SURPRISE!!!

This year my mom and Ralph celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in June. My aunt Mary Carol thought it would be fun to throw them a surprise anniversary party. And boy did we surprise them!! My parents thought that it was going to be a Fourth of July picnic- which is was- but it was also a surprise!

Having a party at my aunt and uncle's house is always a blast!! They live on a farm and there is tons to do!! Some of my parents friends and family came out to the farm to join in on the surprise. My aunts and uncles from Kansas even came up to surprise them as well!! It's always great to see them and I was happy that they were able to make it. We had a yummy buffet of food!

And had a picnic outside!

After we ate, some people chatted and some people played croquet. My boys seemed to play croquet more like golf- with teeing up the ball and swinging the mallet more like a club. But whatever. No one seemed to mind. There weren't any refs or umps around.

There was a "tractor" ride at one point.

But I think the most popular event was the oohing and ahhing over Sarah!

She is one cute baby!! And so easy going!!

It was her first big party and she was so good about being passed around!

Alex, Allison, Sarah, Josh, & Zach

And NO- it does NOT make me want to have another baby. That was a popular question that night. I will just spoil Sarah and visit her as much as Wade and Allison allow.

After awhile fireworks started to happen. Of course, you always start with the parachutes. It was really windy so there wasn't a lot of catching them. But the boys still had fun chasing after the parachutes.

Of course- what's a party without cake?

After cake it was a little darker, so the boys did sparklers.

And as it got darker, the lightning bugs came out. So fun was had by catching them.

Josh with one on his arm

They would put the in a cup, catch more, and then when they were done we released them.

To end the night we (meaning the boys, Matt and Harry) lit off a few more fireworks. I am not camera savvy enough to get awesome shots of the fireworks, but they were pretty. I just got some so-so shots of the men/boys lighting them.

All in all it was a great evening filled with love, family, friends, food, and fun!! What more could you ask for?