Saturday was a hoot and a half.

But first, the back-story (and forgive the low-quality iPhone pictures). Every year, my kids’ school holds an annual auction/dinner/dance as a fundraiser. Up until now, this has been fairly unexciting, as the school gym is not exactly the type of place where you want to go party down and spend some money. After all, we all spend enough time at the school anyway. This year, a group of moms started to think outside of the box. Instead of the school gym-banquet gig, we decided to host a similar event at someone’s (very nice) house, with a more relaxed, cocktail party type of atmosphere.

The theme for the evening is “Taste of Italia,” and since our principal just happens to be Italian, we convinced her that her secret family recipe for Italian cookies would be a way better dessert than some generic caterer’s cheesecake. She agreed, but when we realized we would need a boatload of cookies for 200 people, my friend A decided that we would all make them together. This way, all the moms could bond, get familiar with A’s house (because the event will be there), and we would all learn about our principal’s coveted family tradition.

We had mothers, grandmothers and even some daughters show up, and we tackled those cookies in no time at all.

Our cookie-making get-together started as a practical way to accomplish a task, save some money and prepare for a huge event. What it turned into was a day of fun, stories, debates on proper fig cookie recipes and caloric suicide. I ate more cookies than one girl should eat, and my scale told me this in startling detail this morning.

Now, if the event is half as successful as the preparation, then we will hopefully make progress in raising money for an elevator. Why is this so important? A girl in my youngest’s class was paralyzed last year in a one in a million complication from a rare virus she contracted.

Though she will never walk again, H is still an active, healthy, stellar student. Without an elevator, however, she will have to leave school next year, as all the upper grades and enrichment classes are upstairs. If you want more information on H’s Elevator Fund, leave a comment. We can use all the help we can get in keeping this little girl with her school friends and family.