THE 3 DAY BIRTHDAY BASH

This year it was just too easy to use the 3 day weekend to celebrate my birthday. What a great time we had. Gary, Judi, and Andrea did most of the work and enlisted the help of all the kids to give me a chance to relax.

The boys making plans to "destroy Grandpa" with their nerf guns.





Grandpa rises to the challenge and off they go.

HA HA! Santa brought Grandpa the best Nerf gun and nobody can beat him.

He is relentless and wipes out the whole lot of them.

RUN, you wimpy kid. You're toast!

Andrea does her usual beauty treatments on the girls and makeover hairdos for the boys. Amazing how empowering a new look can be.

It's time for the Bocce Ball tournament...let's go!!

Contestants divide into teams: RED, BLUE, YELLOW, and GREEN.

Each round of throws has to be carefully measured to determine winners.

RED team (Corinne and Redden) wins!!!!

Water play consisted of the sprinkler and the hot tub as the pool wasn't open yet.

On Sports Day in Korea they held a shoe-kicking contest which was pretty fun, so we decided to give it a try in Grandview, America. Here are some participants warming up for the kick-off.





Somebody's kick was a little off and the shoe landed on top of the "greenhouse" which was filled with water from the rain. Redden tried to get it off by poking it with a board. What he got was completely drenched. So some genius suggested a ladder and Rich finally got it down. Too bad the rules required horizontal distance rather than vertical.

Then Rich went on to win the tournament. Don't mess with the champion. He could kick you into the middle of next week.

It was a perfect night for S'Mores. Grandpa and Redden built the fire and we stayed up way too late.

Our entertainment for the evening was the stand-up (or rather sit-down) comedy of Uncle Rich sharing his words of wisdom with the kids.

The family talent show may become a tradition. Here's Sam sharp shooting at his moving target.

Corinne, Natalee, Sophie, and Jessi sing "A-You're Adorable" to Grandma.

Here's the male quartet with a rendition of something quite forgetable.

Natalee and Sophie singing and dancing. Jessi turns up everywhere.

The girls doing "Granny Smackdown." Don't ask.

Natalee goes solo performing her school talesnt show number.
There's Jessi again.

Redden does the McDonalds rap with his mom...he knows every word. Jessi, wait your turn.

I'm not waiting any longer to do my dance...get off the stage!

Sophie plays Twinkle Twinkle (AKA ABC) on the piano.

Finally we were favored with a series of tricks.

First came the monkey trick by Austin.

Then Austin and Redden did scooter tricks.

Soccer tricks by Harrison.

Stroller tricks by Jessi.

Driveway birthday messages.

THE CAKE! Andrea did the writing.

The singing, then the blow out.

ATTENTION!

This next part is messages for all the cousins that were not here this weekend.

LOOK!

It's high time to get this trailer out of here...it's been here since Thanksgiving.

Now a familiar part of our yard decor is gone. Guess we'll have to replace it with another car.

Grandpa is crying to see everyone leaving...or was it for the trailer?


Now we're alone again! We miss everyone, but WE NEED THE REST!