Surprise Birthday Party

On February 19th ,we went into operation birthday party. Grandma flew home to LV the night before so that nothing from our usual routine changed. On Saturday morning, Grandma sent Papa out to have the car serviced and then he stopped off to see one of his friends. In that small window of opportunity, the Chicago crew flew in and was picked up by Grandma and the Boston crew drove down. We hid our car in the garage and waited patiently for Papa. Upon his return, Grandma called him into the kitchen and when he poked his head in the door, Papa was actually speechless. It is one of the few times I think we actually surprised him but then again it isn't every day you turn 70.

Saturday evening we rounded up the family and had a semi-surprise party for Papa and Uncle Eric. I say semi-surprise because when going to the Inn with the family and going to the upstairs it can only be one thing - a party.

Izzy had her party outfit on and was ready to go.
The whole Maple Conn crew rallied.
As always, no one wanted to miss a family get together and Dave was full of life.

To Papa and Uncle Eric's surprise, Uncle Warren a life long friend arrived and kept them entertained the whole night. Uncle Warren is full of stories and always makes us all laugh - a personality larger than life.

It was time to blow out the candles and we couldn't find Uncle Eric so Garrett stepped in to assist Bradley and Papa.

(Thank you to Connor for all the pictures from the party)

After recovering from the festivities, we went back to our normal routines the next day. Since it had been Papa's birthday, Connor told Papa it was time for him to go to the doctor. Connor decided to do his own physical and was stumped by Papa's slow heart beat.

Papa even managed to have some quality time with the girls. I went into the playroom to find him singing to the girls and they were both sitting in his lap laughing and smiling. Izzy and Emily really took to each other and Izzy gave lots of hugs to Ems.

Uncle Eric got lots of cuddles from Emily - he was her hot water bottle on the cold winter day.

It was a fantastic trip where we all got to spend time with each other and we managed to surprise the birthday boys. We are so happy it worked out and the kids love surprises.