Party On!

We did lots of partying this weekend . . .

Saturday night my sisters and I threw a surprise 60th birthday party for our mom. We invited several close friends, and some relatives, most of whom are from the Columbus area, to meet us at Tumbleweed Southwest Grill. Our youngest sister, Sarah, her husband Anthony and their little girl Adeline even came up from Lexington, Ky.

Mom thought my sister Hannah and her husband Kenneth were meeting them there for dinner - which was partly true. The guests all arrived by 5:15, and Mom and Dad came around 5:30. I never thought we'd actually pull it off, but judging by the look on Mom's face, I'd say we did a pretty good job of keeping things a secret!

Now, you have to understand something about our family - we're all a little camera happy. As soon as a kodak moment presents itself, at least 5 different people jump out of their seats, cameras and cam-corders in hand, to record the moment. Which means you pretty much have to hold each pose for about 10 minutes, as camera after camera flashes in your face. Then we all rush home and email our identical pictures to each other. I was actually worried, at the party, that when Mom & Dad walked in, we'd all be so busy flashing our cameras at them that no one would be able to yell "SURPRISE". Fortunately, we are all pretty good multi-taskers.

The other thing we laugh about is that every time our family gets together, someone (sometimes one of us) says, "You know, it's been a while since we've gotten a snapshot of the three girls together." So, we have about 300 shots of us at different family functions! We laugh about it every time, but we still go ahead and pose for the picture (and email copies to each other afterward).

Anyway, after we'd eaten dinner and Mom opened gifts, we headed to Mom & Dad's house for ice cream cake. (Mom said later, "I wondered why your Dad made 2 huge birthday cakes", but then, we're talking about the man who made a 5-layer cake for his own birthday once, just for the fun of it.)


Yesterday, we had a mermaid-themed family party for the girls. Both sets of grandparents came, a well as Hannah and her family, and Danny's sister Robyn and her family. Rachel wanted an Arial cake, but since I discovered we were out of red food coloring, she had to settle for a generic blonde mermaid instead (We told her it was Arial's sister).

I believe this cake may be one of the larger cakes ever made - and definitely the largest cake I've made. The thing was monstrous - it took 2.5 9x13 cakes and 12 cupcakes, with 8 cups of frosting and a boatload of Necco wafers. But thanks to the family fun website, we ended up with a mermaid cake nearly as big as Karis. What it lacked in quality, it certainly made up for in quantity.


Rach & Kari Bou in their restored battery-powered Jeep from Grandpa & Grandma Wright. After a few rides, Kari Bou started putting her hands up in the air; Rachel's driving must have reminded her of the Dragon Wagon!

And now, I have to go dig through some boxes in the attic to try and find a shirt for Malachi so our entire family can "match" for our church directory pictures tomorrow. I'm trying to find colors that go well with drool and/or spit-up . . .