a Day with Best Friends

On Saturday, we had a big day of fun with the McKissick fam, the Rogers fam, and the Encalade fam all coming over to our house ... our last get-together with the McKissick family for 4 more years, as they go move back to Paraguay in July! We also celebrated Josh's birthday, Kendall's birthday and Baby Girl McKissick (who will be arriving in August)! We had a great day of fun ... swimming, playing, feasting & fellowship ... all 19 of us (that's 8 adults and 11 kids)!

The weather had been gloomy, overcast, or rainy all week ... and it was supposed to rain today as well, but it didn't and we were so thankful for that! It was nice out all day and the kids even braved the cold water and swam & played all afternoon ... they were cold, but they didn't care!

Naomi, me, Amy and Lauren

Lots of pink here ... and I love it! Abby (5) and Avery (7) were soooo sweet with Kendall ... they were the first to arrive at our house, so we had some extra play time together!

Wes lovin' on Kendall

Avery and Ginny

Ryan

Emie

Kendall hanging out with Lauren

Bree

Tyler

Amy with Josh, the birthday boy

Abby and Micah

We grilled out hot dogs for all the kids for lunch, so they could get back to swimming. Once Ash came back home after his soccer game was over, he grilled his secret recipe teriyaki chicken for us adults! We also had our roasted red potatoes and yeast rolls ... a yummy lunch, for sure!

Our grillin' master ... Daddy ... and he did a grrreat job, once again!

Naomi and Wes

Amy and Jeff

Jason and Lauren (and Cole)

Kendall's Mommy and Daddy

After our late lunch, the Dads played Washers in our front yard ... as Kendall looked on, enjoying her time in the grass & clapped for each of them! (A side note for our record-keeping ... Kendall officially started clapping on her own on Thursday of this week ... yay, Kendall! She's been really close to clapping for several weeks now and I kept thinking she was going to do it any day now ... and she loves it! We do a lot of cheering & clapping at this house, so it's really fun for her to join in with us all on her own! I love seeing her new developments each week ... it's just amazing!)

Then it was time for some celebratin' ... we sang Happy Birthday to Josh ... we sang Happy Birthday to Kendall ... everyone enjoyed eating the cake & cookies ... and then it was time to open some presents!

Josh ... blowing out his candles on his karate cake (made by Amy)

As we sang Happy Birthday to Kendall, she was ready to grab those cookies (but she didn't have any). Since they can't come to Kendall's party next weekend, she was added to the list to be celebrated today!

Amy opening up her baby girl gifts ... several super cute girlie outfits and baby toys for their precious baby girl that will be here in August!

Kendall opening her big bag of gifts from Amy, Naomi and Lauren (and fams) ... she was thrilled with the tissue paper (it really is her favorite part ... ha!)

Opening her Leap Frog Counting Candles Birthday Cake ... it sings, counts up to 5, the candles glow until you blow them out, and several other things ... very fun and all the kids wanted their turn with it as soon as she got it out of the bag!

Kendall also got the Leap Frog "My Pal Violet" puppy dog that sings, talks, says her name & spells it, counts and several other things ... this dog can do it all ... very cool toy! She also got a cute pink & brown sundress! Thanks for all the presents, girls!

We really had a fun day all together, but it was hard to say good-bye to Amy & Jeff, Ryan, Ginny, Josh, Tyler and Micah ... it will be 4 more years until they return back to the States, but God has called them to Paraguay and they are doing great work in blessing that country and people! We love you and miss you, friends!