Katelyn's 5th Birthday Party!!

We celebrated Katelyn's 5th birthday on Saturday, July 25th(her actual b-day is the 29th). Jen and Anton surprised us with a visit too! Jen & Eric arranged to buy a new car here in Denver and it just so happened to coincide with Katelyn's birthday weekend! YEA! After Jen did her car negotiations, we were able to take Katelyn & Anton to the Butterfly Pavilion-it was so much fun! I love having Jen and Anton here; my sister and nephew came for a visit! I say we do it every year!! (Oh, and I love the new BLING girl!)

Anyway, we had 19 children, 17 adults, and 3 babies at Katelyn's birthday party-WHEW! Special thanks to ALL the adults who really helped me pull that off! My friend Terry made the most delicious "Dog" cake ever! My friend Jody cut the cake(all 40 pieces or so), and EVERYONE else helped to pass out the cake and ice cream, drinks, extra plasticware etc.! Jen was my "go-to" girl for anything else we needed-thanks my friend! Seriously, I appreciate ALL of you!! I couldn't have done it without each of you!! Thank you! Thank you!!

Katelyn has been really into swimming this summer and taking private lessons at the Erie Rec. Center. So naturally we decided to have a swimming party! She chose a dog- theme for her party, of course! And since her favorite color is blue, all of the decorations were blue. (The Rec. Center didn't have "dog" party goods) It worked out really well! We spent the first hour of her party in the "party room" where we had cake and ice cream and opened gifts. Then it was on to the pool for the remainder of the party! I have to say I think everyone had a really good time!! I saw lots of happy smiling faces! My thrill-seeker friends Tera & Cara (and Jen was in on it too) even got me to go down the huge waterslide! IT WAS AWESOME!!! I screamed the whole way down, but what a rush! AND not only did I go down on my back, but they (TERA!!) talked me into going down on my stomach! WOO-HOO!! We had a blast! What wonderful memories! I just have to say how blessed I feel to have such wonderful friends. Friends truly are the family you choose for yourself!

I also want to say a special thank-you to the Hu's for making the drive up from Parker! Katelyn and I will really miss seeing you guys at school this fall, but we'll have to make plans to get together as often as we can!