2 Days Until the Big Night

Well friends, here we are again- 2 days until our big night and our last event of the year. Our Project Smile 11th Anniversary Celebration is less than 48 hours away. I can't believe it! So, how are things looking? So far, we are in good shape. I picked up the calendars yesterday and they look awesome. The design and print quality is excellent and of course, the photos look terrific! Today, I picked up the event programs at Staples. All of our bid sheets are now done, live auction items are all set. I went to Party City tonight to select the balloons for the event. I realized I could save a ton of money by buying the latex balloons at Party City and bringing them to the event ourselves- I should have done that years ago. Having balloons delivered is so expensive it's a little ridiculous. I couldn't decide which balloon colors to choose- I was staring at the choices for what felt like forever. Two of the sales associates were a huge help in choosing the balloons. I told them about our event and they even drew up a floor plan to figure out how many balloons we needed and where to put them. They blew up some of the balloons so I could see the colors together. I was so impressed by their help- it made a huge difference. We ordered 48 balloons and it came to a total of $51. Our awesome volunteer Marcy, offered to pay for the balloons which was really nice of her. She is coming on Friday to help set up and help pick up the balloons too.

Our jazz musicians- the Barry Levine Jazz Trio- are confirmed. They are donating their time which is great. Steve Aveson, our guest speaker, has a scheduling conflict and won't be able to attend, but Steve obtained a replacement- Katelyn Flint, a new reporter for NECN. She seems really nice and is enthusiastic about participating. It's a shame not to have Steve there, but it should be fine. I'm picking up our cake tomorrow at Konditor Meister at Braintree- home of the best cakes.

I'm bringing a  lot of stuffed animals with me to the event so I can use them as decorations. I usually bring some anyways, but I want to use a lot more this time. I'm also going to tie the balloons around the beanie babies to anchor them. I do that at the Date Auction and it always looks cute. I have a bunch of beanie babies that I set aside to use as decorations at our events.

Well, that's the latest for tonight. I'm off to get some more things together and make sure that I haven't forgotten anything. Wish me luck friends! Until tomorrow....