Happy 30th April......

My oldest daughter, April turned 30 years old on January 24th. We decided to have a birthday dinner and party for her at our house .

I really can not believe that I have a THIRTY YEAR OLD!!! Man am I getting old or WHAT?

Ashlee is full of kisses for her big sister....

I love my girls.....
The boys had made birthday cards for April ....

Ash and Tyson were "interpreting" their pictures that the boys had drawn for her. They had so much detail in their cards. SO CUTE!

Birthday hugs from Brayden....

Fun with Balloons......

The kids were in heaven when they found the extra balloons we had blown up for the kids to play with.

They found something "MAGICAL" about the balloons. Karah was telling me that the balloon kept "sticking" to her hair. The kids soon learned that it not only sticks to their hair but to the wall as well.

Brayden's balloon wouldn't stick to the wall too well and Karah told him, "you have to have girl hair for it to work!" well....that totally FREAKED out Brayden because of coarse.....HE DOESN'T WANT "GIRL" HAIR!!!!

He was patient though and soon they stuck!

Pin the Tail on the Donkey.....

Yep! We invited Shawn to our party :) :)

I had decided to play some old fashioned birthday party games with the family. Pin the tail on the donkey is usually a pretty lame game (at least I think so) but it was actually a lot of fun.

Everyone took turns and were spun around until they were dizzy and then release to go find the donkey's tail end.

Here are a few short video clips of the kids playing.

Even Papa took a turn. He missed the target BIG TIME but I think it was a little intentional. Anything to make the kids giggle and laugh. Little Luke was sure intent on making sure Papa's was with the rest of the tails. He instantly moved it over to the game board.

It was nice to see my "grown kids" participating in these games. Even though they may have thought it was a little lame.....They were good sports and it ended up being really fun.

Alyssa was HILARIOUS! When it was her turn we were so surprised that her tail was "DEAD ON" target! She even turned it around so the tail was positioned "Just Right" We then found out that she had her head cocked just right so that she could see EVERYTHING she was doing. What a little CHEATER BUG!

We laughed so dang hard. She was so proud of herself!

Birthday Bingo.....

I got these cheap bingo cards at the dollar store and was not sure if the kids would enjoy them or not. Well it was another HIT!

Here Lyss is "CHEATING" again. She is putting a candy on EVERY square whether that card has been called or not. Really she had no idea how to play, but it was kind of funny to see her trying to win at this game as well. She is a bit like me. VERY set on winning games. Even if you have to cheat just a bit! lol

Opening Presents....

April was opening presents and had no idea what was in store for her. She was probably thinking that the party was winding down. We had eaten dinner, played some games, and now opening presents. WELL......we had another surprise planned for her.

I had decided to try to make her 30th B-day even more memorable by throwing a SURPRISE party over at my brother's house across the street. I had called my family members and invited them to share cake and ice cream with us. April had no idea that we had anything else planned for the night. In fact I had bought a "BOGUS" cake to try to throw her off so that she wouldn't even suspect anything. We were about to have "our" cake and ice cream when the phone rang.

I had asked Lisa or Darrell to call us once everyone had arrived. April was standing nearby when the phone rang and I think she could hear the conversation with Lisa. Lisa did an awesome job at acting excited for us to come over to "CHECK OUT SOMETHING" at their house. When I hung up the phone I explained to everyone that Darrell and Lisa had something that they wanted to show us and asked if anyone wanted to come over to his house with me. The family agreed that they all wanted to go. I kept saying that I bet the surprise was that Amy (my niece) got engaged!!!! And they wanted us to see. Well it worked. My whole family grabbed their coats and we headed over to Darrell's house.

On the way over I heard Brayden just GIGGLING so hard. His daddy, Ty was giving him a piggy back ride. I thought it was so cute how they were playing so I turned on my video. I then realized that I captured their game on tape. Tyson called it a "Rocket Fart." He would bend his knees way down, then blow air out of him mouth like a fart, and jump up in the air really far. They did this the majority of the way to Darrells. SO FUNNY! Where does Tyson come up with these things???

