70th Birthday Party

It's hard to believe, but my dad turned 70 years young today. My mom planned a big birthday party for him.....he knew they were hosting a cookout, but it wasn't until the giant banner proclaiming his birthday went up in the garage that he discovered it was for his birthday. Fortunately, my dad is a really good sport when it comes to my mom's festivities.

Birthday cake made by our babysitter, Lisa

(and transported from Ohio....dog in the (open) trunk, Hannah and I in the backseat, and cake up front with the driver!)

It was devoured by the guests! My mom and her sister were scraping crumbs and icing from the serving platter by the end of the evening.

Daniel & Dad assumed their traditional role of making ribs

Jon & Josh enjoy some "girly drinks" in true Woolley style

Jon's sister actually made it to WV for the party with our nephew, Gavin

(in the Folger Family, in-laws of in-laws just become "more extended family")

As I said, my dad is a good sport.

Mom went a little overboard with a "king/knight" theme.....someone needed to stop Oriental Trading Company deliveries to the house!! But, Dad played along with his crown, goblet, and garden hoe staff. She also had all of the guests sing a "Birthday Cake" song to him that she used to do with her kindergartners at school. It will never be said that my mom didn't know how to have a good time!

Fortunately, mom is also good at feeding a crowd. She expected about 50 people to come to dad's party.....and we think just over 75 ended up coming. We didn't run out of food - the only thing we didn't have enough of was lemonade, which Jon says is only because the iced tea was marked "made with Splenda" and he said that scared people off from drinking it! Some of mom's cousins came, as did one of my dad's sisters-in-law and her son and granddaughter that we hadn't seen in years! We had some neighbors drive down on 4-wheelers (much to the amusement of the city boy that I married) too. People seemed to come out of the woodwork, which was really nice to get to visit with lots of old friends and family members. The following pictures are shots of the guests while dad was being serenaded on the porch.

Once everyone was finished eating.....off to the creek went the kids.....and the Woolley brothers. The creek adventures started with my friend Merritt's son, who loves to play in the creek and also loves to hang out with Big Jon. David looks forward to all of Big Jon's summer trips to WV because they involve creek time. This year Jon (and Josh) were like a pied piper leading kids to the creek -- they had quite a following and I'm not sure who enjoyed it more - the kids or the Woolley boys. They spent at least an hour (probably more) in the creek catching crawdads.

Quite the crew walking up the creek!
Gavin (with Uncle Josh) enjoyed his first time in the creek

Jaidyn's first time in the creek!

The funniest part was seeing those tall Woolley's under the bridge. Jon was under with the kids and Josh kept asking how he was supposed to get under the bridge...apparently he doesn't bend at the waist like Jon!?!

The kids (and boys) found all sorts of fun creatures

Almost everyone who left the party stopped at the bridge to find out what was so exciting....but I guess that is to be expected when you have 15 or so kids and adults stomping up the creek!

All in all we had a really fun day. Jon and I made the giant sign for my dad (after the dog walked on the paper with wet feet while I ran in the house to get more markers! Argh!!), and my sister and I spent part of the morning going through old pictures to make some picture collages for dad showing his life in the navy, with mom, with his friends, hunting, working, etc.....and then his life as dad and grandpap. It was fun to see the pictures and remember the family trips and fun we had as kids. There were pictures of dad (barely awake after working a midnight shift at work) sitting slouched against the wall with a cup of coffee in his hand in almost every Christmas picture, pictures of him beaming while holding his little girls (we are SURE he beamed while holding Daniel too, but we were unable to find any pictures to prove it -- we believe this is the curse of the 3rd child coming into play), pictures out on the boat in the Ohio River, camping and fishing trips, Disney trips, and all sorts of fun times.....as well as pictures of him on the floor playing with his grandkids. We were really lucky to have a great dad growing up who worked hard, but made time for us too. Dad (and mom too....as enforcer of chores) instilled a good work ethic in all of us kids, but it's been fun over the past decade of his retirement to see the "fun Burl" come out who goofs off a little more and who is SO LOVING spoiling his grandkids. I hope Dad enjoyed his birthday party as much as we all did -- it's always fun to celebrate someone special!