Surprise!

Yesterday we threw a surprise birthday party for SIL1. Her hubby has been planning it for a few months and lots of folks helped to decorate and cook. We had it at church under the guise of a Family Fun Day. Everything worked out perfectly and she had no idea what was going on ... until she got sick and decided to stay home. Uh-oh! BIL1 had to coax and convince her to come which made her realize that something else was going on. She was a good sport in spite of not feeling well. Family and friends came out and there was lots and lots of really good food! I think everyone has a nice time. It was a perfectly beautiful day and later in the afternoon My Man and the Boogie and I went for a nice long walk. It was so lovely we didn't want to come inside.

For the past several weeks I've been telling my class that they were going to sing a memory verse in front of the church. I've been hyping it up by telling them that if they stood up there nicely and sang OUT LOUD they would get a surprise. (I'm never above bribing 4- and 5-year-olds.) Today was the big day and don't you know they all did exactly what they were supposed to do, even EK who has only been in the class for a few weeks and isn't even three yet! Their surprises were puzzles (from the dollar spot in Target -- gotta love $1.00 bribes) and of course I lavished praise upon them. We'll have to do it again soon.

Tonight we had a little graduation ceremony at church. There were 2 young men who graduated from eighth grade and 2 kindergarten graduates. HJ did a presentation of the Pledge of Allegiance, memory verses, a little doctrine drill, some math, and a song. She was nervous at first but did so well once she got going! Afterwards we had more cake. Next Sunday is EK's birthday (more cake) and the weekend after that is a wedding (more cake!) It's been a good weekend and My Man only has to work four days this week -- since July 4th falls on a Saturday he gets Friday off.

Almost nine o'clock, time for a small person to go to bed ...