Lordy Lordy Brian's 40????

Could it be that Brian is really 40 years old?!  Wow.  Time sure does fly.  To celebrate, the girls and I planned a surprise party for him and he had NO clue and was totally surprised.  There were a few curve balls thrown at us and I didn't know if we would actually pull it off but in the end we did!  I had help from our friends too so that was nice.  The girls wanted to make Brian a special cake-one that required fondant.  Too many episodes of Cake Boss and the girls thought cake decorating looked easy so they thought we should make Brian a "cake boss" kind of cake.  I've never worked with fondant but I had heard it was not easy so I did drag my feet a little but with the persistence of the girls i went ahead and ordered the fondant.  We ended up going to our friend Sharon's to decorate since Brian had told me he was planning on taking the day off (a curve ball)  The girls and I had so much fun and it wasn't as bad as I had expected.  I did let "control" go and didn't care that it wasn't "perfect".  The girls did an AMAZING job-I'm so very proud of them!  We had 35 people at our house for the party-balloons and streamers everywhere!  It was such a fun night and so happy that we could celebrate this wonderful boy Brian.  We also surprised him with a video message slide show of friends and family that expressed their birthday wishes.  It was a gift that Brian will cherish.  Thanks to all who helped!

Then on Monday, his co-workers surprised him by making these t-shirts of Brian and they all wore them....ALL day long!  The girls didn't have school so it was a perfect opportunity for us to celebrate with all of them.  They made us shirts too and we picked up pizza's for a fun office party

Apples & Pumpkins & Treats Oh MY!

Our annual trip to Montgomery Apple Orchard and Corn Maze

This years theme was The Jolly Green Giant

We enjoyed the maze and caramel apple treats and steel brass drum ensemble 

I brought the camera to the pumpkin patch but the battery was dead so luckily our friends the Crowley's were there to snap a few photos.  None for the blog however.  The girls got some unique ones to carve though and had a lot of fun creating their jack-o-lanterns.  

Then it was time for some trick-or-treating.

Caitlin went off to a party

We had the Gilbertsons and Gleisners for dinner

Ella (thing 2) Emily & Grace went off on their own (spreading their wings a bit)

Jeff, Brian, and JoAnna went with the others while Heather, Caleb, Lauren, and I stayed back to hand out over 100 pieces of candy.  

This year's trick-or-treaters
Soccer player, Thing 1, Merida, Pea, & Construction Worker