KG turns 30

***First... THANK YOU to my great SIL for all the pictures below!

I love birthdays... and I always TRY to remember everyones (doesn't always happen, but I try). I think all birthdays should be a big deal... especially the milestone ones like THIRTY!

First of all... as soon as I had definitely decided to have his party be a surprise, KG proceeded to tell me many times in the 2 months before that he didn't like surprises. THEN, the real kicker was the day I put the deposit down on the Party Room at Wings N More, he tells me that he's kinda over Wings. WHAT?!?! But it was too late... In the meantime, we had been going to Wings every Thursday at lunch for our basketball coach's radio show, so I just stop inviting him, hoping that if he wasn't having them every week, he would enjoy them at the party more! :)

I think I actually managed to come up with a good plan to surprise KG. We had our last home basketball game on March 7th. His parents had never been to a game, so they came up Friday night and stayed with us and went to the afternoon game on Saturday. Once we got home from the game, they said good-bye and headed "home" (they actually went to the hotel where everyone was staying and then to the party room to decorate). I told KG I was going to run to the mall and do a little pre-Vegas shopping. So, off I went to help decorate. On my way home, I texted KG and said that my boss, DL, was having everyone over to celebrate the end of basketball season, so we were gonna go over there for a while. (I had actually planned to go to our friend Drew's house, but he ended up getting sick, so I had to make a change to the story. But we still needed to go by Drew's house because he lives right by Wings. So I told KG we were going to drop off a few cans of soup to the sick Drew.) Well, luckily, KG wasn't even paying attention to my driving and we drove right past Drew's street and before he could figure it out, I pulled into Wings (He did tell me I was a terrible driver because I picked the worst place to "turn around").

We got out at the Party Room and he said "I feel like I have been misled." I told him to just come in and everyone shouted surprise!

As KG stood there and looked around, he was totally surprised. Later he told me he thought I might be up to something, and he had thought we were going to DL's and I was just going to have a cake there or something. When he walked in and saw all of his family and friends and his parents still there... he was shocked. It was priceless. Even in the following days (when we were in Vegas), he kept talking about how surprised he was at everyone who showed up! So, thank you to all who made it... you truly made his day.

A little background on the party... I knew I wanted to do something fun for KG's big 3-0. It went through many phases, but finally ended up being in CS at Wings N More. And KG's mom helped so much... we talked everyday the week of the party and I had so much fun planning with her! She did a GREAT job on the decorations... it was a Texas theme, which is so KG. And it looked great in the room... Texas flags and boots and bandanas. She also brought some fun decorations... like a painting of KG as a little boy, his high school letter jacket, his little cub scout uniform top and his karate uniform!

A couple of sweet pictures of KG and his mom...

It ended up being a great turn out, and the people that showed up definitely made it a success... even days later, KG was still so surprised that so many people came and drove all the way to CS!

The tables full of friends & family...

KG with his grandfather... such a sweet pic!

And with my dad (who thankfully, had just returned home from overseas)...

And a hug from my mom.

This is a pic of KG with some of the Spencer family... his aunt Suzanne and cousin Stefani.

KG with Adam & Caden

KG chatting with some old friends, Kasey & Tiffany.

This is KG trying to make friends with little Avery...
Tiffany, Christopher and their new little one, Brazos (who we met for the first time) and Clint, Nolan (who we also met for the first time at the party), Rachel & Roselyn.

KG & one of his oldest friends, Jason.

Clint, Christopher, Clay and KG... all with their diaper bags... except KG!

**And thanks to Rachel for this picture... I stole it from your blog! :)

Any one who knows KG, knows how he loves cake....

all kinds of cake, including cookie cake.

I knew the cake for his party needed to be the best. I finally came up with the idea of having several guests bring a different type of cake. His mom brought the cookie cake, grandmother Lou made a chocolate cake with chocolate icing, my mom made a yellow cake with chocolate icing and a white cake with raspberry and white icing, our friend Heather made a red velvet cake with cream cheese icing and I made pumpkin-ginger cupcakes. They were all YUMMY... or so I heard because I didn't get around to eatting some of each! But I know KG thought it was so fun!

KG with his table of cakes... See, some dreams really do come true!

And I had to post this one... me and my sweet nephew, Caden.

The invitation:

And for my terrible memory... the guests: KG's parent; KG's grandparents, Ralph & Lou; His aunt from Dallas, Marla; His aunt & uncle from Oklahoma, Suzanne & Mike; Adam, Kristen & Caden; Shane & Crystal; My uncle & aunt, Lewis & Sherry, Tara & Jake; My parents; Jeb & Stefani, Wyatt & Audrey; Clay & Maurine, Avery & Landry; Clint & Rachel, Roselyn & Nolan; Christopher, Tiffany & Brazos; Jason & Tiffany; Kasey; JJ & Paul; Rob; DL & Heather; Thomas & Katie