MISC. PTA RETREAT SILLINESS

In no particular order.....and not necessarily all silliness....here's some highlights our our 3 day retreat.....and yes, I'm pooped!

Barbara has come up with a brilliant method to keep track of her batting inventory.  Once a package is opened and a portion of it is used....all of us probably just shove the remainder in the bag or fold it and stack with other batting pieces.  Then, when you need more.....ya gotta open up each one to see just how much remains....before either finding a piece the appropriate size you need or relenting and opening up another package!!

Barbara draws a diagram, with sizes on the package so she knows just what is inside which package......soooo smart....

 This year one of our treasured member, Mary Berry, was unable to attend due to illness.  So.....we decided to bombard her with cards that were signed by each of us....each and every card.  AND of course several phone calls as well.  

 One member had mistakenly left her card at home so Linda Cantrell offered to make one from fabric.  It features the view we have from our sewing studio....lots of trees surrounding Lake Logan.

 Five of us have ipads.....so there was lots of photo sharing and techy tips going on as well.

There is a break between our afternoon sewing time and dinner (which we don't have to prepare or clean up!!)  During this "self imposed free time", we head back to our 'house' for our annual Q & A game.

Each year we present a question or two....write down our responses and put the notes in a container.  This year it was a bread pan from the kitchen cupboard.  We take turns pulling out a slip of paper...read the answer and decide who wrote it.  The first night we had to declare 'something' we wish we'd have done.  I wanted to answer "study with Simone Beck" but I didn't think anyone would know who she was....so I answered "go to the Culinary Institute".

The next night we were to supply the names of two people we would like to have dinner with.... one male, the other female (living or dead). It was fascinating to hear the answers.....several wished they could have spent time with one of their ancestors, other's chose a comedian, or in my case - female - Judge Judy and male - Michael Connelly (author of Harry Bosh detective books.)

To add to the fun.....we collected all our notes and sent them in Mary's get well cards. Her task will be to figure out who was who.....a daunting one for sure.

Other years our questions ranged from "bucket list", "what one thing others don't know about you", and one year we brought baby and high school photos and we had to pick out who was who.  Really funnnnn!!!!  Often we have great ideas for next years' questions but by the time the retreat rolls around we've forgotten.  SO....since I'm the organizer of the retreat (I guess all my experience hosting quilting cruises and tours has qualified me for the job).....I got wise and have written them down and placed in our file for next year!!

During this time, snacks and beverages are served.....the first night we discovered the glass charms we use to identify each other's glasses had been left in our sewing room.  So this creative bunch made their own identifiers.  I thought a close up of some of the options might be fun for you to see.

After dinner we come back to our 'house' and play whatever games members have brought.  Sometimes that requires working in teams....other times not.  We are definitely a creative group but also a competitive one as well which makes for much excitement.