The 26th is Grandma Betty Counts’ (Devin’s dad’s mom) 80th birthday. The family decided to make it very special by planning a huge surprise party for her on the 24th. We had a full dinner and of course, a big birthday cake. For the exception of a few cousins, almost everyone was there. Devin’s aunt’s and uncle flew in for the party.
It was held at the club house at Shawn and Megan’s complex. We underestimated how many people would actually come so things were a little crowded but there was plenty of food. We only had an hour to get everything set up and decorated so it was chaotic to say the least. But, we got everything set up with a few minutes to spare. Dave (Devin’s dad) told Grandma that he would take her out for dinner but they needed to stop at Megan’s place to trade cars. Some how he convinced her that they needed to go into the club house where everyone was hiding with the lights off. Here are a few pictures just when we yelled, "SURPRISE!"
The last time we had nearly everyone together was about a year ago at Grandpa Joe’s funeral. We decided that we really needed to take a few group shots at a happier occasion. Devin and I got everyone set up for the picture. It wasn’t easy getting all those hyper kids to cooperate for the picture but we actually got several great shots and you can kind of tell who belongs to who. I won’t go through everyone but the ones seated are all of Grandma’s kids, Dave being the one on the far left.
Jimmy, Dave Grandma, Robin
Patty, Grandma, Barbara, Kathy
Devin and Aric
Our Fam
Devin put together a video montage of some pictures of Grandma and the family over the years. It was fun to see pictures of everyone when they were little. Now I know where Devin gets all his funny faces–his dad.
After the video and pictures, we did presents. Our family got her 80 roses and a framed picture of the family at Grandpa’s funeral.
It was fun to see everyone again and Grandma seemed to be really surprised and had a great time.
That’s so great! We had an 80th for my grandpa too and it was amazing. Such a wonderful and loving experience.
What good grandkids you guys are! I’m sure she loved it. I know this makes me a bad friend, but in the picture of Devin’s family, which boy is that, Kennan or Quinton? He looks so amazingly different from the last time I saw him, though that had to be 7 years ago.
From left to right, the boys go Aric, Shawn, Austin, Quinton and of course Devin. Kennon is still on his mission.
Thank you so much!!