Harvest Party 2014

Fist off - it's 11:35 p.m. on Monday night and I JUST realized that today's post was supposed to be about Home Organization ideas.... Homecoming and the end of the quarter threw me off my a-game and so I'm bumping it to either this Thursday or next Tuesday.   I'll let y'all know tomorrow. :)  On to our regularly scheduled programming...

This past Sunday was our Bible Fellowship Group's Annual Harvest party - a night I look forward to ALL YEAR LONG.

It's pretty much everything I love.... kids, costumes and crock pots ;)

We've been having a harvest party since before we all had kids and do say it's grown a bit would be a ginormous understatement.  We've gone from no kids, grown up conversations and adult beverages to dozens of crazy kiddos, a bounce house and multiple meltdowns - and I wouldn't change it for the world.

We've always had the party at someone's house, but this year I felt like our group had outgrown meeting in someone's backyard (and letting all of our kids use someone's bathroom - hahaha) and so we moved it to a local private park.  We arrived early to meet the bounce house company and I took the opportunity to try and snap some pics of my crew before the chaos began ;)

I. AM. DYYYYING!!!

Mason has been talking about being Spiderman for MONTHS, but the morning of the party he informed me that he wanted to be a ghost and refused to wear his mask.  GG was the cutest own EVAH adn Luke wanted to know where his authentic spaceman helmet was.  The truth is that the authentic, $50 helmet, is still in the Pottery Barn catalog - so we improvised with a $5 batting helmet ;) hahaha  I promised we'd spray paint it silver before trick-or-treating and it seemed to do the trick for now.

I mean...

The hair.  The tights.  The shoes.  I can't even ;)

Attempt #2 with the mask (and the plastic grabber toy that has gone EVERYWHERE with us during the last couple of weeks).

Bounce house was up and ready and we had a solid 20 minutes of jump time with just our family.  SO MUCH FUN!!!!  This was also the one time I was in front of the camera.  Proof I was there! hahaha

It's no surprise that GG was OBSESSED with the bounce house!

And she had ZERO fear of the slide.  Like, none.

Mason was super nervous about the whole bounce house idea, so it was great that we had some solo time for him to get comfortable.  

LOVE this pic!!!

Friends started arriving and the party got started! We love us some Miss Narci!!!

I love a good costume and this year did not disappoint!

How precious are these girls?!?!?! :)

The glasses!  The slicked back hair! The piggies!!!

Griffin was LOVING the newest member of our class...

A few of the girls...

We like to eat! ;)  Everyone brings a crock pot dish to share (think chili, soups, chicken and dumplings, etc.) as well as a dessert, drinks, paper products, etc.  The kids have uncrustables, chips and Capri Suns.

The guys gathered around listening to the Cowboys game ;)

And the mama's did this...

LOVE this picture that one of our friends took of GG and Dave...

Mason wanted in on the football throwing...

Sweet brothers...

And the cutest game of duck-duck-goose EVER!

We gathered the kids up for our annual group kiddo pic and Mr. Andrew provided some sillies to get their attention :)

Just for fun.... here was our group in 2010 ;)

And believe it or not, off the top of my head I can count about 20+ kids who weren't in attendance.  We've come a long way!  

It was the perfect night with great food and even better friends.  I definitely don't take for granted how special this group is and how incredibly fortunate and blessed we are as a family to get to "do life" alongside these amazing friends.  I hope that these Harvest Parties are fond memories for our kids over the years and that they look back on them and smile ;)  I have a feeling it won't be long before we ditch the bounce house for flag football - but I'll ALWAYS remember these sweet days of Disney princess costumes and toddler shenanigans.

In case you're interested....

You can read about othe 2013 Party HERE.

You can read about the 2012 Party HERE.

You can read about the 2011 Party HERE.

You can read about the 2010 Party HERE.

You can read about the 2009 Party HERE.