Surprise!

Keri Lynn decorated this delicious three-layer cake. Note that we had to keep it in the microwave to keep it safe from Keva. New on my wish list: Cake holder.
The boys were at a loss as to what to do when the girls infiltrated our house. Konner, as you tell from this picture, has had lots of practice looking pathetic. That's Mac behind Konner. Mac is an honorary Johnson sibling.
Kylie admitted to me that her favorite part of the party was Present Time!
Kylie daintily blew out her candles because she didn't want her Polly Pocket doll's hair to catch on fire.
Here are the girls the morning of the slumber party creating various works of art at the breakfast table. The little boys joined them, but they wanted to eat breakfast first!
Kade is displaying a part of a jaw bone that he and his friend Jack found by the creek. It still has the teeth in it.




Princess Kylie and her royal court
Kylie dances a jig with Keva
Kylie and Hannah in the dining room. We've only used this room once before for our first Thanksgiving. Now we've used it to lay out craft projects and organize goody bags. And now there is a pink stain in the middle of the tablecloth!














We did it. We surprised Kylie by giving her a surprise slumber party. Four of her friends came, so with Kathleen, six very active girls helped celebrate Kylie's eighth birthday. It wasn't easy, and I can't say that Kylie was completely surprised . . .

I went shopping with Keri Lynn and Kathleen and Sunday, and we managed to smuggle party supplies and presents into the house without anyone being the wiser . . . sort of. Actually, Kylie caught on right away that something was up. After all, why would Kathleen have them stay upstairs and play a game for all that time right after we'd just gotten home from Wal-Mart?

And then there was Konner asking Kylie when her party was supposed to be. That didn't help.

Kathleen, trying to be helpful, kept asking leading questions about what Kylie would like for a present and Keri Lynn made a fake list of things with Kylie that she would like to have for her party -- stuff that we had already purchased the day before. The story was that I just wasn't feeling real well and maybe we'd have her party on Friday, so we might as well start planning.

Then, there was the fiasco of trying to cool the cake without it being visible. I had two pans in the microwave and another one in a cabinet, when I decided that I could take the two out to microwave something real quick. After all, what were the chances of Kylie coming in for 1:15 minutes?

So I turn on the microwave and Kathleen pops her head in from the garage. "Kylie's coming! Hide the cake!"

I grabbed one cake pan and Keri Lynn grabbed the other and we ran around to the living room, but Kathleen popped her head in at the front door, "She's coming this way!"

"Ack!" Keri Lynn and I swung back around to the kitchen and stuffed the pans in some lower cabinets just before Kylie came scampering in.

I tried to cover up any suspicion by lecturing Kathleen on not letting Kylie come in through the garage, to which Kathleen balefully (acting) said, "That's why I brought her in through the front door, Mom!" At this point, I just couldn't keep it in anymore and started laughing hysterically. I just knew that I was a really rotten liar, and if Kylie hadn't figured out by now that she was having a "surprise" party tonight, then perhaps I'd better have her take an IQ test.

The plan was for me to take Kylie to Michaels to get craft supplies for her party supposedly scheduled for "maybe" Friday while Keri Lynn and Kathleen decorated, frosted the cake and wrapped the presents and received the guests. While we were at Michael's, Kylie asked me, "Mom, are you tricking me? Are you trying to have a surprise party for me tonight?"

And then, in an effort to build continued trust in my child, I said, "Well, sweetie, you know I haven't been feeling well these last few days. (Which is completely true -- Keith and I both have been nursing colds.) I just don't feel up to it. We need to get so much more for the party, and we still need to invite everyone . . . "

That seemed to satisfy her for the time being.

Then, as we approached home, I called Keri Lynn on the cell phone, "Everything ready, Keri Lynn?" Keri Lynn answered that it was. When I finished the call, I waited.

Sure enough, from the back of the van, "What is Keri Lynn getting ready?"

"Uh, dinner."

"Oh."

So when we got in the house, and everyone yelled surprised, we all wanted to know, "Were you surprised, Kylie?"

She claimed that she was. Yep, right. Oh well. We did try VERY hard!

Kylie did have a great time, though. All of her friends were very sweet and well behaved. They were very busy party kids. They danced and sang in the living room with fun music from the keyboard. They did all kinds of craft projects. They ate corn dogs for dinner (Kylie's favorite) and consumed lots of ice cream and a little cake. They watched Chicken Little all cuddled up on the floor in the family room. Hannah, Kylie's newest friend, recently moved into our development and was Kylie's bunk-mate at Camp Sonshine. The pair of them giggled well into the night.

I joked with the girls that I was going to set my alarm for 6:00 AM the next morning so that we'd all have practice getting up early for school. They really weren't interested in doing that, but they did manage to get up by 7:00ish. (This is definitely not Keri Lynn's slumber party crowd!) They were up and snacking on light breakfast food and then working on more crafts, chasing each other around a little and playing with Kylie's presents, all before I had finished making pancakes and sausage.

Kristofer said to me, "Mom, you're a girl. Maybe you can explain to me why girls scream so much!"

Hmmm. I'll have to get back to him on that one.

So with the last guest gone late this morning, we more or less have spent the rest of the day recuperating. We'll need the rest, because tomorrow Keith has the whole day off and we're going river tubing. There's a place about two and a half hours north of us where we can get on tubes for $3 per person and ride down a river for two hours! Given how much Keva loved the Lazy River at the water park last month, I think she's going to really love this, too! There are life jackets provided and I think we may be able to attach most of our tubes together -- at least I hope we can! At any rate, it will be a lot of fun, I think, and a nice break for us all.

I'm going to Wal-Mart tonight to see if there are water shoes on sale -- we'll need them for our outing. And this time, I'm going to lather on the sunscreen!