Virginia - Part 2 - 4th of July

Wednesday was the 4th of July. We all got up and dressed in our Old Navy Flag t-shirts. We had all purchased red, white and blue shirts for a family photo and we were excited to all be matchy-matchy. 

The Truman family was our activities committee and they did a fantastic job. That morning we played a game called "dot your partner" (or something like that - apparently I am not good at remembering names of games). You had to buddy up with someone and we had dots (from holes from punching paper) in a bowl with water and you had to stick them on your partner. The buddies with the most on their partner in 1 minute won. 

Here are some of our dotted buddies:

(The dads were such good sports!)

Dotted Kayla:

We then headed out for our family picture. Virginia is just beautiful and green. This was a trail near Jared's home. Look at how luscious and green it was.

Trial runs with the kids ~ Having fun!

Here is the whole group, all 21 of us.

 Front row: David, Katie, Michael, Evan

2nd row: Kayla and Gavin

3rd row (standing): Hannah, Emily, Ryan, Hailey, Dianne, Jared

The rest of us: Jessica, Chad, Jenny (holding Braden - he is behind Ryan), Spencer, Megan, Me, Kurt, Trevor.

The girls:

 Megan, Hannah, Jessica, Kayla, Katie, Hailey and Emily.

The boys:

 Gavin, Michael, Ryan, David, Spencer, Evan, Trevor and Braden (on the side being held by Jenny).

Our Little Family:

 (Anyone know how to adjust the color so we aren't so washed out? This would be such a great picture if the color was better).

When we got back the girls got to bakin'

While some were baking, other were involved in a serious Nerf war!

 Jared and Dianne's dining room, entry way and office were turned into the battle zone. You had to call a cease fire to walk through there or you would be shot!

The boys took this very seriously! And seriously, there were bullets all over the house. Everyone had a great time!

Still baking

One of the activities that the activity committee planned was cupcake decorating. The kids loved it!

 Emily

 Megan

 Hannah

 Hailey

Beautiful cupcakes:

The boys did some too but I guess I just grabbed girl shots. Oops!

We then went outside and the kids had a water balloon tossing contest. Although, as it usually goes, it turned into a water balloon war. Much fun was had!

And here is where the adults sat. In case you were not aware - Virginia was having a heat wave! It was 103 plus humidity. It was HOT! You walked outside and instantly started sweating. So unless you were running around in the water, you planted yourself in the shade and chilled.

We then did some fireworks at their house. On our outing that morning to the trail, we may or may not have misplaced some kids for a short while =) and therefore didn't feel like taking all 15 kids to a crowded fireworks show was the best idea - plus remember it was killer hot. So we stayed home and enjoyed the company.