Surprised...finally!

First off, let me say- blogging doesn't seem to be on our priority list this summer. Life is busy... but mostly, we just haven't been taking many pictures! And what's a blog post without pictures? {BORING.} I (Allison) will attempt to get this up to date for you...

Lana's 23rd birthday

Lana, for those of you who haven't noticed, is  the one who gets most of the creative/fun things done  around here. She has the ideas and pulls them off, letting us think we're all doing it together. (Isn't that nice of her?) Well, when her birthday came around, we agreed that she, being the party-giving , surprise-loving person that she is, needed a surprise party. The problem with that was that it is impossible to surprise the girl. Nothing gets by her. All of our bday parties are usually celebrated here on the farm, and with that being right under her nose, that wasn't going to work.
BUT, she unexpectedly came to our help.... she planned the party without knowing it! (which was very considerate of her, I think!) She wanted to visit the church our uncle pastors the day before her birthday, which was something we had been wanting to do for a while anyway. Then she found out our cousins next door had also been wanting to visit their church soon, so why not all go on the same Sunday? Aha. Now I could invite the rest of the local fam, and we could all meet for lunch at my aunt and uncle's. (Thankfully, they were happy to host our BIG family on the spur of the moment-aren't they awesome?) Perfect! Only, Lana herself decided she should let the rest of the family know that we were  going to be at Uncle David's church, and see if anyone else wanted to join us. So she called and invited everyone to church, and we called right behind her and informed them that there would be a surprise party afterwards! It was *slightly* hilarious. She knew we were having lunch there, and she kept asking if everyone else was coming too. I KNEW she had to know what was going on, but I played dumb anyway, on the outside chance that maybe she really didn't get it.
 We showed up for lunch, and due to our typical Bond family lack of coordination, the Wilsons got there before everyone had finished arriving, so we couldn't do the grand entrance surprise. I was SURE she knew why we were all trickling in for lunch together when we never do that anywhere but at our grandparents, but she didn't say anything, so we waited till we were all there and she was in the middle of setting up the buffet line... Then on the count of three came a rather belated,  "SURPRISE!!!!" I have never seen such a look of blank confusion on her face!!!!! It actually worked :)
She had just one question- "Did I plan my OWN birthday party? I thought this was my idea!"  Yes, it was, Lana! ... thanks for helping us out!!!

The big surprise :D (or right after it...she went and deleted her first facial expression :P)

Ice cream cake from DQ...oh YEAH.

Lana ENJOYED her ice cream cake, yes she did! So did we all. 

I'm sure the conversation was riveting....?

Who has time to wipe lunch off your face when there's fun to be had?

I never did make it out here to see what all the laughing was about...

I'm sure these four brothers-in-law had something to do with it! Oh, the stories they can tell!!

Goodbyes..even though we all see each other fairly often lol. Family is the best, and we all were happy to throw a party for LANA! I love you, Lana...thanks for making life way too fun :D