This was all Chad's doing.

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!I've had such a good influence on my husband. Enjoy.

Birthday bash

After a quiet dinner at home on Jack's "real" birthday (Monday), we had a big bash with friends on Thursday. For a relatively small party, it was a tremendous amount of work--and my friends did most of it. A few months ago I told the amazing ladies I hang out with that I wanted to have a Halloween party for Jack at the church and provide dinner. They insisted on bringing food and helping in every other possible way. I was throwing the party, so I didn't want to impose on them, but when I say they insisted I mean they INSISTED.

I had ever intention to be ready for the party hours early. As seems to happen all too often, things didn't go according to plan. The trip to Costco for the cake took longer than expected because I wrote down the wrong date on the order form for the cake. Thankfully, they were kind enough to make one for me, but I had to wait. Then there was a "crisis" with one of my cases at work and I was on the phone for over an hour. By the time Chad came home at about 3:00 and the party was set to start at 5:30 I was in full crisis mode. My friend Kelli swooped in to save me and we got things together.

We had about 8 families and some friends from the singles ward come to the celebration. The kids, and a few brave adults, came in costume. Thanks to the delicious soup provided by the gals, we had a great dinner. Next we had some pumpkin carving. The prize goes to our friend Joel who chose the most difficult pattern from the pattern book (Dracula) and executed it beautifully. While the parents finished carving, the older kids played a pumpkin bean bag toss (thanks to Jan for making the bean bags!), pin the nose on the Jack-o-lantern (thanks Kelli!), and had fun running around the church like wind-up toys.

Jack didn't disappoint in his attack on the cake. We gave him a HUGE piece of cake with a huge purple frosting spider. He played with it tentatively for a minute, picking off a few little decorative spots, but then he really got to it. Purple frosting in the hair, putting on a show for the kids sitting around him by laughing and waving his arms, and generally stuffing his face. Thank goodness for that industrial church carpet--the icing game right out. Because his well-intentioned parents didn't think of it, Jack had nothing to wear after he covered himself in cake, so he opened his presents in his diaper. The other kids were so excited to help him---having those kids around him paying attention to him was more fun for Jack than the opening of the gifts.

True to form, my friends stayed to help us clean up. Thanks to everyone for makine it a memorable night for us. One of the greateest blessings of having Jack in our lives is the opportunity it has given us to get to know so many families better than we did when we were the busy couple with no kids. We love all of you! To those of you who couldn't be there, we really missed you. I am working on posting some video, so stay tuned.