~We had a great Memorial day!~

 ~We celebrated Memorial day a day late, so thus I didn't post yesterday.
We invited a lot of our friends and acquaintances from church over to our house for a grill out.
First some pics of the preparations...before our guests arrived.  =)
I made sugar cookies (and Mary who just heard me read that out-loud said, "And I LOVE THEM! =)
Kimberly and Sarah helped me dip ALL of my sugar cookies.
I LOVE this icing recipe where you can dip your sugar cookies and not have to spread on the icing. =) ~

 ~We got some red carnation flowers and put some of them in our cute little glass jars that yogurt comes in here.~

 ~These jars were on the glass coffee table in the L.R.~

 ~We made some yummy peanut butter fudge, and...

 ~dipped them in white chocolate chips, red sprinkles, and coconut dyed blue.~

 ~Yummy!~

~Colored some rice red and blue to put in some more of my glass yogurt jars.~

 ~And my sweetheart drew me a fun American flag on my chalkboard.~

 ~We arranged our sugar cookies into a flag.~

 ~The fruit and veggies in this country come in these wooden boxes.
I LOVE wooden boxes and am always keeping my eyes open for one that I like.  I've asked a couple or so store owners how much they would charge me for a certain wooden box,  and they have GIVEN me the boxes.  =)
This one Sarah and I found on the side of the road.  =)
I got the Argentina Tea (Mate) bag out to tuck down inside something, to help it stand up...but I DID NOTICE that it was red, white, and blue.  Later Phillip suggested that we use it as part of our decor. =)~

 ~One of my Free wooden boxes helped me hold my plates, red and blue napkins, and forks and spoons.~

 ~I SOOOO wanted a fun red, white, and blue banner to hang, but KNEW it would be impossible to find one here in this country.  I don't have a sewing machine to sew one, and I DID NOT have time to make one out of paper!
Sarah and I were walking to a party store to see what they had, when we passed a BABY STORE with THIS RED, WHITE, AND BLUE BANNER hanging in the window.  I was DELIGHTED with the banner that Jesus helped me to find!  =)~

~The back room in this house (going out to the pool and garden house with a built in grill) is like a sun room with all windows.  We set up 2 food tables out in there.
Above one of the food tables, Phillip hung my fun banner and balloons for me. ~

 ~Though I never drink Coke I love Coke things =)...so I used 3 Coke bottles that were left in front of our house... as my vases for my Patriotic flowers. The white roses came from the back yard.~

 ~More of our red, white, and blue decorated P.B. fudge, and extra white and blue star cookies that we made.~

 ~We made 56 deviled eggs.~

 ~Green apples and cream cheese caramel dip.~

 ~My Fresh Lemonade.~

 ~Our Mary all dressed for the occasion.
(She is to be in a wedding on Saturday, and Kimberly had practiced her hair do on her WET hair the day before, so thus the "permed look." =)~

 ~Our friend Leo helped us grill Argentina Chorizo ( a special sausage) and hot dogs.~

 ~The bread for the Chorizos. ( We bought this bread, I didn't make it. =)~

 ~We served Veggies and dip.~

 ~And of course Chinese Hot tea. =)~

 ~For an appetizer to hand to each one as they came in...we made red jello in little cups.  Since we couldn't find blue jello here, we just put Sweetened cond. milk on some of them to make it SORT of look like a Flag. =)
(The Sweetened cond. milk and jello idea comes from Costa Rica and Colombia. )
Due to our missionary lives...our family is such a MIXTURE of cultures now... you never know what we will serve next.  =) ~

 ~Here's the garden house with the built in grill ....~

 ~Where Leo and Phillip were grilling. =) ~

 ~And then the our friends starting showing up. =)~

 ~There were around 34 of us here. ~

 ~We had a delightful evening with them.~

 ~Standing in line to get food.~

 ~Others brought drinks and desserts.~

 ~Visiting.~

 ~Kimberly was visiting with Elisa...and Mary must have handed her doll to her. =) ~

 ~Everyone listening to Kimberly play her violin.~

~We are so Blessed with this house that is COMPLETELY FURNISHED that is being loaned to us... so we can have gatherings like this.  =)~

 ~Leo asked Phillip to explain to everyone the significance of Memorial day.
Phillip did that (and Leo translated) and then Phillip ended with ...even though we may all be from different countries, we Christians are just pilgrims here and our MAIN GOAL is to make Heaven our home.~

 ~Phillip and (baby) I after a very fun evening with friends!~

 ~And our children were spoiled BLESSED because a lot of those who came brought sweet TREATS for them.  =D Here's a just-awake Noah with one treat.~

 ~And here are yet some MORE yummy TREATS!  =) ~

 ~And since we made so many sugar cookies and had extra...I made up little plates this morning and delivered them to our neighbors.  They were VERY HAPPY! =) ~