Barb's 70th Birthday Party!

A celebration of life
Some of the little ones

Barb wanting to replay the memory of smashing a bowl of ice cream on Ranse's head

Barb and the "Ladies Man"

Jenny Klopp and the "Ladies Man"

Marge and the "Ladies Man"

Marilyn, Barb, Judy and Brian looking at old photos

Pearl and once again the "Ladies Man" haaaaaaaa

Heather looking a lot like Grandma in her younger years

Kristin and Sydney

Michael and Ranse

Jenny, Debbie, Kori, David and me(looking like a dork!)

Taylor and Gale

Brian's turn on the microphone

Ranse teasing his mom as usual

Brad sharing his funny memories of Barb

Barb completely enjoying herself

Darin singing "Joseph"

Barb opening her gift from the family(picture of the grand kids)

Barb blowing out ALL 70 candles!

Earlier in the year, Barb requested a 70th birthday bash. All of the kids got together and planned out what we thought, would be a nice celebration of Barb's wonderful 70 years. Ranse of course loved to tease her and had her completely believing that her party was going to be a "roast" and she was in for it. All along, the plan was to make it something special and memorable. I think we were able to pull it off.

About 50 of Barb's closest friends and family were able to join us as we gathered at the church. The evening consisted of a slide show of Barb over the years while Kristin played Clair de Lune on the piano(one of her and Ron's Favorites). Brian read a poem that Ron had written for Barb on one of their anniversaries, Darin sang "Joseph"( a song Ron loved to sing), and Ranse played the harmonica. After all the sentimental stuff, the microphone was open for people to share some of their favorite memories of Barb. It started off all nice, but once Brad got the mic, it was over and all the boys had to join in and share some of their favorite funny stories about their mom. It was great:)

Paul came and played all the good oldies that Barb grew up listening to and she got to show off her dance moves with Ben McClaughlin. As you can tell by looking at the pictures, Paul was there enjoying all the ladies. I had to add those pictures, I thought it was too funny ;)

Happy Birthday was sung and Barb got to blow out the huge ball of flames. One of her special gifts was a photo of all her grand kids that she absolutely loves! We also collected peoples favorite stories of Barb and made a memory book for her. The evening was finished off with all the fixing's for banana splits. Oh, actually the party went on until 11 p.m., once it cleared out a little, Kori Harris jumped on the mic. and did a little karaoke. Hilarious!! Then the boys gathered around the piano, while Kristin played and sang songs from the hymn book.

Thanks to everyone for making Barbs 70th a night she'll cherish for years to come!

Soccer Playoffs

The Mad Cows
Queen of the world!


The Tunnel

The throw in

The battle is on!

A couple posts ago I mentioned we were heading into playoffs and I would let everyone know the outcome. So, here it is. Unfortunately, the Mad Cows did not advance to the finals, but they definitely gave teams a run for their money. They played two games a couple Saturdays ago and tied the first game with the #2 seed and lost their second game 3-1. They do a point system for this soccer league and the top teams advance to the championship game on Sunday. Taylor's team had a great season and were lots of fun to watch. Taylor really got aggressive this year and made her parents proud! Can't wait to watch her play next year!

Newest In-N-Out employee!

Can you believe it, Michael is the newest In-N-Out employee. He'll be joining his hero, Spongebob, flippin' burgers! haaaa We went to In-N-Out today and they gave him this. We had to go to a couple other stores and he wouldn't take the hat off. A couple people asked us if he could hook them up with a discount.

Soccer pizza parties

This was Michael's first year of soccer and he really had a blast. We enjoyed watching his games, the little kids are always fun to watch, because most of them are off doing their own thing and not paying attention. Michael included. At the beginning of the season he associated soccer with "I'll get a trophy and have my own pizza party!" He looked forward to his party from day one and as you can tell by the smile on his face he was VERY excited to get his own trophy.

Taylor is preparing for playoffs this Saturday. She has had a great time this year because Malia is on the same team. She has also been a great half back. All those girls better watch out when Taylor gets mad, she just runs right through them and boots the ball up field. It's been fun to see her so aggressive this year and finally coming out of her shell. I'll let everyone know how playoffs go this weekend.
GO MAD COWS!!
(yep, you're reading it right, Mad cows, we can thank the coach for that one!)

Halloween 2008

Another great Halloween, although I complained in my last blog, I always love seeing the kids decked out in their costumes! Star Wars was the theme this year. Ranse was actually going to be a chick magnet, but I couldn't find what I needed to make the costume. So, the night before Halloween, he asked if I could paint his face like Darth Maul(sp?) so he could fit in with Taylor and Michael's costumes. I said "WHY NOT?" So, a quick dash to the store to find some red and black paint and walah, Darth Maul! Taylor of course is Princess Leah, don't you love the buns? Michael is none other than Darth Vader! They had fun acting like they were killing eachother, probably didn't take much acting.