Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

(This doesn't look like the Grandma's from my day! Looking good, Mom!)  

We celebrated my Mom's birthday a day early.  She invited us all to a party at ijump, our local trampoline party warehouse type place.  The kids were so excited. 

The older kids loved the foam pits.  Here is James trying out his tricks.

Joshua flying high...

Melissa and Will.  Melissa had some tricks too...I just didn't catch them!

All the kids with Aunt Melissa getting ready to take a plunge and slide down...

Here I am trying out some moves with Sophie.

Can you see the sweat on my forehead?   It was so fun and a serious workout too...no wonder as kids we were in such great shape. We would jump for hours!  I have so many memories as a kid on the trampoline.  Before we had a trampoline we would jump when we visited my cousins in Utah.  That is all I would want to do, jump on the tramp. We would play house, and stranded at sea, "witch" and we would make up plays.  When we moved to Belgium and got a trampoline it was like a dream come true.  My neighbors (Christine and Leah) and I would pretend we were in the Olympics. We would  make up routines and see who could land their moves the best.  We practiced our tricks over and over.  Points were docked for toes not being pointed and not saluting the judges. I am not kidding about the HOURS on the trampoline.

I still have some skills.

Grandpa was so kind to keep the little ones entertained as we jumped.  They were all content to sit and watch.

Emmaline

This one of Alexis cracks me up. 

Jennifer and Emmaline

Grandma getting ready to do a front double flip twist.  She still has skills too.  (Wink wink)

 The Dodgeball Game got pretty fierce!  It ended up being the kids vs uncles.

These next two pictures of Brett crack me up...it looks like he is trying to scare the kids off here.

David has a good arm, I got pegged a few times.

Abigail had some pretty good moves too.

Tackle Dad!

Yes, that is Sophie that Ryan is holding as he flips into the foam pit.

Hooray!  It is my birthday!

Later that evening we continued the party in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard.  We had Grandma's favorite for dinner...hotdogs.  Kidding, about the favorite part.  The fixings were yummy though, Beans, Potato Salad, Pasta Salad, Fruit Salad, Chips, Smores, Chocolate Cake and Homemade Ice Cream.  Yummy!

Michael, Joshua, and James trying to start the fire.

This was early in the evening, happier times before Brett got in the dog house for telling Jennifer they had no food in the house.  Just kidding, Jennifer. 

Anne...can you tell she had a long active day, she sure was tired by the end of the night.

Singing to Grandma...I made the Chocolate Cake from the Best Bites Cookbook.  

James

Ryan is enjoying some of our tasty homemade ice-cream.  It was a berry mixture and yummy.  Pure cream goodness.  (I am serious about the pure cream, that and a little sugar.)  I cook up the mixture and Ryan does the mixing.  A shout out to the Garza's- We thought of you as we ate it and lamented about how on the 4th of July Heidi went to lay down with Austin and missed out on the creamy deliciousness.  She was so sad.

Grandpa getting warm and toasty.

Luke and Sadie

Thanks for the fun Birthday Party Grandma!  It made up for the rest of the weekend, which started of with the throw-up flu.  That spread to ALL six kids.  We were so happy when the throwing up halted. The weekend finished on Monday when we discovered a flooded storage room in the basement due to a broken sprinkler pipe.  Lovely.  I still am not caught up on the laundry from all the disasters.  It was nice to get away and have some fun with our family!  Love you Mom!  Thanks for throwing the party, doing all the prep work, cleaning up the mess, and then doing a few loads of laundry for me to boot!  Hope you have a great day since today is your REAL birthday!