Happy Birthday Shannon!

Shannon is 16 years old! It was a great weekend of celebration, beginning with a party on Friday night. We scurried around crazily, cleaning house and preparing for the festivities. er special requests were for two gaming stations (Guitar Hero on the Wii in the living room, Rock Band on the back deck), the trampoline (which was broken - a good friend welded pieces back together and got it fixed just in time) and a bonfire. She had specific recipes for food, and I think we managed to honor most of them.

About 23 people came - guys and girls, a mixture of Shannon's friends from school, sports and church. They are terrific kids, and I was impressed by how they handled themselves and how they treated one another. We had absolutely NO problems, which was impressive - and a testimony to the character of Shannon's friends. They shifted around to play video games, wrestle on the trampoline, visit and eat. At one point they all gathered in the yard to play a game of Capture the Flag, which was loud and intense but fun.

Here's a few pictures...

The food spread, which included meatballs in 'special sauce' (grape jelly and barbecue sauce - who knew??), spinach artichoke dip, fresh veggies, caramel apple dip and a generous supply of junk food.

Here's the crowd as they gathered to pick teams for Capture the Flag.

We had to make a few phone calls to find the exact recipe for the caramel dip, but after figuring it out, we all agreed that it was a huge success. The birthday girl (in her new dress!) was happy!

Shannon and Travis...

Shannon and Erin...

Shannon and Hayley...her best friend...who wrote a song for Shannon as a her birthday gift. Haley secretly met with Sarah for about two weeks to practice; although she is incredibly nervous singing in front of other people, she gathered up her courage and sang the song to Shannon around the bonfire. It was awesome!

We carried our upstairs tv downstairs, borrowed the Playstation and Rock Band disc from Lonnie and set everything up on the deck for Video Game Station #1.

Halay and Darnisha hanging out.

Danielle, Dylan and Travis. And meatballs.

Sunday night we had the family birthday party; our friend Ian tagged along. We had a great meal and a lot of fun, celebrating a very special young lady.