Surprise Party!!!

Mel's birthday is coming up, and we totally surprised her!!!! With a week of planning, some serious decorating magic (and more)  from Emmalee, and guest work (and more) from Ashley, we were able to pull off this party - as a complete surprise! (Which, by the way, is a VERY hard thing to do - you know what I mean if you know Mel!)

Have a look at this awesome set-up!

The theme was Mel's favorite things, so we chose lots of her favorite food to serve.

The decoration colors are her favorite - pink, yellow, red.

Emmalee's decorations covered every possible place! They were awesome!!!

Emmalee also planned some fun, fun games - about how well we know Mel. Here, we had to guess her favorite things, like lotion, movie, candle scent, etc. 

I really liked this game! Pictures from Mel's growing-up years hung from balloons. Some of them were numbered, and we had to guess how old she was in each picture. (I did horribly in this game because I was usually off by one year. I think I only got 2 correct!)

We got to fill out a survey about Mel. I actually did pretty well on this one!

Claire and Ryan helped set the party mood by making some noise.

Stephen and Mel went to a movie, and when we saw that they were pulling in the garage, we had people crouch behind the island.

I'm not sure what she was thinking at this point,

But we all jumped out and surprised her,

and she seemed to take it all in that all of this was for her!

Surprise! Happy Birthday!

The kids loved the confetti, of course!

Way to go, girls! We did it!

Kyle wasn't too sure about everything.

 But Evan picked up lots of confetti, put it in his cup, and then threw it in the air!

Eric actually got to attend one of Em's parties! Yay!

Emmalee - in her element, I think! She was awesome! :-) She gave us the answers to all the games.

Prizes were awarded.

And prizes were shared.

Then Mel opened her presents. She got some winners!

Claire seemed bored eating her Rosa's queso; I'm not sure how that's boring, though!

It was a fun party, if I do say so myself!

These two guys volunteered for dish duty! Thank you to them and to everyone else who stayed and helped clean up. That was fantastic!

Most importantly, happy birthday to Mel! I'm so so so so glad we actually surprised you! And I hope you enjoyed your party! (Who am I kidding? - I know you did!) Love you! 

Utah

We went to Utah for Jordan's cousin's wedding. I seemed to forget my camera a number of times, so I only have a few pictures. (And some of these are just from my phone. I still think they show some of the beauty that I saw!)

Jordan and Claire in front of the Manti Temple.

The newlyweds! - Jessica and Justin

And this is the beauty that I'm talking about. From the flowers to the mountains, it was beautiful!

Here is the old Provo Tabernacle. It burned at some point, so now it is being turned into a temple inside. It's nice that the building can be preserved.

We drove around one day with Ashley, Dave, Amy, and Kate. Here are the three little girls.

We had fun with these kiddos!

We ate an amazing lunch at Gandolfo's Deli. - I recommend it! After lunch, Claire found some shade.

We enjoyed seeing so many family members in Utah. One night Claire and I went to bed pretty late, and Jordan was hanging out with his family. A couple of hours later, he came in and said he hadn't laughed that much in years! He had a headache from laughing for two hours straight! I'm very glad we were able to make this trip. We had a great time!

Gender Reveal: It's a ......

Is this Baby Cooper a he or a she? Let's party and find out which one it'll be!

My sister-in-law Mel threw us an awesome gender reveal party. Just look at this spread and the fun decor!

We had Dude Food (pizza, wings, T-bone steak, etc.) and Chick Picks (fruit, cheese & crackers, caprese kabobs, etc.) For dessert we had chocolate chip cookies - some with nuts and some without.

We had a little raffle where everyone put in a dollar, and someone from the winning team would win all the money.

We signed in with a suggested name for the baby.

And we all wore pink or blue to show if we thought Baby Cooper's a girl or a boy. (Are those guys brothers or something? They all look alike!)

I'm glad my mom and sister could come for the fun!

Here's a little side note. The night before the party I dreamed that I slept through the party, and no one came to wake me up. I came downstairs, the party was over, and it had been revealed that it was a girl. When I woke up from my dream, I really wondered if I had slept through the party!

Jordan and I frequently ask Claire if she wants a little brother or a little sister. Her answer varies daily, but on the day of the party she said sister. So she wore pink, too!

Mel had asked me some questions about old wives' tales to predict if I'm having a girl or a boy.

And we did a few tests at the party, like this one where Jordan held my wedding ring from a strand of my hair over my big belly to see if it swung in circles or just stayed still.

After eating, 

we all went outside for the big reveal!

We have team pink,

and team blue.

Jordan cut open the box,

and we were so excited to find out what this baby will be!

It's a .....

BOY!!!!!!!!

This family of pink had it all wrong! Claire's getting a baby brother!

Team Blue - hooray!

Team Pink - better luck next time! 

Checking out the ultrasound pictures

Here's another side note. Ever since I was pregnant with Claire, Jordan has said that we are going to have all girls. I got used to that idea, and I've been totally okay with that. So I just figured this baby was a girl. But a few weeks before my ultrasound, I had the feeling that this baby might be a boy. At the ultrasound, we told the techs that we didn't want to know. They found out the baby's gender, wrote it down, and put that paper in an envelope. They also included some ultrasound pictures. I mailed the envelope to Mel, so she could get the balloons ready. But at the ultrasound, two different techs - at two different times - referred to the baby as "she" or "her." I just figured they slipped up. So I left the ultrasound thinking this baby is a girl. They tricked me! And I was completely surprised at the party!  - You can tell I was surprised in this video because I said, "No way!!!!" as soon as I saw the blue balloons!



Kyle was the big winner of the raffle!

And he also had fun in the big box with balloons!

Thanks, Mel, for throwing us such a fun party! Thanks to those who helped, too! It was awesome, and now we are excited to get ready for this baby boy! 

Iron Chef College Station - Watermelon

August 3rd is National Watermelon Day, so why not celebrate by having an Iron Chef all about watermelon?!!

Chef Laura made a watermelon cake. Chef Nicole made a sauce to drizzle over watermelon, (among other things).

I made a watermelon-limeade slush.

And Chef Breanne made watermelon sorbet floats.

We also had some cheese, lunchmeat, and crackers, since the main ingredient isn't very filling. (It's 92% water, after all!)

We had a lot of fun, and the food was fantastic, too!

The winner for taste was Breanne. The winner for presentation was Laura. And I won for creativity, but I gave up the prize to Nicole.

Happy National Watermelon Day!