"Happy Birthday to You..."

Hey everyone!

Wow, what a weekend we all had! Jason picked up the kids on Friday like usual and we just took them home a few hours ago. Grandma Stella's surprise 70th birthday party was this weekend, so my parents made the trip up here for that. We also ended up having Shawn's birthday party this weekend to, due to some scheduling issues we had. I was frustrated about it at first, but in the end, I think it worked out even better because there were more people here for it.

Kelly, Anthony and Hannah came up Friday night and then John and his son Zachary came up on Saturday...but grandma didn't know that they were even coming. Mom and dad came up around 11:00 on Saturday and brought Travi to see me! I had asked earlier in the week if Travi and Daniel could come along. Unfortunately, Daniel wasn't able to come, but Travi was and it was so good to see him. I was really excited about seeing him, I miss him so much. So, my parents, Jason, the kids, Travi and I all decided to go out to eat at The Depot, which is Virginia's only sit down restaurant. LOL They have really good food though. We ate there the last time mom and dad came down too. After that, we all headed to Manito, IL for grandma's surprise party.

She was very surprised...there were probably around 75'ish people there. They had two cakes, a bunch of homemade dishes, balloons galore...however, eventually all the kids ran out of balloons because they kept popping them. So my dad, Jason and Travi went to the Dollar Store in town to get some more balloons. We stayed about 2 hours and we came back home because we had to get ready for Shawn's birthday party. Thankfully, mom and dad were able to stay though preparation, presents, and the cake.

I asked mom to wrap the gifts Jason and I got Shawn because I never did get around to wrapping them...bought them, bought the wrapping paper...just didn't wrap them. And mom's a good gift-wrapper, so she was perfect for the job. lol My dad and I went to the dollar store we have in town for a few last minute items. I came back and started making the cupcakes. They were the good kind: "funfetti" mix and "funfetti" icing. Yum. I bought these spongebob and patrick (from Spongebob Square Pants of course) cake topper candy things to put on top of them. I made a small cake for Shawn and then a bunch of cupcakes for everyone else. I sent a few home for Travis, Eve and Travi...even though I think Travi had like 3 cupcakes before he left. haha

We passed out the presents...he was very excited and got some good gifts from everyone. The funniest thing was when he was opening the big bag of gifts from my mom and dad, though. Mom had put a few batteries attached to one of his gifts and he pulls it out and gasps and says, "A BATTERY?!?!?! HOLY MACCARONI! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!" Everyone started busting out laughing. Great stuff, great stuff. Then we all sang Happy Birthday to him and had our cupcakes and ice cream. Mom, dad, and Travi had to leave after that. Kelly and her neighbor (who also came up for grandma Stella's bday party) went to meet their husbands at a hotel in Jacksonville that they stayed in overnight. All of the kids stayed here though.

After that, all of the kids were in the living room playing with their balloons and looking at Shawn's toys. Jason set up the karaoke and his brother and his cousin were having fun goofing off and singing. I took video of them and Jason recorded them singing....it was hilarious. Anthony just cracks me up.

Kelly, John, Anthony, Hannah, and Zachary all went home this afternoon. We took the kids home a few hours later. Now, Jason and I are just kinda hanging out. I'm uploading some pictures. Myspace has this thing now where I can send a link for people who don't have a Myspace to check out my pictures. I will post a link as soon as I'm done uploading all of them. There's quite a few between both birthday parties and some snow pictures today.

Love you all!

-Cole-