Who needs rest?: Missionary Farewell party

So here is what we did for Kyle's missionary farewell. An ice cream sundae bar. This entire summer we've been experiencing record breaking temperatures so instead of having hot appetizers, we went with s refreshing dessert instead. I had about 33 flavors/syrups to choose from. I pre-scooped all the ice cream into bowls with lids and had them ready to go for our guests. We also had HM cookies, brownies, rice krispy treats and crème puffs as well.

Melinda Lassen did my chalkboards for me as well as wrote the topping descriptions on the spoons and labels as well. (So very talented) Since Kyle will be on a bike for the next 2-years, we thought it would be fun to display a bike with a chalk drawing of Elder Malcom and Palm trees.

My sister Niki used her cricket machine and did the neck ties that spelled out CARDS. We used a new piece of his black luggage to display so friends could put their cards in there, if they had one. Niki also did black napkins that said Elder Malcom, Tampa Florida Mission on them. I found a large piece of black foam at the Dollar Store and Niki used her cricket machine once again and spelled out ELDER MALCOM. Friends and family signed it. Was meant to look like a missionary tag. The whole day was really nice.

Niki gave me an early birthday gift. A countdown to when Kyle returns! I was doing fine until then. Couldn't stop crying after that!

Lots of family came up from Puyallup and Tacoma to attend Kyle's farewell talk. Rick & Lynda, Brian & Celeste with 2 of their boys - Rix and Jacob. David & Melinda with all 4 kids, Bob & Suzy with all 3 kids, Grandma & Grandpa Lassen and Janese and Tessa - late as usual.

Once we got home, Sandra and Joe, Melissa and boys and Robert Allemang joined us as well. There were 32 of us here. Since they made the early and long drive up that Sunday morning, I did feed them Costco pizza and salad before we had ice cream. All family and Robert left by 3:00 then Melissa, Conner and Nick as well as Sandra and Joe stayed an visited until almost 5 PM. During those 2 hours, I spent most of the time cleaning up and getting ready for the "Open House" that began at 5 PM. I wasn't too surprised, but people were showing up right at 5PM and no one was leaving! Families brought their kids, which was fine but I asked that they stay outside to play and eat their ice cream. Trust me, my daycare room was a disaster, but by the time the party was over at 8 PM, parents had cleaned up the room and there was very little for me to do. That pleased me. By the end of the day, I counted (from the electronic evites I had sent out), we had close to 200 people in our home that day! Phew! AND I didn't run out.