Nothin a good party won't cure

Saturday we once again hosted our, (what has become an annual), Sunday School Fall Party. We had help of course from our friends Ross and Amy, and what good help they were!

We had food galore, of course, (what else do you expect from a Mennonite church group?) like sloppy joes, shredded beef sandwiches, corn chowder, salad, brownies, pumpkin bars, popcorn, hot chocolate, cider, and the list goes on and on and on.

This year, was slightly different, however. Since July Brent has been thinking of ideas for a "competition" we could have at the party. Strongman sounded good, or chasing a chicken, or catching a sheep. His mind was racing for months.

I purchased candy and filled mason jars and that became our prizes for the friendly, (but not really so friendly) competition.

Earlier in the week, Brent bought a bunch of round bails for the sheep for eating this winter. Low and behold, the first thing every kid did when they arrived at our house was this...

They all literally did this, (when not eating, or playing the games, or riding on the hay ride) all night long!

I've never seen anything like it in my life. Jumping from one bail to the next, all night. (that's even what my own kids did today as soon as we got home from church. "See ya, we're going outside to play on the hay.") "Really? Well. Ok."

So, remember we did a lot of eating.

Our garage was lined with tables and chairs, and the kids finished as fast as they could so they could go back out and jump on hay. Really.

We even had cute little babies.

After supper we had the strongman competition. We've watched this at our county fair several times, and it's hilarious and amazing all at the same time.

Brent borrowed tractor tires from my uncle and that was the first leg of the competition.

(the picture is blurry because of how fast he's going.)

We had a super huge tire (which was double the points to flip) and a slightly smaller tire, and then two smaller tires for the women's competition.

The winners of the tire flipping contest then had to pull a hay wagon loaded down with kids. On the stone driveway, with no rolling start. THIS WAS MY FAVORITE PART! It was funny, and quite amazing considering how heavy the wagon must've been.

The winner, Eric, who is pictured above, who pulled it more than 50 feet, got a jar full of candy.

The kids even had a strongman competition. They had teams of two, however, and their first task was to roll barrels.

The teams who rolled the fastest, then had to flip tires (together) for the championship.

There was a strongwoman competition too, and because I was in it, there are no pictures. :-( . We ran out of daylight, however, so we just flipped tires, and the one with the most flips got the jar of candy.

When the competition was finished we had to pry the kids from the hay bales (really) and we all left on a hayride. This is always a favorite, and our dog Rudy went along and had the time of his life getting petted by everyone in his wagon.

We came back for a campfire and smores.

We had a great night, but let me tell you, I'm exhausted today! It's a lot of work to get ready for and we had more than 50 people show up.

It's become a tradition, however, and I'm sure we'll host it again next year.

God gave us a great evening and we didn't even have to wear coats on the hayride. It was a blast!