happy birthday trey!

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Trey, happy birthday to youuu!!

Trey, you are one of the sweetest young men around and you display that trait in your everyday life. Along with your concern and heart for others, you amaze me with your kind spirit, your willingness to help others when you see they're in need of assistance, and above all, your passion for learning God's Word and practicing it in your daily life, where you realize it for not. You are one Godly guy. What a catch! :)

I am so glad God brought your family into our lives and I'm reminded of it each time I see you and Clark, the leaders, together. 

Happy birthday, dude!!

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This afternoon we threw a surprise birthday party for Trey and what a party it was! Miss Danielle had been planning it for what seemed like ages, and she is the queen of parties, ya'll. Working/testing out Family Fun games makes the Furlough parties the best! 

Since Miss Danielle and Mr. Lennie were going to be super busy leading the games and watching over everyone, I offered to take my camera along to snap some pics {more like over 200 but who's counting}. Really, it was just an excuse to hang with them and have fun at the party because let's face it: I love parties. So, I invited myself under the disguise of taking pictures. Having a nice camera has it's perks, you know. ;) 

Click HERE to see the best shots of the evening, but since no birthday post is complete without some evidence of the festivities, I thought I'd share some of my personal favorites...

Pulling up; Trey was a smarty-pants and looked under the blindfold to confirm his suspicions... ;)

& this was right after Clark told him we each had a million dollars for his present. Funny guy that Clark is...

Playing Water Balloon Toss with a twist: using towels to launch/catch the balloons. 

Amazing Race al a Family Fun! 

Water bucket race... 

This was by far my favorite game: stuffing "worms" into a water bottle. Sticky beyond belief, but so fun to watch the boys and their partners stuff in the noodles. We found noodles in our hair and on our clothes for hours afterwards. 

See what I mean?!

Pizza time!!

{Andrew, Nate & Clark}

{Jonathan, Trey, Joshua, and Will}

DODGEBALL aka the best game we played that night!! I was thisclose to winning a round before Mr. Lennie tagged me. At least I didn't trip and land on my back like I did in the first round... :)

Cake time! Kudos to the Furlough kids for making one awesome tasting cake! 

Picture time!

Ah, good times and great memories!! Happy birthday, Trey!

blogging break {Wed. to Sat.}

Part deux, readers!

{Wednesday 4.20}

Ah, a day filled with extended family. A couple weeks ago we arranged to hang with the Water's for the afternoon. Many phone calls later, we re-arranged to come at dinner {which was awesome; Gran Jan is the bestest cook} and spend the night. Winning!

Activities included bunny hunting... 

...walks in the neighborhood...

Side note: Seconds before I snapped this they were all huddled together. Aunt AM looked at each other and said "That's be a great picture!!" and I held up the camera, put my finger on the shutter button and...they pretty much heard the click and dispersed. PhotoFAIL.

...trips to the park...

Nice bench, Garrison... ;)

...rides through the Grandmother's neighborhood in the back of a pick up...

Ha, no words for Quinn's enthusiam...

...More bunny hunting after a delicious dinner only Gran Jan could make...

{Thursday 4.21}

Day 2 of the epic cousin sleepover! After the best bagels made with love by Gran Jan, numerous turns on theWii {in capes on less} and turns playing computer games, it was off to the ECU park for us!

Apparently it's fun to scale the slide in this picture. I thought it was a good way to fall and break all 276 bones in your body, but I guess that's just me.

Swings are fun, swings are cool. Swings are the only time Garrison let me take his picture...

Except for this one. I guess he was just being nice... ;)

Behind the park was a trail, and the boys & I were the only ones who ventured away from the people to go explore.

We found a dog pen in the back of someone's lot and instantly fell in love with each and every one of the pups.

After we'd had our share of screaming littles {it was apparently park day for the preschools around here}, we headed back to the house to listen to the rumbles of thunder and play a little Park & Shop. And, of course, make funny faces for the photog... ;)

{Friday 4.22}

If you can believe it, we had another sleepover; this time with Emily  and Andrew! God blessed us with plenty of precious time with family and friends last week, and I'm so grateful for it. 

As always, a yummy dinner was followed by a round of Life {pictures of the spouses below}, a movie, and general silliness at bedtime. Apparently, when I get tired, I tend to lapse into giggle fits, and Katie's  history of what she ate that day wasn't helping my case. I think it was midnight before we ever fell asleep! 

{Clark and his spouse}

{Emily's sick-looking hubby}

{My horribly pale hubs and I}

{Andrew and his wife}

{Saturday 4.23}

Part 2 of the Nichols' sleepover. It was long after 8AM before I ever woke up, and I stumbled into the boys room to see Andrew and Clark playing computer with Emily fallen asleep on the bed! :) After a yummy southern breakfast, we sat and watched AI highlights and generally vegged out because of our late night. Many minutes later we realized we were supposed to leave RIGHT THEN, so we threw on some clothes and out the door to our house we went!


When we got back, it was the first mowing of the season, so we donned our mowing clothes {read: basketball shorts and an oversized t-shirt} and off I went. And, to this day, I'm not allowed to mow anything except the field, which is basically an acre with nothing on it. Imma thinkin' it's because of THIS incident, but you never know... ;)

Phew, you're all caught up on my glamourous life. ;) If you're still awake, come back over will you?