Sexy and Sixty.

{Watch This Trick Eva}

As a surprise for my mother-in-law's 60th birthday, her brother and family planned a trip here from Ohio.  We had known about it for a few weeks and the kids were so excited to see their cousins.  While we were visiting Friday night when they arrived, it was pretty evident the kids didn't want to split up so I agreed to take them all home instead of dealing with their sad faces.

On Saturday morning Jon had some commitments with the little league, but I knew the kids would only be together for one full day so I wanted to do something fun...taking five kids to see a butterfly exhibit by myself shouldn't' be too hard, right?

{Go Ahead...Touch It Haylee}

The neighbor lady told us when we were leaving the house that the butterflies were attracted to green so I put the two little ones in green but Ronnie was upset because all he had was red...I honestly almost stopped at a store because I knew St. Patrick's Day shirts were five bucks but he got over it and I didn't push the issue.

{Look Everyone ~ It's a Chrysalis!}

{Group Shot ~ Everyone Say Cheese}

Thankfully I didn't stop to pick up that green shirt for Ronnie because the butterflies were flocking to his red...honestly who knows if they can even see in color, right?  But whatever he had, they wanted it.

All the kids were pretty impressed that we saw this blind boy a few times and his little butterfly friend never left his side either and he was in blue!  My heart was warmed by the compassion David had for this boy, asking to take his picture and so happy that he was given the opportunity to carry around this butterfly, mentioning it more than once.

Ronnie kept trying to pass off his butterfly friends to the other kids but after just a minute they were drawn right back to him!

{leery but excited to try it out}

{Haylee with attitude because one wouldn't land on her}

{Yikes ~ Get It Off Me}

After we walked through the gardens and checked out the butterfly exhibit we looked at some of the indoor art but what the kids really wanted to do was walk through the outdoor gardens...in thirty degree weather.

{Listening to the Sounds of the Sea}

David was allowed to take one of his dad's cameras so he felt honored and snapped no less than eleventy billion pictures, but he was having fun.

After we froze our tails off outside for a while, we picked up some lunch and headed home so the kids could take a little nap before the evening's festivities.  I decided at the last minute to have everyone over to our house for Donna's official birthday party.  This meant sixteen people jammed into our house but just the thought of it made me happy...I love a house full of people!

{the welcoming committee}

The men pulled the dinner together while all the women sat around drinking wine, isn't that the way it's supposed to be?  We had steaks and ribs, baked potatoes and salad with all the fixings.

The kids played baseball and bowling on the Wii downstairs while the adults sat around drinking and talking, it was a relaxing evening with good music playing in the background and there was cake!  We played Shout by the Isley Brothers while Donna danced a jig (we somehow have to also work this song into her funeral per her request ~ should be interesting) and then we blew out the candles.

I'll tell you for 60 years old sometimes this woman acts 16 and sometimes 96, but I'm thankful for the days she gets up on a chair and dances like a teenager, just to let us know she's still got it going on.

We were so glad to have been surrounded by family this last weekend, happy they made the trip from afar and hope to have many more get together's this summer because we always have a good time.  Happy Birthday to my mother-in-law, here's hoping to sixty more!