I had gone over earlier in the day and decorated up Darrell's house for the second party.

Everyone was hiding in the kitchen area of his house with the lights out when we got there. Everything was EXTREMELY QUIET! This was the surprised look on April's face when the doors opened the lights went on. There stood all of our family members in party hats and noise makers. They were all gathered to celebrate in her birthday. She was quite surprised. Me personally...well I was actually really choked up when the doors to Darrell's kitchen area swung open and I saw how crammed pack the room was with everyone. She has had a tough time this past year and it was so overwhelming to see so many family members that came to give her that support for her birthday.I have the most wonderful family ever! Kay (my cousin) and her family showed up even though she had some meetings that she was suppose to attend. She was unable to stay the entire time but it was so kind and thoughtful for her to spend a few minutes out of her busy Sunday schedule to show April that she loved her and to wish her a Happy 30th.

Kay is a sweetheart! So are her girls and her husband for that matter. Thanks so much for coming!!!! I know it meant a lot to April!

It was pretty noisy when we first got into the party. Noise makers were going off and everyone was yelling SURPRISE! The girls were a bit scared and clung to Howie, not sure what was really going on.

It was a perfect chance for the cousins to get together again.

My darling nieces!

Everyone joined in singing happy birthday to April. I kind of missed my mom and dad's rendition of the song. My parents had about three verses of that song and would call us up each year for our birthday and sing it on the phone to us. It is crazy that you hear something for so many years that when you hear it sung the traditional way it doesn't seem quite the same. When everyone ended the song I was waiting for my dad to start the second verse. Ahhhhhh so sad. Wish he were here!

We all enjoyed some yummy birthday cake and icecream

My Birthday Girl!

Gary's cute family is ALWAYS so supportive whenever we do something as a family. I really got to know them a little better while we were up in the cabin a few months ago and I love them all to death! They are so AWESOME!!!
Good ole Howie hard at work (like always) dishing up icecream for everyone at the party. This man NEVER stops! SERIOUSLY.... whenever there is an activity planned he is standing right by my side helping me every step of the way. Hey Steve you better snatch up a piece of that delicious chocolate cake before it is all gone! YUMMMMMM!

Little Whitney (Darrell's daughter) wanted a piece of cake but she really wanted the purple flower on top. When I dished out her piece I had no idea how HUGE it really was until I saw this confused look on her face. The piece of cake was almost as big as her HEAD! She was looking at me like...."Aunt T do you really expect me to eat ALL OF THIS?"

She sat there for a long long time chiseling away at the frosting. It took her about 10 minutes to get to this point. Well at least she got to eat her purple flower that she was begging for. Now she can save the rest of the cake for her food storage for the rest of the week.

Ashlee almost started a FOOD FIGHT when she went up to April and smeared chocolate frosting on her face. You are lookin' yummy April. At least Ashlee didn't LICK it off your face for ya!

Wherever April is.....Lyssi is always close by.

These two are inseparable!
April with Jersey Mae.....

Even my mom came to the party. It was nice to have her there to help us celebrate. I think it meant a lot to April to have her grandma there. My grandkids love their "GRAMS."

Once the noise settled down a bit then Karah was running around with the other kids and goofing off with the party decorations. "Look Grandma, I have a beak!"

Whose idea was it to pull out the noise makers?

WHAT were you thinking Tanya?

They were really noisy but the kids enjoyed them a ton!

Luke came over to me with this really serious look on his face and asked me in a REALLY sweet voice if he could have this balloon to take home.

When I told him YES....He was jumping up and down like he had just won the lottery or something. Who could say no to this cute kid? NOT ME that's for sure!

Ash and Tyson

I am so glad that my girls have such a close relationship....

They really love each other!

That's how sister's should be!!!

Well April, You are the big 3-0 and starting a new life. I am so excited for what lies ahead for you. I know it will AWESOME. And BELIEVE ME....YOU DESERVE IT! Happy birthday! We love you tons!!!