4th of July Picnic at Church

 Naomi made some awesome lookin' 

cupcakes for the special event! :-)

 Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!

Our church normally has a picnic to celebrate the

special day, but this year we had it a day early.

We enjoyed a special Sunday of preaching by Shawn

Smith and a picnic in the afternoon as well as games

in the late afternoon and evening! :-)

We started out our day of festivities with

a historical service and a flag raising ceremony.

 It was a beautiful day!

 Some people even dressed up for the occasion! :-)

 I am thankful that I live in the 

"land of the free and the home of the brave"!

God Bless America!

 Sam chillin' during the ceremony :-)

 We had a "Freedom Wall" made up of bricks and on

the bricks were written servicemen that served our country.

It ended up really looking awesome!  Great idea, Mrs. J! :-)

 Some pictures of the servicemen..

 Lydia & Aunt Woody

 Besides Rachel, these were the other women who

made this day possible! :-)  Thank you for all

your hard work, ladies!  The food was great!

 An ensemble sang an arrangement 

of "America the Beautiful".

 All that to get a good picture.. my goodness! :-)

 Best time of the day.. FOOD TIME! :-)

 Some bus girls that came.

 Sarah, MacKenzie, and Lydia

 I think Britany was laughing.. and I think John was

in line in front of her.. that explains it! ;-)

 Adorable Ray girls - Micah, Autumn, and Summyrrh! :-)

 We love you, Uncle Woody! :-)

 Aunt Woody & Mrs. T (and Uncle J peeking in back) :-)

 Suzy & Victoria

 Once again, we got the bounce house.. 

and the "kids" loved it! :-)

 I guess Stephen Smith didn't want a picture.. just a guess! :-)

 Kelly & Rachel

Thank you for all your hard work, ladies!

You did a great job!

 Suzy & Dave

 Mr. Collinson got in a little nap while eating lunch.. :-)

 I guess a person's head makes a good stand as any! ;-)

 We got TONS of freeze pops!  Perfect day for it!

 Mary seemed to be enjoying "Capture the Flag"! ;-)

 "Capture the Flag" with water balloons.. it was great!

 CLASSIC Picture!  David throwing a bucket of water

on Hannah!  I love it & it looks like he does too! ;-)

 Playing Kickball

 Great to spend the day with Mar & Dave!

 We had a morning service, afternoon service, games,

and then clean up around 6pm, so then people

could go to fireworks later that day.

 Yeah, and the boys.. well.. as you can see they were

a BIG help! ;-)  Actually, they did help some.. :-)

 It was an exhausting, fun-filled day! :-)

 After clean-up, we still stayed around for a while..

SHOCKER?! ;-)  

We enjoyed relaxing in the field and playing volleyball..

 Well, John called Mary a name.. I won't say what,

but it didn't turn out too great for him as you can see! ;-)

 Tizzy & Ariel

Future traveling buddies! :-)

 Couldn't resist getting a good picture of 

Mr. Reiman playing football.. CLASSIC! :-)

 Caught in the act! ;-)

 Ariel, Mary, and Rachel watchin' the volleyball fun!

 So, even in the middle of a volleyball game

she doesn't miss a great picture opportunity! ;-)

Did I mention that the Statue of Liberty

showed up too at the end of the night?! ;-)

 Balloon Splash Photo Shoot.. 

havin' some fun with the camera!

 I hope you've enjoyed this post.. and this is

the woman who made it all possible!  This

was pretty much her stance for the day, too, can't 

you tell?! ;-)  Thanks for the pics, Jo!  They're great!

 We went to fireworks later that night.

Jo & I wanted to get a pic, so I tried to

take some but my flash was so bright

that Jo ended up closing her eyes in

the first attempt.  The next try, she said

that she'd just close her eyes and for me

to say "ok" when she should open them for

the picture.  So, I did.. and this is what we

got! LOL :-D  She looked at the right time,

but in the wrong spot!  We were dying laughing!

Finally!  One that's okay.. ;-)

We had a great day celebrating our American independence!