An EVERYTHING Party

My dad owns a custom harvesting business, and every summer he travels with his business associate, a.k.a. his brother, all over the Midwest cutting wheat. Since he is gone much of the summer, he misses out on several different celebrations including Father's Day, my brother Sawyer's birthday, Colter's birthday, and 4th of July. This year we got smart and combined a Memorial Day barbecue with all the parties Dad will miss when he's gone. We had a Memorial Day/Father's Day, Colter and Sawyer's birthday/4th of July party---an EVERYTHING party! In case you couldn't tell, we're totally into excess.

I was in charge of desserts, so I made an early birthday cake for Sawyer's and Colter's June birthdays. I should have put a times 5 by the three to show that Sawyer's going to be 15, but he's an old dude now, so he didn't mention the three. I made a yummy flag Jello poke cake for 4th of July.Even at a barbecue, my card fanatic family works in some pitch. They're so dedicated to pitch, they'll even play outside. John likes to play as my dad's partner because they usually win, but John's going to be out a partner for a few months. :( Colter had lots of people to play with! Look at all those BOYS!

The older boys took the little boys swimming in a frigid pool.Colter was too wimpy (or SMART) to stay in the icy water long, so he hung out on the ladder and whacked people with a pool noodle.

To end the evening, we shot off fireworks for 4th of July!

It was apparent that Daddy and my uncle Ron always miss the 4th of July as we were shooting off fireworks. Someone handed Ron a fairly powerful firework that should be set on the ground and lit, and then it shoots up into the air and explodes, just like a miniature version of what one would see at a fireworks display. Instead of setting the firework on the gound, Ron held it in his hand to light it and threw it down, and it landed on its side shooting flares along the ground! THANKFULLY, it was shooting away from all of us and no one exploded, so it was just hilarious instead of painful. My uncle is 50ish, and he doesn't know how to work firecrackers! We should have had an everything party long before now because he's been missing out.

We had a fun evening but I was oh, so ready to crawl into bed when we got home. Celebrating four events in one is exhausting!