I'm Turning 3, Come Kick with Me!

A kickball game was a fun activity that had been thrown around the past two years or so as something to do one weekend. It didn't happen so when we were looking at Carter's birthday party dates and saw it was right after we traveled I thought simple, fun and easy is what I am looking for. So the kickball party came to play and play we DID! What a party...not because of anything fancy, actually complete opposite and because of that it was a definite TOP favorite if not favorite party Studdert Style! We literally had a blast, and not just the kids, ALL of us. I think that is what made this party so much fun is that we were all involved and that doesn't always happen. This is definitely going to be an annual fun activity for our group, party or not.

The funny part was that a couple of days before we checked out the weather and it was high chances of rain. It didn't mean much until the day before when it said 90%!!! Seriously, not just 30-40% but 90%! The girls were devastated and it was a good time to explain yet again the things that may stink but the things that we have no control over in life. I figured I would check the weather again in the morning. I started getting some texts asking what we were going to do, thankfully though we had just our close friends coming that everyone was flexible. We put a plan B in place to head to dinner with cupcakes and hopefully move the party to the next weekend. The weather warnings increased and although my house got cleaned I didn't prepare anything else with the darker clouds looming. BUT it kept getting closer and closer and as we glanced outside at 4:30, it was BEAUTIFUL. Not a cloud in the sky, bluer than blue and not too hot. A friend called and said, I think God wants us to play kickball. So at 4:40 we decided to have the party at 5:30. We got so much done in such a short time thanks to my two little assistants. They wanted this party to happen so badly they didn't even waste a breathe. Kennedy grabbed the cleaning basket and got to work in the guest bath that didn't get cleaned yet. Brooklyn helped set up the party/food table for the house after the game and even remembered to put rocks on the tablecloth so it wouldn't blow off. She organized food, plates and all the details. I smiled and we sang as we worked and ran around the house. It couldn't have gone better with something that came about at the last minute. Every family had their own cooler with daddy drinks, juice, water and ice. Then each family got a fun little beach pail filled with fun kickball/sports stuff. Black eye reflector stick, big league chew, tattoos, sunflower seeds, mosquito spray of course and a spray bottle filled with water for cooling off.

I think we were finally ready to play KickBall Carter Birthday Style...

Happy Birthday Carter!

Ty, Shawna & Gray

pre-game preparations

Let's just say the adults got a slight bit competitive. It was the highlight of the night to see that side come out of all of us - lots of laughs

The opposing team - somehow Brooklyn was trying to sneak on their team

She loved pitching - we found out that night she never gets to be the pitcher

at school so she was in heaven!

LOVE

Typical Carter - "where's the food, I hungry!"

LOVE

The Slaughter Fam

Kyle showed us what to do with the black crayon!

Mischa & C had fun with the spray bottles

Mama & the birthday boy

Celebratory hug - all three scored on Tim's kick

She scores - crossing home plate

our biggest fans!

We threw in a competitive volleyball game after the final score of the kickball game...WE WON! It's only fair that the team the birthday boy was on was the winner!

We then headed back to this Stadium for concessions and dessert...

We had true concessions with hot dogs, chips, cotton candy and some of the yummiest nachos and cheese and soft pretzels. I took one of those cheap large cans of nacho cheese sauce, ya know the ones that we bought for highschool sport games when we ran the concession stands...threw it in the crockpot so it was ready when we got back from the game. I then took the short clear plastic cups and put cheese in the bottom and topped with a handful of tortilla chips. In others we put the cheese and then took a soft pretzel, cut in half and put it on top of the cheese. DELISH, like lick the cup with your fingers kind of delish. I was basically told if I would serve cheese at every party it would be a success!

The goods...

Brooklyn helped me put these little pails together...so fun and she loves the little details and putting the stuff togethter ALMOST as much as I do, she's definitely my daughter.