Fall Get-together day

Kami has been wanting to have an outside late-night ever since school started, but ever since school started she has had cross country meets every Friday.  However, Cross Country ended last week, and it looked like it was going to be good weather, so I told her and Caden that they could invite friends over for a party.

Kami invited her friends from school, which I was excited about because I hadn't met some of them, and Caden opted to invite all of the boys his age from our ward.  He has been going on camp-outs with them once a month and is really enjoying them.  They are such a neat and fun group of boys!

Part of the preparation for the night was letting the younger kids have friends come over earlier-on so that they would feel like they had had their party and go willingly to bed for the older kid's party. The girls had a good time with their friends painting nails, having a tea party, (for which I let them have foods that I had bought for later on- it's amazing how far food goes when you're eating in tea- party portions) baking and eating cup-cakes, and playing games outside.

Anna and Maddie

Halli and Belle

Nolan and Josh - Nolan begged for a friend to come over, but I'm telling you - I think there's a reason that I don't do play dates at this age.  This was Nolan's first real one (he plays with cousins quite a bit) Josh started crying off and on for his mother, and Nolan just wanted to play by himself most of the time.

Shawn got home from a trip at 5:00, the younger kid's friends went home at 5:30, and Kami and Caden's party started at 6:00.  I love throwing parties for this age group, because all I have to worry about is getting everything ready, and buying LOTS of food.  The kids take care of the activities, which is usually the part that I worry over.  We ended up with about 18 party-ers. They started out by playing volleyball:

Then they canoed across the pond to a bonfire and a table laden with food and roasted hot dogs and ate doughnuts, Halloween cupcakes, apple cider, root beer, chips and salsa, marshmallows, etc. You know, lots of unhealthy, but fun fare.

This picture looked so pretty in real-life, but my camera wasn't capturing "dusk" pictures.  Anyways, the white in the middle of the picture is the table of food, and we built the bon-fire down by the water's edge.

Shawn and I took that hour or so to feed the little kids and get them into bed, and then we went outside and wandered around making sure that we had a presence at the party :) and sometimes we would just go sit on the front steps and watch the goings-on and listen in on all the conversations.  It was SO fun!! I really enjoy this age of kids- they're so fun and entertaining. The weather was just beautiful - warm enough, and with a nip in the air.

The kids spent their time playing "murder in the dark", "kick the can", "steal the flag", and canoeing around the island in the pitch dark just because it was exciting.  A couple of boys ended up with wet shoes and wet pants up to their knees.

The kids had a great time, and so did we....until 6:00 this morning when Abram started yelling that it was time to get up. (sigh)  I think that's the hardest thing about having older and younger kids - you're up on both sides of the clock.