Family, Birthday, Party!

April 30 was a fun day for us! Cailean's parents arrived first. They were coming up to spend the week with us, but they did not know that Cailean's brothers and their families were coming here. So, Neal, Megan and Neal Thomas arrived just in time for dinner. We were outside enjoying the beautiful weather and they drove up asking Cailean's dad for directions to Bennington. hahaha A few hours later Eric, Michele and Sarah arrived and they asked his dad if they knew where the Turners lived. Cailean's mom's jaw pretty much dropped to the floor for both arrivals.

It happened to be the weekend that Ian was turning SEVEN! On Saturday, between the games, we played outside at our house. Love this photo of the three of them!
Cailean's parents didn't expect to have this photo taken when they arrived to NC! They were pretty lucky to have their grandkids with them for a weekend.

Ian's birthday was on Sunday. One of Ian's birthday gifts was this football buddy thing, so the boys thought it would be neat to have a group photo while sitting on it.

Cailean took his parents and Gavin fishing at Bond Lake right near our house while Ian and I were at work/school. Gavin caught a catfish and a bass!

Thanks to Uncle Eric, the boys were given this 6 foot rocket that goes about 100 feet up in the air. It was very cool!!

This photo is pretty funny with everyone's reactions to the blastoff!

On Saturday morning Gavin his fan club for soccer games had expanded due to the family in town. What a very lucky boy! We were able to spend a lot of time with them while they were in NC. Unfortunately Ian came down with a virus and had to miss 2 days of school and had to see the doctor. A bummer he was sick on his birthday, but he has bounced back pretty quickly. Just to spend time at home with the relatives was just perfect!

I love this picture of Gavin with his great grandmother! My grandparents are there for every single one of their games!!

Look who is on deck!

After pitching an inning he scored a spot at 1st base!

The following weekend (this weekend) was a big weekend, too. Friday night we helped set up for Ian's school's spring festival. The boys had so much fun playing all the different games and watching teachers get dunked in the dunking booth. On Saturday we had a very early morning at the ballparks with an 8am baseball game with Ian. He pitched the first inning, played outfield, first base and shortstop. He went 2-for-2 and had 1 RBI. Right after his game ended we all ran over to Gavin's soccer field to watch his 9:30am game! My grandparents could have driven around for a few minutes between games, but they chose to get the good seats and go right to soccer. Love it!!! Gavin let my grandmother borrow his baseball hat!

Gavin is definitely a little superstar on the field. Another goal in this game and was just all over the place.

We had a couple hours before our next big event: IAN'S BIRTHDAY PARTY!!! Yes, we had his party at the park (I know...6 years in a row at the same location)! It just the perfect place for this type of gathering. Ian had A LOT of friends attend from church, school, sports teams and Y-Guides. He is very fortunate to have such awesome friends!

On the way to the park we decided to swing into Station 5 and ask if they could do a drive by at our birthday party. Well, they totally came through! At 4pm we had the fire truck arrive at the park with some firemen. They were given a lengthy tour of the entire truck and were able to sit in it. When they left, they had the sirens on and the lights. Very cool! My grandfather was speechless and marched right up to them...introduced himself and proceeded to tell them he was a volunteer fireman! They were awesome to him and invited him to the firehouse.

The kids were great (of course) and listened to everything they had to say. What a great group and it sure was a big hit!

My mom completely came through (no surprise there!!!) with the Batman theme cake!!!! She made a cupcake cake and then designed a car for the batmobile. Notice the sign? 2003 because that is his birth year. #7 on the car for his age. The license plate was NCS for NC State. Mom is so clever!!!! Everything has a significance!

After we sang to Ian and had cake we had turns trying to break open the pinata! Everyone had 2 turns and then it cracked open! Lots of good candy in there!! What next? Water balloon toss!

What a blast and they seemed to have enjoyed it.

We concluded the big day with dinner at Chick-fil-A with my grandparents and mom, then off to mom's for Ian to open up his birthday gifts. His birthday has been going on all week! Tomorrow he'll have his birthday meal at Bob Evans for brunch. He received his coupon in the mail, but couldn't go last week since he was sick!