I think I can..... I think I can.... I think I can finally have this party........ that is if it will
EVER STOP RAINING!! Planning a party like Jacob's 4th takes a lot of time, energy, thought and lots & lots of errands..... all that I can deal with. It's even kind of fun for me to come up with the concept and make all the things for the kids to enjoy. The rain however was no fun at all. By Sunday I had either changed the date or the time of the party 4 times!! That's alot of phone calls and a whole lot of running in the backyard to quickly pull up all the things that can't get rained on.
By Sunday, with the party scheduled for 4:00pm, I looked once more at the radar and it looked like 5:00pm would be our best chance for rain. I made
ANOTHER round of phone calls and changed it to 3:00pm, hopefully to just miss the rain storm. Well, what do you know..... just like clockwork..... 3:00pm.... guests arriving....
AND SO DID THE STORM. Literally, 3:00pm on the dot. Oh well, guess that radar isn't so helpful after all.
It worked out fine..... we just reversed some activities.... ate cake and opened gifts first, and then, thanks to the good Lord above at about 4:00 there was a break in the rain and we ran outside for our Diego adventure. It was really wet and pretty muddy, but the kids didn't seem to mind at all. The big kids, Madison, Macy, Kate and Wheeler guided the little ones through the rainforest to find the baby animals that Diego said had been trapped in a net. They went through many adventures along the way.... jumping, climbing, finding treasure and a few nasty creatures.... it was a jungle out there!
Kate helping Mally make her mask
Holly, Walton, Madison and Baylor working on their projects
Making Baby Jaguar masks
That boy LOVES a glue stick
Baby Jaguar and Diego joining in the fun
Walton, Baylor, Mally, Jacob, Sarah Kate and Walker
after they made their Baby Jaguar masks
All the kids with their guides....
well, all except for Reese who came a few minutes later
Reese giving Jacob his present ......
Bakugan Battle Brawlers..... oh, how excited Jacob was!!
Jonathan helping Jacob get all his toys freed from their boxes
Bringing the party indoors because of the monsoon outside
My masterpiece..... well, maybe not a
masterpiece.... but I sure was proud of it.
And as much time as it took (homemade from scratch),
I wanted to take lots of pictures of it
And the back of the cake
Yum! Yum! Worms straight from the jungle
My Diego cupcakes.... kind of cute..... kind of scary at the same time.....
Well, the kids seemed to like them
My little cream cheese snake dip.....
amazing how none of the adults wanted to eat it!
Jacob blowing out his 4 big birthday candles.....
and me freaking out that I'm about to have to cut that cake!
Owwww! That's hurts..... cutting into my hard work!
Elizabeth, Julee and Jodi hanging out waiting for the rain to stop
Here's Click showing everyone a picture of the baby animals caught
in a net in the Rainforest.... it was a trap those trouble-making monkeys,
the Bobo Brothers set out. The kids got their rescue packs full of items
to help them along the way and headed out the door to save the baby animals.
Here's the Alligator Swamp..... their first stop on their trek through the rainforest
Wheeler taking the kids through the swamp....
they'd have to stay on the rocks and make sure they didn't step
on the alligators to get through the swamp
Macy guiding the little ones through the Treasure Forest.....
they'd have to run through the tall grass and
look for golden coins of treasure on their way
Madison telling all the kids about
how to get through the Spider Cave
Inside the Spider Cave where the kids found lots
of icky bugs for the hungry spider to eat.... if we fed her,
she'd let us through the rainforest to get to the baby animals
Walton leaving the Spider Cave with lots of bugs for the big spider to eat
Now we're running through the Dangerous Dart Frog obstacle course.
I set out fake leaves with dart frogs on each of them that
they'd have to avoid as they ran through the course.
Kate helping the kids at Piranha Pond
(I glued magnets to each fish and to the fishing line...
when they lined them up, they caught a fish).
That gorilla sure is hungry.....
they'll have to catch some fish for him to eat
Then it was time to go to Quicksand Crossing.
Wheeler guided the kids through with a warning....
Watch out! Don't step in the quicksand! And don't let that big snake bite you either.
What a big girl! Mally isn't bothered a bit by that big ole snake or a little quicksand
No doubt Walton would swing over that snake like a pro
Yikes! SNAKE GORGE! Look at that REALLY BIG snake!!
Walker braving the Snake Gorge
Oh no! The Bobo Brothers have all the baby animals in a trap in the tree --
we'll have to use that rope to pull them down and save them.
We did it!! We rescued the baby animals!!
Diego gives us some Magic Treasure Sand
for helping him rescue his friends.
Panning for gems from our Magic Sand
Everyone finding their gems from the Magic Sand
Look at my treasure!
Julee and Jodi helping Mally & Reese sift through the sand
Kate & Madison..... Great job girls! You really entertained those little ones
and made the party alot more fun for them
My precious boy, I think you had an awesome 4th birthday!
Thank you for being patient with Mommy this week with
all of her crazy mess and all the times I told you....
"no, don't touch that.... don't play with that... it's for your party."
I love you, sweet boy!!! You've made my life better than I ever could have hoped.
Here's the invitation I designed for their party....
Walt, Kevin, Joe, Jonathan and Ronnie
Weatherly, Stacy, me and Julie
Elizabeth, Amy and Kimberly
Michael, Martin & David
Jonathan and me
Amy, Christy, Julie (of Jazzy Julie fame), Stacy, me and Elizabeth
Hanging out listening to the great music
Grant, Julie and Brian
Heather and Kevin
Crazy Pete, Jazzy Julie, Stacy the Chick and Kevin the Rooster
Me, Heather, Julee, Elizabeth and Christy
Here's the award I got from Stacy..... "Most Artistic Customer"...
I'm Honored, Stacy!
Christy and Julee sharing Brian..... and I don't think he minded a bit!
Tiffany and Tamara
Taking it indoors...... Jonathan, Christy, Elizabeth, Heather, Kimberly and Mark
Tim Tyler, the piano man..... tickling those ivories as Heather kept saying.... 
Christy, Stacy and Heather (exactly WHAT are you doing with that hand, girl?)
Give us a few old songs to sing and we warp right back into "the day" again.
Jonathan and Mark.... that boy just ain't right
Elizabeth and Joe (obviously having a GREAT time!)
A lovely shot of the backup singer wanna-be's....
Eric and Kim being much more conservative than the rest of us
Holly, Elizabeth, Heather and me (you can tell we don't get out much.....
Heather and Ronnie (American Idol..... here you come..... oh, that's right....
Walt & Holly just a dancin'
My gratitude to Heather for cracking me up all night..... 
