Birthday party!

Today was the big day! We celebrated the kids' birthdays in our backyard and were blessed with GREAT friends and BEAUTIFUL weather. We hired a friend to take photos during the festivities, so I should have some snapshots to share by next weekend. (Seriously--this was such a gift to ourselves today. We normally are running around trying to juggle the cake/kids/gifts/guests AND trying to get a decent picture of anyone or anything. Today we were able to enjoy our friends while Jancy did all of the hard photography work! Awesome! I highly recommend it. Hopefully she was able to get some good shots!)

We gave the kids a trampoline for their birthdays! Brent worked hard on it yesterday, and since we wanted it to be a surprise it took a lot of planning and forethought to orchestrate. His solution? Tarps. He tarped off the patio doors and living room windows, and we didn't let the kids into Sophie's room until after dark last night. Great plan! (One of the neighbors wondered if we were having termite treatment done--ha!!)

This morning was a little tricky since they all woke up super early (they knew today was the party and were too excited to sleep!), and Brent and I had to be in the backyard finishing up the final details on the trampoline. We pulled it off, though--we put them in our room to watch a movie while we finished, then tag-teamed with the kids until our fabulous friends/sitters Becky & Kelsey came to take them on a walk until the guests arrived. Once everyone was here, we blindfolded the kids and took them around back to see the trampoline. It was a hit with the kids AND their party guests!

We had cake, ice cream, pinata candy, chips/dips (Kelly's specialties!) and the fabulous cotton candy--which held up beautifully through the night! I think we sent all of the kids home on sugar highs. The guests' goodie bags bags held pinata candy, coupons for free Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas, cotton candy and a helium balloon.

Whew--we're tuckered out around here--what a FUN day!!