A Surprise Party

Carter on the morning of his 13th Birthday!  So handsome and such a great kid.  He is so responsible and smart.  He is always trying to help me with the kids and always filled with gratitude to his Mom and Dad.  Love this guy!  Some of his gifts didn’t quite make it in the mail here for the big day.  We are getting used to this at our house since we have to order lots from the “States” and there is no rhyme or reason as to when stuff arrives.  

Our CARTER turned 13 on May 4th which happened to be a Friday this year…..perfect for a surprise Party. We planned ahead and got lists from the church kids and school kids of friends of Carter. Made phone calls for email addresses and got an EVITE sent out announcing the big SURPRISE EVENT! Some kids at 12-13 are better at keeping surprise parties secret than others. (Poor Davis was a little confused and went up to Carter on Wednesday before the big event and said “ Are you having a party this Friday for your birthday?”) Carter came home that night from school asking if there was a surprise party for him. I, crestfallen, but without trying to show it, lied through my teeth and tried to sound convincing. (A skill I acquired during my own teenage years)! So I had to do a little damage control and have some friends invite him over Friday after school to make it look like there really wasn’t a party. Who better than to have do the inviting? Yep you guessed it, DAVIS!! Thankfully Jessica his mom and I are good friends and had a good time teasing Davis about trying to ruin the surprise. Here are all the kids (some hiding behind Curtains and pillows), waiting for the birthday boy to walk in!!!  We invited all the deacons, all the beehives, and two friends from school.  It was a great turn out.  Only two girls did not come.  We were happy to see that everyone loves our Carter as much as we do.  Even Ryan and Katie Johnson drove an hour from Heidelberg to be here for the fun time!!!  So we had 22, 12 and 13 year olds to entertain.  ( I know right?  we must really LOVE this kid).  The funniest part was that Jessica (Davis’ mom) dropped them off: Carter, Davis and Ridge to the house and they came in.  Carter made his way to the living room after taking off his shoes and everyone yelled SURPRISE!  His reaction was hilarious.  He looked at them all didn’t skip a beat and was like oh’ hey.  Completely stoic and unchanged.  We were sure he must have known about the party, but he said no he didn’t when we asked him.  ( He just isn’t very outwardly emotional or show his feelings) …..  We took no time getting the festivities started….

The first activity included a “PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT” around Schwedelbach.  These were the items they had to get pictures of on their i-touches/ phones:  There were three groups racing to get back to our house. 

1.  Get a picture of at least two people from you group picking the nose of the “Stone Bear” on the Main Street of Schwedelbach. 

2.  Get a picture of somebody in your group on a rock wall by the cemetery. 

3.  Make a pyramid as high as possible at the outdoor soccer field on the way out of town and have one person photograph the rest of you. 

4.  Get a picture of somebody with a chicken in the background. 

5.  Take a picture of a garden gnome somewhere in Schwedelbach….(don’t step in anyone’s yard!)

6.  Get a picture of at least two people from your group with their bare feet in the fountain.  After getting back from this they were completely exhausted, running around our little village back and forth and all!  Next Jared had planned lots of games for the kids.  There was the hula hoop race where two groups race to get the hula hoop around without breaking arms:

The untie your group from the incredible tangled arm mess without unlocking hands:

On a sidenote:  That is the back of our house up above, we love this extra field right off our backyard.  It has soccer goals and nets and is open to anyone around our house to use whenever.  Its like an extended back yard which is perfect for parties!  Can you spy our van and trampoline??  The try to hold up the stiff person game by pushing him around your group (or the get dropped by your friends onto the ground game):And the M&M relay :After feeding them lots of hotdogs, chips, carrots, and soda, we sang to the Birthday boy and had his dessert of choice, which he has named the “INCREDIBLY, DREADFUL, DESSERT”.  It has brownie chunks, heath bar, pudding, and cool whip layered in a trifle dish.  YUM. 

 

After playing some more field games, we started the outdoor movie: GREMLINS.  An old 80’s flick that some had seen, but most had not.  It was great……the weather held out (Jared and I were praying the entire night that the rain that was forecasted would not come, and our prayers were answered, we only had five minutes of a light sprinkle.  The fire pit was going during the movie so they could roast marshmallows if they wanted or there was popcorn to eat.  They definitely had lots of food!  The kids got their lawn chairs out and a lot of girls laid on blankets in the front cuddled together since it started getting cold toward the end.  The party got over at 10:30pm.  After the kids started leaving, Jared ran Katie and Ryan down to Lisa at the church.  It was a long night and the kids were pooped so we didn’t open presents until the following day: 

The little boys got Carter this soldier that he had been eyeing in SPAIN:He got a new book, a DS game, and his big gift was this AIR SOFT GUN.  He was pretty excited about it. 

He sure looks grown up in this picture….don’t know if it’s the hair….oh maybe the fact that he his holding a machine looking gun, yeah that must be it.