Fun with family

The day after the party Sandy and Larry wanted to take us to the new mini golf place. It was a lot of fun, and I know the kids loved it.

Aiden liked to "whack" the ball.

And the boys cheered for every ball that went into the hole. Literally. haha ;)

So the game of golf was a little lost on Devin. This is typically how it went down. He would hit the ball from the normal spot-good start right?

Then he would pick it up and place it down very close to the hole (thinking that is probably illegal with the pros, but it works for us) ;)

He would then be sure to guide the ball and make it fall into the hole.

He had to get the ball out right away.

And then yes, the ever important "YAY!"

YAY! again! and again! and again! LOL :)

The water was super fun. Yes, he lost his ball in the water. And although the boys and Sandy ended up going ahead of us (since Devin had to get his ball in first and then move on) Larry insisted on keeping score. ;) It was fun.

Then that night we went back to AJ's house to have dinner (lots of leftovers from the party)

It was hard to get a good picture with my smaller camera (remember I broke my good one, so now all my pictures are all from my little one). And it was hard to find a good spot with all the huge gross spiders around! Ewww! They were EVERYWHERE! After it gets dark, they start spinning their webs and I was utterly freaked out. And not only did the spiders come out but the mosquitos did too. And poor Aiden got bit in the middle of his eyes on his forehead. He was not a happy camper :(

My parents joined us at AJ's and then came back to the Smith's with us to tuck the boys in bed since we were leaving the next day. Kiki and Grammy read both boys good night stories and then my parents had to say goodnight and goodbye.

Aiden has ice for his bite-poor little guy...

After the boys went to bed we sat down to play a round of Jokers and Marbles. Girls won...we always win ;) hehe

Party Entertainment

Every good party has some form of entertainment-and this is how we roll at home. AJ lives next door to one of his good friends and they have a lot of acreage together. His buddy has an interesting hobby...jumping cars. And they build these car ramps on his property. So they decided to go ahead and have a jump during the party. Yup, you don't get much more "redneck" than that! LOL :)

Everyone is getting ready to watch the jump.

Here is the car. They rigged it up so that there was a brick holding down the gas pedal and the rod to help keep the steering wheel straight.

We were waiting awhile for them to get everything set up, so we moved on up to watch from one of the jumps they weren't using. It was at this time that my memory card on my camera ran out, so I had to run to AJ's garage to get a new one. They were pretty much ready to go at that point, so I was really trying to get back in time and be ready to go before they started the engine. While I was running I was trying to put in the new card, and in doing so was putting it in the wrong way. I ended up bending a prong in the reader slot-effectively breaking my nice camera :( Ugh.

Lucky for me, I still had Sandy's camera and was able to record the jumps on hers.

Be advised that someone says the "S" word during this video-but I had to post this.

So as you can see, it didn't go as planned! And we no longer felt comfortable staying on the hill for any more attempts! So we moved on down to the ground where we could run if need be ;)
Unbelievably the car was still running and they decided to go again for another jump. This time someone decided to steer the car until the last minute and then jump out.

And then even after this jump the car was still going, so they did it again! I know I recorded that one too, but for some reason can't find it on my computer. I was sure to tell the boys over and over and over and over again that they were never never never never never NEVER allowed to do that...EVER! But hey, it is fairly entertaining :) And it helped that they had a doctor at the ready...the doctor being Micah :) Haha!

The Party

Well, now that we successfully pulled off all our surprises, it was time to enjoy this great party and celebrate!

Look how gorgeous these cakes turned out! And the little mini cake is all gluten free for Sandy :)
Can you tell she likes frogs?

I don't know why this one is sideways, it's upright in my file, but every time I upload it here it is sideways. That big froggie is made of Rice Krispie treats-YUM!

Rachele (Beautiful lady in the background) has been Sandy and Larry's secretary for like ever, and it was her Aunt who made these awesome cakes and cupcakes.

Yeah, she broke down a lot ;)

Singing Happy Birthday

Make a wish!

I got a little bit of her speech.

So Yummy :)

It took everything inside of me to refrain from pushing Devin's hand and cupcake into Aunty Hilary's face...but I didn't want Devin to get upset about his cupcake. I'm such a thoughtful and caring mother :)

Is it good Aiden?

YUP! :)

Me and my mommy!

And even though Devin got a little traumatized in the jumpy jumpy, he is now 100% over it and loves jumping again :)

Present time!

I think she liked our gift!

She got many frog themed gifts, and they were all so great.

Kiki's little helper

Sandy is a wonderful Yoga instructor, and this was just the cutest card :)

I think Devin really wanted to play, and when they said no, he decided to take matters into his own hands. haha! I actually don't know why he chose to stick his feet in the hole, but it's cute.

Aunty Hilary and Uncle Daryl

Winding down after a fun party.

How gorgeous is that sunset?

Thank you to everyone who made this wonderful day possible!

And this says it all...Kiki Rules!
Happy Birthday Kiki-we love you!

Suprise Party Surprise

So obviously we came out for Sandy's birthday, and what kind of a birthday would it be without a party?? And what made it so fun was that she had NO CLUE! The party was on Sunday at AJ's house. The plan was to go to church, and then Micah was going to take her on a bike ride to help pass the time before we were due to arrive. Of course she suggested on the route that takes them past AJ's house, but Micah was able to suggest a different route and keep her in the dark about our sneaky plotting :) While Micah and Sandy were on their bike ride, Dan and I were on the computers. Hey-he had a lot to learn and explore! :)

When they got back from their ride, we told Sandy we wanted to take the boys to the park. I rode with Sandy and Larry (so I could video) and Dan rode with Micah and the boys (we told Sandy that Micah wanted to talk to Dan about something). Larry had some signs made up that lined the street going to AJ's house-but there is a back route to get to AJ's from their house. So we had to be sure to choose a park that would take us the other way. After we got on the road Sandy wanted to call AJ and tell him to meet us at the park (glad she suggested we call him so it was less obvious). Larry "gave him a call" and he said yes he would meet us at the park, but wanted to show the boys something at his house (a new machine or ramp or something). So now we were "detouring" to AJ's place and it would take us along the road we needed for her to see all the signs Larry put together. Perfect! So I took a video, and asked her to read the signs aloud. She got a little emotional ;) so a few of them are difficult to hear...but it's hilarious how many times she hits Larry's arm! ;)

She was 100% overwhelmed and surprised!

Hugging Micah

Hugging AJ

Hugging Danno

So many friends and family came out to show Sandy how much she means to them. It was a great surprise!

AJ and his Godson Devin :) All this was possible because of this wonderful guy. Good job AJ!