"Sweet 16"

Our First Girl Baby turned 16 years old on April 27th. We wanted this to be the most special birthday to date for her so we planned a surprise party with all of her friends. The plan was that Ryleigh was going to spend the day with her since she would be out of town on Darbi's "real" birthday. They were going to see a movie and then Ryleigh was going to cut Darbi's hair and then head over to our house where the party would be held.

Everything was going along nicely. We had arranged with a couple of friends to make up a list of friends that would be invited to the event and then have them hand out the invitations at school.

Some of the activities would be Volleyball out in the yard, ping-pong, and Guitar Hero. We had planned a bar-b-q for dinner and lots of fun food to eat. The only problem was that we didn't really have anywhere to eat outside and so...the wonderful deck was created just in time to celebrate. It was perfect, the Gazebo was put up and the bar-b-q was placed on the deck. We loved the way everything was coming together.

The weather was going to be "OK", by that I mean that it was not supposed to be sunny and warm but it was not supposed to be raining either. We had moderate temps and stronger than desired wind, but it was fine. Everyone was still willing to be outside playing and eating.

Guests started to arrive at about 5pm and Darbi was scheduled to arrive at 5:30. Ryleigh kept us posted on their activities and as soon as they were close we had everyone go to the garage and Darbi would enter this was to the house because the front door would be locked. Everything went as planned...it was perfect...she didn't have a clue...all of her friends were totally excited for her and had done a great job of keeping the whole thing a secret.

Kids played and ate all night long, we even had a "frosting" eating contest which was rather gross but fun to watch. Cody certainly won in my book and Jenna was a close 2nd, Baily just couldn't bring herself to put that whole "frosting balloon" in her mouth.