[Mommy's Thoughts]Received 04/01/2007 02:46

Another Successful Surprise = A WILD Time Had by All

We did it! We did it! Hooray! This is a tune that I hear ALL the time at my house courtesy of Hannah and her trusty sidekick Dora. Drives me insane! But it IS a fun way to celebrate when you do something good...

We have been plotting and planning Granny's 60th Surprise party since last January when she pulled one over on PaPa. The plan was simple: get Mom to come down to Texas and then everyone else would sneak across the Red River and join us for the festivities.

Well, sounds simple enough, but Dad decided to be a good Boy Scout and be in charge of the camp this summer so off to training he went where else, but the Fort Worth area. The training fell on our Spring Break so Mom came down with him and spent half the week with me and the other half with Josh.

I kept her busy sorting Hannah's clothes and the baby's clothes, and pairing up Hannah's socks which was NO easy task. (I swear if they made disposable socks I would buy them. I can't keep two socks paired together to save my life!)

Anyway... we had lots of little projects to keep her busy. We even made time for some fun things such as touring a few mansions, the Civil War Museum, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (one of FW's hidden treasures).

The hard part was making sure that everything that would scream PARTY was out of sight! Good thing Hannah is not at the age of spilling the beans...

Off to Josh's house she went on Tuesday evening so I could "rest" I mean finish up some last minute plans. The cake was ordered, the hotel rooms reserved, and the reservations were made. Now we just had to wait until SAT... But Mom was ready to go HOME by then. Little did she know we had a fun filled weekend ahead of us!

We started the morning off with a surprise at our house. Everyone met here to wait for her. She and Dad arrived moments before the last guest snuck in.

In walks Granny and "Surprise"! She thought she was coming over to say goodbye, but off to our first adventure we went. We all jumped in the cars to head to a little place outside of Glen Rose, Texas called Fossil Rim. I had heard neat things about it, but wasn't quite sure what to expect. It is a little like Arbuckle Wilderness for you Okies out there.

We had so much fun! You drive through a 5 mile park at about 15 mph and feed safari animals! Zebras, giraffes, deer of all kinds, emus, ostriches, etc... The kids were able to get out of their car seats. Hannah had a blast peeking her head through Aunt Sarah's sun roof with a little help from Hayden.

Halfway through, we stopped for a picnic lunch. It was definitely Hannah's kind of restaurant: No sitting still was required! We visited a children's petting zoo where Hannah had fun touching the goats and bouncing on the bounce house.

We finished up the Safari ride and headed back to Cowtown for a swim before dinner. We ate dinner at Moni's Italian Table, a quaint little family owned Italian place that opened a mile from my school last year. We even had cake which Hannah just couldn't wait for once again. (This time she let Granny blow out the candles before she tried to partake in the frosting!)

After dinner off to the hotel we went for another swim. The next morning we all woke for a breakfast and ANOTHER final swim before we headed back to Prestwick Drive for a BBQ lunch complete with pinata breaking and more cake!

Hope everyone had a great time! Too bad the next 60th birthday is a few years off. Right, Nate? I guess we will have to settle for the 40th wedding anniversary in August. See everyone at the winery! Better get those invites started.

PS Photos have been sitting in the gallery for the past week. It has just taken me a little while to get the post written. Click on 2007 photos and find the Granny link. Enjoy!