Today is our 16th anniversary AND Mark's 11th birthday. Since Mark was born on our anniversary we always made a little bit bigger deal of his b-day because we figured we were sort of celebrating our whole family on that day. Four years later when Kyra came along just 3 weeks before August 16th, we just lumped her birthday into the party. . .and then two years later Darci came just one week before the 16th, so it was a no brainer to continue our family parties as we knew them! Anyway, needless to say, it's become a tradition to have a big family party every year and our kids really look forward to having all of their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins over for an evening of great food, fun, presents, and cake! Well, this year was no different. . .except we scaled down a bit--to just inviting the cousins, as we have so many family members who live close now! :) I'm not sure what Kaleb being born clear the heck in June will do to the family party, but we have another year to figure that out. So, this year we surprised the kids with having a lady come over to do face painting for everyone. It turned out to be a big hit! Here are a few pics of our "1 year older" kids (Mark 11, Kyra 7, and Darci 5) and some of their cousins:
as you can see, the boys loved the Avatar face, and no, it wasn't as hard to wash off as it looks like it would be. :) We are so blessed to live near so many cousins for the kids to grow up with!
