We would love to see your children come and share our weekend too. But, we also know how difficult it can be for all of you parents to get an opportunity to get out for dinner by yourselves. So, what we have worked out is that we will be seating all children at a few children's tables. That way they can sit and chat with their cousins without having to listen to the boring adult conversations. Moms and Dads will get to sit with other adults, who can cut their own chicken, and get their own drinks (we hope).
Obviously, not all of the children can sit by themselves, and get their own meals at the buffet. So, for all of those children who cannot do so, including infants and toddlers, we have a daycare scenario setup. A good friend of ours runs the childcare program at the Riverside Community Church. RCC is a few hundred yards straight up the street (at Washington Ave and Cedar Way) from the reception hall. They have DVD players, VCR, books, games, crafts, all kinds of things to keep kids of most ages occupied and entertained.
We will be ordering in pizza or burgers, or whatever your children would like to eat, for them to eat at RCC.
RCC is lining up certified, cleared people, and can handle kids of all ages, from newborn up to teens (but not the grumpy ones, the teens I mean.) If mom and dad would like to walk down to check on the kids, or be available by phone, that all works. The sitters at RCC will have a phone number for the DJ, so there will be no doubt that they can reach us at the hall if they need to. (The reception hall does not have any such room available onsite.) The childrens' play rooms at RCC even have two-way mirrors on them, so you can walk down and check on the kids without necessarily being seen. After dinner, if the kids want to join us at the reception hall for some dancing, they're welcome to join us. And vice versa, if the older kids from the reception hall get bored and want to go watch a movie or something, they can head down to the church as well.
We will need to know a count of the number of kids and ages that will be joining us, so that we can make sure both that we have enough children's tables at the reception hall as well as enough people at RCC to accomodate the kids there.
We are hoping to be able to especially meet all of your kids at the picnic on Sunday, when everything will be a little more conducive to having all of our families together to socialize and play games, etc.
PHOTOS of the RCC facility...