Back Yard Cookout... Part 2

My parents recently moved to a smaller house. With my older brother and I officially out and never coming back  they decided to down size. While it was hard to tell my childhood home goodbye,  I love their new house. The only downside is that it may be too small to hold out humongous family at Christmas, which my Mom always hosts. SO she decided to throw a little party in her backyard as a test run. The only problem... Nobody went inside the house! We had a very good time and as you can tell by my previous post we had amazing food. Mom always has Caleb's kiddie pool and slip and slide out so we put them into use for the little ones. All the kids were dripping wet and sticky from ice cream by the end so needless to say they were happy.


 The Decorations!!!! 

My brother, Jeremy came early to help out, because he knows Mom and I are always running around crazy at the last minute! Poor guy had to climb the latter and light all of the candles in the trees. I think he burned most of his finger prints off.

Mom made tissue paper flowers in white a green. She hung jelly jars and mason jars with candles to keep the mosquitoes away. Plus they were quite cute too.

I made the banners and all of the menu cards. You can see the menu cards in the previous post.

 Inspired by one of the latest Better Homes and Gardens magazines we decided to go fun and easy for dessert and have an Ice Cream Sundae Bar. We used a wooden cutting board, that we normally use for cheese trays to put out the ,gasp, store bought cookies and ice cream cones. I have a set of old fashioned sundae glasses, but not enough for everyone, so we used them for the toppings. Mom's creamers and gravy boats made excellent containers for the hot fudge and caramel. We used plastic punch cups for the ice cream. It turned out super cute and went over very well.

For the food we kept it simple. Mom grilled everything even the okra. We used her white platters and a few green plates from a small place setting that I gave her earlier this year. I knew it would come in handy some day. We used green fabrics and used random items to give the table different elevations. We had the banner that read "delicious" and the humming bird menu cards that I made. We wanted it to feel special and to keep it simple at the same time.

The Activities!!!!

Granny and sweet little Hannah!

Mom, Grandpa and Granny

Granny giving  me the stink eye for interrupting her eating with a picture.

Uncle Patrick giving me that same stink eye... See the family resemblance!?

Hannah, Journey, Jericho and Caleb at the pool.

Poor Jericho wanted in so badly but her was too little.

Caleb and Hannah having a very important conversation.

We all ate til we couldn't hold anymore!

mmmm.... ice cream!!

Brandon actually, willingly getting his picture taken. That's a first!

Sissie and Tammy having important conversations about ice cream...

Aunt Bennie and Keith

Jeremy and Richard

This is how the kids cleaned off the ice cream.

How cute are they?!!?!?

Jericho. Isn't he the cutest!?!?!?

Uncle Tommy, Brandon, Erica, Rusty, Aunt Bennie and Uncle Patrick

Caleb, Tanner and Journey playing in the dirt!

So it is truly obvious the kids had a blast and kept all of us entertained. I love spending times with our families.