Surprise Party

This weekend we went to my brother in laws' surprise 40th birthday party!  I was excited because they live across the field from us so we didn't even have to drive far and when the kids got tired we could be home in less than 5 min.  The party was in a large room and from the room we could see when John pulled in the driveway.  All the kids were by the microphone in the back corner telling everyone to be quiet and saying "shh" which was actually quite loud in the microphone.  Everyone was quiet except Cecilia who decided it was a really good time to let everyone know that she was hungry and Joel who kept saying "Mommy" really loud.  Then all of a sudden the sound system made that awful noise when the microphone gets too close to the speaker.  The loud annoying noise where you just want to put your hands over your ears and run away.  I looked over toward where all the kids were by the sound system just in time to see Vince letting go of a knob that he had turned that caused the awful noise.  Someone quickly fixed it.  Then Vince went to touch it again and then Cameron (an older boy cousin that is in kindergarten that Vince loves and follows around like a puppy dog) grabbed Vince by the hand and dragged him over to the pile of toy tractors and told him to stay.  To my surprise it worked!  I was very relieved because I really couldn't do anything at that moment.  I was already holding two kids who didn't want anyone else and trying to keep them quiet for what seemed like an eternity.  It was probably less than 5 minutes.

On the bright side we weren't the ones that ruined the surprise for John.  I guess someone parked out front instead of in the back like the rest of us and that tipped him off.  Plus someone sent him a text message on his way to the party that said something like "sorry we can't make it tonight."  Vince was so excited when Uncle John walked in that he ran right over and gave him a big hug and the paintings he had made for Uncle John.  The rest of the night was spent making sure Vince was still hanging out with his older cousins, chasing Joel and looking around to see who was currently holding Cecilia.  Brad and I took turns chasing Joel so at least one of us could socialize a little bit.  It was a fun and exhausting night!