I'm De-Throned

It is official...I must climb off my throne-at least for another year! My birthday weekend could not have been more perfect and even though the kids asked me how I wanted to celebrate and I thought I knew what was in store, they had some tricks up their sleeves!

After a quick breakfast, the early arrivals (I must say that it was amazing that the whole family made it here today-we had football games, sorority philanthropy, job training, football weigh-ins and an engineering fair to mentor) got busy on wire brushing, washing and re-painting 20 pieces of pool deck furniture and two trellises. 

It was nice to watch the work for a change, but I couldn't stand it for long and just had to get my hands dirty-even though I was "queen for a day"-lol.

The re-painting is NOT an easy job and always takes me several days. The group moved on to other things and once the furniture was dry, they moved it back, washed the cushions and glass table tops and got it all good to go again! They also repaired lots of broken wood on our many feet of fence, cut down the crepe myrtles and helped me weed and rake the side gardens. Then, on Sunday, my son-in-law built my new shelves for our guest bathroom. I have wanted to do this for so long so he finally got it done for me. And, I got the expert advise from the two decorators in our family and we are now in the process of finding just the right woven blinds for our living room windows. This update has been another thing on my wish list for a long, long time.

While Todd, Elton Jim and I finished up some work on the fencing, the rest of the gang was secretly working on big things in the house.

They decorated and cooked.

They finally let me in...

...and I was truly surprised. They had the whole dining room decorated-sorry, I was too busy enjoying to get a good picture- and greeted me rather royally...

...with a fan reception and all other accolades-lol.

They led me to the table where they had unearthed some pictures that even I don't have. What a trip down memory lane! And then they really got me-they presented me with my mom's old lap desk full of 70 memories of me written by my family and friends. I must say the tears were rolling after some of these and oh what good times they all recalled! It is amazing to know that the things that have always meant so much to me-but I didn't think would be remembered by others-were many of the things that they hold dear as well!

And, after reading all 70 of them out loud, in came the cake cakes. There is a joke-with maybe just the smallest ring of truth-that says I am NOT a good sharer where my Wright's Gourmet coconut cake in concerned...and so, I was greeted with this. It made perfect sense to me-lol.

Thank goodness they thought about the fire hazard-the alarms would still be ringing if they filled that cake with the right number of candles!

I love how these kids love spending time together!

Even after a long day of hard work, we were able to get these beautiful smiles!

This picture did not happen as easily. The girls DID NOT want pictures. They said they weren't dressed right, they didn't have on make-up, they had been working all day,..... I promised that I wouldn't post it on Facebook-and I didn't-but I didn't mention the blog. Shhh...just in case...don't tell them you saw it here.

My brother and sister-in-law not only spear headed a lot of today's chores but have been coming down to visit a lot and helping out with all sorts of things...and for that, we could not be more grateful! And, of course, Jasper had to get in the picture as well.

And so, it if finally official!

So now it is time to really get the plans in order for next weekend. The kids will be here for a quick St. Pat's celebration before they head off on spring break. Stay tuned.