I mailed out invitations to some of his friends and one to his daughter. Nic's half sister, Jenny, lives in Abbott, Texas, just south of Dallas. We don't see her very often, but she called me the day she got the invitation in the mail and said she would be there with her husband and 2 kids. I was really excited to have such a great surprise coming for Karl.Usually, Karl works on Saturdays until 3pm. I asked everyone to show up right at 3:00 so when he got home from work they would be waiting to surprise him. Last Thursday Karl informed us that his work would be closed for Easter. This threw me off for a while. On Saturday I made sure he didn't go run any errands by asking him to help me plant some plants I got to fill in a few spaces in the front garden. I kept him occupied for a while with that and then had him run to the store with me to make sure we had food since everything would be closed for Easter. I kept him out until about 3:45. We got home and as we were driving in, I told him "surprise" and he looked confused by all the cars. He asked me what was going on and I told him everyone came to surprise him for his birthday. We had a pretty good turn out, including his 3 best friends.
We had one close call when his friend, Big John, drove up as we were leaving for the store. Karl stopped and asked him what he was up to and John quickly came up with a story about stopping by on his way to see a friend who lives near us. Karl told him we were running to the store and would be back soon and he should come back when he got done at his buddy's. Whew! Even with that small snag, Karl never wised up to any of the plans.
A little while after we got back, Jenny showed up with her husband, Jeff, her son Reece (8 years old), and her daughter Ryan (almost 6). Unfortunately, I was not outside when they drove up, but Nic said as they drove down the driveway, Karl asked him who it was. Nic told him that was his other surprise. I know he was excited to see them all pile out of the truck.We made sausage wraps and everyone brought something to go with them. It was nice and easy and, as usual, there was really good stuff to eat. Everyone had a good time catching up and watching the kids do stunts on their bikes. Reece brought a skate board looking thing he called a ripstick. It's hard to explain how it works, but it was really neat to watch him ride it. He is a little daredevil (Ryan is too). Then we had a good time watching all the older boys try to ride it. Luckily no one got hurt.
After everyone funneled home, we played some Rockband with Reece and Ryan. It was quite an interesting concert. I got some really cute pictures of Nic helping Ryan play the drums and then the guitar. I also got some good ones of Reece and Ryan singing together.
After the kids went to bed, Nic and I helped Jeff hide 84 plastic Easter eggs around the yard. There were some really great hiding places! We finally got to bed around midnight. I woke up this morning to the sound of pouring rain. I guess the Easter bunny didn't check the weather report. Other than some wet eggs, no damage was done by the rain. The most important thing, the candy, was safe in the plastic.
This morning I made some biscuits (courtesy of Pillsbury) and scrambled eggs. Then everyone got dressed and eventually we made it out to watch the kids hunt for eggs. We had to play the hot and cold game with a few of them because we did such a great job of hiding them. We had the kids count the eggs afterward and all 84 ended up in their bags.
The kids discovered the school bus in the yard and had a great time opening and closing the door and honking the horn. Then Pop Pop Karl got the keys and took them for a little ride in it. Very exciting! We got some great pictures too.
They left this afternoon and we've spent the rest of the day recovering from party overload. Now we're just enjoying a gorgeous day.
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