Birthday Bash 2010 Revisited

The carnival games have been returned to the church.  The garage and yard are cleaned up.  The house is (almost) back in order.  The grandparents have returned back to North Dakota (sigh).  The food donations have been delivered to the local food shelf.  The 3rd Annual Kraft Family Birthday Bash has come and gone.  It was a BLAST!

The week was hot and humid.  But that didn't stop Todd and Grandpa Jim from working their tails off getting all the outside stuff ready.  The yard was groomed to perfection and the garage was sparkling.  The grandmas helped me with the children, running errands, and food preparations.  The stormy weather happened the day before this year (thank you God!) and the day of our event was perfect!

We had about 150 friends attend our event this year.  We are so thankful for all who helped us with the carnival games.  It's kind of stressful trying to get enough folks lined up to help with the games, but it all fell together and went off without a hitch.  The music was fabulous.  Our friends the Alzen family are so much fun to watch and listen to.  They truly blessed us all by sharing their music and voices while giving praise and glory to God...what a wonderful form of entertainment.  Many of the "manly men" stuck around afterward to help tear down and clean up - another blessing!

We loaded up the food donations into Big Blue (our 15 passenger van) and wow-ed all the workers at the food shelf.  They told us that the local school doesn't even collect this much when they do their food drive!  So, just how much did we bring in?  Drum roll please.....432 pounds and $60!  The children were so proud and couldn't quit grinning.  An extra large thanks to all who donated generously to bless those in need!  It was fun to see you walking to the party carrying heaping bags full of groceries.

Todd compiled all the photos into a Picasa album from our various photographers - another thank you is in order!  It is neat to have a number of people snapping photos as it almost ensures everyone will get their picture taken at one point or another.  If you'd like to see the album, click here.

The children are already talking about next year's bash.  They wouldn't go back to a traditional party, not a chance.  Spending the day with family and friends and having our party benefit a good cause have become what birthday celebrations are to the Krafts.  I'd love to hear any feedback from the party and ideas for changes/improvements for the 4th Annual Bash to be held next summer.  Feel free to leave comments here.

God Bless!

Heather :-)