Surprise Party

Today we surprised the boys with a joint birthday party. We've never had the invite-your-class-of-friends kind of party before today. Neither of the boys were suspecting anything since Evan's birthday was two weeks ago and Hans' is in three weeks. Nathan took the kids with him for a few hours as I prepped the party. The guests arrived and stayed out of sight as we brought the boys back and all shouted "SURPRISE!"  The guests were pretty excited as many mentioned they'd never been to a surprise party before.  (Pic. #1: The boys reaction. Pic. #2 The guests before the boys arrived.)

It's hard to see, but the banner above the guests' heads reads, "Happy Birthday Evan & Hans." 

Once the party was going, we started with a long obstacle course. There were some typical parts of the course but there was also a t-shirt spraying part (# 3) and a cone dipping part (#4). 

We had several relay races, one was water from bucket to bucket (#5) and one involved taking shoes off and on (#7).  We started with a water balloon toss but the kids all preferred a water balloon throw so after each of the kids was armed with a balloon I gave them instructions to "get Mr. Smith" and everyone including Nathan took off running (#6). 

There was some free time for playing with friends and exploring the partially built fort (#8). 

We added ice cream to those cones we made, lit two candles, and sang Happy Birthday (#9).  The boys each received plenty of presents from generous friends (#10). The party wound down and parents came to collect their happy kids. We thanked the guests and said good bye to each of them.  Evan and Hans still seemed a little awestruck at the whole event.

Then we gave the boys one final surprise, new bikes! (#11)  Happy Birthday Boys!  Hopefully this will be remembered at one of the childhood "greatest days ever" in years to come.