family water fun night

our church hosted a wet family fun night for the first time. they provided the activities and dinner (hot dogs and chips) but the fun was up to us. and it was SO much fun! it was a gorgeous night and there was a pretty great turn out. unfortunately, matt couldn't get away from work in time for dinner but he stopped by for the last 20 minutes on his way home. 

first stop was baby pool kickball. so fun! this was the kids' favorite part of the whole night. basically, there are baby pool for all of the bases.

manning and i played with a large beachball (the church photographer snagged this one of manning).

then we went over to check out the foam pit and sprinklers.

madelyn rinsed off in the sprinklers and took the jump ropes for a spin.

where did this smile come from?!

and then back to the kickball.

dinner break. i had set us up with some shade, but the kids wanted to picnic in the sun instead.

water balloon toss for the younger kids and giant sling shots to launch water balloons into the parking lot. our children's ministry director was lucky/unlucky enough to partner with maddux. maddux broke out his best baseball throw form. they went through the most balloons. when i asked him about it on the way home he said that, "mrs. wendy kept breaking them."

and then because she loves them so much, she went to play kickball with them alone.

the grand finale for the evening was a giant soapy slip and slide. i don't think it worked out as well as they had hope, but the kids (and a few adults) still had a great time trying. here is madelyn's turn (maddux and mason didn't want to leave kickball):

then she got manning to take a turn with her:

you can see how successful that turned out. he got soap in his eyes. don't worry, he was fine.

i think this might be the kids' favorite thing they have ever gotten to do at church and it was so simple. they had the interns put it together. i guess they forgot some key things (like plates) but the overall event was fantastic and enjoyed by all. it was also nice to have real conversations with several parents instead of just passing in the halls. love.