We all scream for ice cream!!

Wednesday we held our annual ice cream party in our backyard for all our neighborhood kiddos and friends. I made these invitations and we hand delivered them all (except for the people who don't live in Shakopee, of course!)

I had a master plan of where I would set up all the goodies and how I would decorate...but of course no one can plan for the weather! The actual temperature and conditions were wonderful...it was the wind that was not so friendly. I had to scale down decorations and move the entire ice cream table to the one spot on the side yard where the wind was relatively calm.

So first the set-up...

Gotta love plastic and metal tubs. You can reuse them and reuse them...they're easy to clean and really brighten up a space as well as being functional. Start collecting a supply. I promise you won't regret it! A lot of these I've picked up a long the way and used over and over in different ways. I also used shepherd's hooks...the ones you usually hang plants or bird feeders from...to hang the banner. Makes hanging banners outside a cinch!

Before we let them get into lines to get cones, I got our annual pic on the steps of all the kids. 6 of the kids who ended up coming later are missing, but here are 22 of our attendees!

So then it was on to to ice cream...thanks Stacy and Jen for helping scoop and all the other moms and dads for organizing them into strawberry, chocolate, and mint chip lines and helping "sprinkle". As you can see from the pics, everyone enjoyed their ice cream...Beckett and Grant definitely were both fighting for the title of messiest with chocolate ice cream (not to mention the sand from the sand box they mixed into it!)...

I was going to buy cute napkins to match the ice cream theme, but realized that they would all be more than a little

so I stuck a tub of baby wipes in one of my colored buckets...worked so well!

Then it was time to play in the water, on the swingset, and in the sandbox. The line for the Slip N Slide was always long and there were lots of giggles coming from over in that corner of the yard...

Even our smallest guest who couldn't eat ice cream or go on the Slip N Slide enjoyed the party!

When the cones were all gone no one wanted the party to end...Beckett resorted to eating spilled sprinkles off of the patio after I put all of the ice cream away...

Each family took home a goody bag of "cones to go" for their entire family...just add ice cream!

Thanks to all our little friends who came to play. We had such a good time and feel so blessed that our kids have such nice friends...can't wait 'til next year!