and a date was determined. I then asked if there were any special requests he had for us. To my surprise, he had the following requirements:

a. The girls’ hair pulled back out of their faces.

b. All children to wear short-sleeved shirts.

c. Due to the height of the kneading table, no children under the age of 5. (Younger siblings were not able to attend.)

5. Write out information and forward to teacher. With the field trip scheduled, I wrote out all the requirements, cost, directions, contact information, date, and any other information I received from the owner. I then forwarded that information to the teacher.

6. Be available to assist teacher. When the day of the field trip arrived, we ended up getting snow. Since there was no school, we did not attend the field trip. Knowing that the snow was coming, the teacher called and postponed the trip with the owner. After the snow day, I offered to help reschedule the field trip, if needed. Again, the teacher took my offer. I then received new available dates from the teacher and coordinated with the Great Harvest owner on a new date. Then I let the teacher know. Once the date was set, I remained available to assist the teacher with anything else she needed.

7. Volunteer to chaperone/drive to field trip. If at all possible, please attend the event you plan. If there are any questions, you, as the contact, may be called upon to help. Knowing that I needed a babysitter for my daughter, I setup that arrangement early and then offered to help chaperone and drive on the field trip.

Setting up this field trip took me a little time here and little time there. I seized the opportunity to help out my son’s teacher, and used my time wisely to plan the event. Next week, I will share how I was able to assist the teacher while on this field trip to the Great Harvest Bread Company.