birthday bash (in other words: super loooong post!)

Well, April is here and so that means one thing - BIRTHDAY TIME!!! There are 8 birthdays in Chris's family in April and my brother's birthday is also in April, so that's a total of 9 birthdays we celebrate in one month! Of course we look forward to our own birthdays, but we really look forward to when Kelly has Ethan, Haley and Grant's big birthday party at her house! We are anxious for a mini vacation, the kids are anxious to see their cousins, and I'm anxious to eat Kelly's good cooking! :) It's a short trip (we get there Friday night and leave Sunday afternoon), but we live it up and enjoy every moment we have there! The WHOLE family is together and that's always the best!

Friday night, Mom called to see where we were. We told her, and then found out that she and Kelly and Haley were about 1 mile up the road from us. They were on their way home from a shopping spree! Haley got her ears pierced and got some new clothes. So, we ended up right behind them when we got off the expressway. It was 10:45 p.m. After unpacking, Mom and Kelly put on their aprons to finish the desserts for the party. Grant's cake needed sprinkles all over the sides of it. Well, I think there were more sprinkled dots on Kelly's kitchen floor than on the cake. lol She was trying to pat them onto the sides of the cake but they just rolled right off and went all the counter and floor....



Saturday morning at 11:00, air soft was first on the agenda for the day. All the guys were coming over early for the party to play some air soft outside...














Big bb guns outside, and nerf guns inside. Everywhere you looked it was a war zone!








After the bb gun war was over, the guys came in so the party could start. While the women played Phase 10 (minus Kelly because she was working on lunch and didn't want any help because she felt bad asking us to help), the guys relaxed in the basement watching hockey. Cole and came and got me and said that Chris wanted me downstairs. This is what I found....

He grabbed his blanket, climbed up in his Dad's lap and fell asleep. :)









After our game, Kelly decided to let us help. :) I did this....

I didn't make them, I just laid them on the plate that way. Those are white chocolate chunks that she colored and put in a lego mold. Too cute!

And this is Grant's lego cake...







After lunch, it was game time! This year, Kelly planned games that everyone could play. We were broke up into 3 teams. There were three games based on the show Minute to Win It - transferring beans from one bowl to another with tweezers, bouncing ping pong balls into glasses, and tossing large legos placed on a spatula into a bucket while sitting in a chair placed about 10 feet away. Each person on the team did the task individually and then their score was written down and at the end, everyone's totals were added up for each team to see who got the highest score.

Listening to Kelly give instructions...














1..2..3..cheeeese!!!

(Those two are so cute together! They are pretty much the same size and they love to play together!)



Brian was our time keeper. He would yell, "Go!" and "Time!" when it was time to stop. I made the mistake by walking in front of him one time when he yelled "Time" and I think my ear drum vibrated! lol











(Mason was all about his Dad and Ethan this weekend. Every time I looked, he was either all over his Dad or sitting with Ethan.)





























Since the ping pong balls would just fall off the table, the kids would go underneath and catch them and hand them to an adult on the side so they could put them back in the bucket for whoever was playing....









(I wonder where Mason gets his cheesy smile from...lol)

It must run in the family...



























After the winning team was determined (Haley's team - not the one I was in, but I tied for second with the third team), Brian tried out the different games...









(Mason slept during lunchtime, so after the games were done, I went and made him a plate of food. I brought it downstairs to eat while the kids opened their gifts. Cara stood about 10 inches from him and stared at him while he ate. lol She kept watching him and then his chips he had. I kept waiting for her to sneak one, but she didn't. She just stood there and watched him eat his food.)


(Cole wanted to make his cousins birthday cards)





The card we got Ethan told him to sign his name in the box before opening up the card. So I put a pen in the envelope....


After he signed his name, he opened the card and read it...

It was a letter stating that he was grateful for his life and content with everything he had and no gifts were necessary, just happy wishes for his birthday were gift enough, and then at the bottom was where he signed his name. :)

After services on Sunday, we went back to the house for lunch. While the food was getting ready, I packed up all our clothes while the guys went and played some more air soft...

Yes. He is aiming his gun at me and yes, he did hit me a few times.

My knight in shining...I mean, camoflauge armour to save me. lol

I kept waiting for the neighbors to call the cops on us or something. The guys looked like they were using real guns and especially with all their camoflauge gear on.

Well, all good things must come to an end, right? Sundays are always so depressing. Especially when we're the only ones leaving. Everyone else is staying another day or two and they're all sitting around playing games and we're packing up. :( One of these times we're going to get to stay longer. :)

Thanks Brian and Kelly for a fabulously fun weekend! :)