It's not just a party...

When I first awoke this morning and saw the hotel clock said 4:08 a.m., I thought, is this how 40 starts? My bladder can't make it through the night?!

But then the day got better.

We arrived Up North Friday night. I let the guys get settled at the hotel and I went out to my twin's house to help get thing set up. You know, the typical birthday thing, hanging streamers and 40th birthday thing-a-majigs.

Due to the rain, we couldn't set up anything outside until today. So we headed out to Raylene's by noon and were ready to party by 1. At one point early on, dark clouds rolled in and it sprinkled a bit, but then it was mostly clear skies for the party. Or, as Jim prompted the boys to say: "It's not just a party, it's an extravaganza!" Here are some highlights in pictures.


I was so pleased that my entire family could make the trek Up North. I mean really, teenage boys probably have something better to do than spend the day with their 40-year-old stepmother. But they didn't. And that meant a lot to me. Top right, stepson Casey concentrates on his throw in Lasso Golf. Above, Clay serves up a point in volleyball. Now about volleyball... Raylene and I played, too. After awhile I thought, why am I diving for the ball? Is it worth it to hurt my brittle bones this early in the day? No.


About this extravaganza thing... We got this idea in our heads a month ago or so that we wanted to have sort of a carnival atmosphere. So what the heck, why not rent a cotton candy machine? Above, Raylene enjoys some Whacky Watermelon cotton candy. Notice her beads (which we both wore) that say "Behold the ageless wonder." That's us.


Above, Carter plays the role of a "carnie" quite well while manning the spinning wheel game. The object was to spin the wheel and then earn a big prize by landing on the 28 or 40. Carter was ready to blow that air horn when someone won, but getting the wheel to stop on one of two numbers out of 50 is a lot harder than one would think. Eventually, I said they could land on their birthday, too. Finally, when my mom got up to spin again, we said she could land on any number that corresponded with one of her kid's birthdays. Keep in mind, she had 8 kids. The odds were in her favor. She landed on a 22 (my sister Rayna's birthday). BEEP! The horn sounds. We have a winner!


Let the games begin! Above, Clay tries to pass off a Lifesaver on a toothpick to Casey during the "Lifesaver Toothpick" race. Their team lost and all the "big boys" said they didn't want to play any more games like that with family -- that's for playing with girls. Note to self, this next generation doesn't quite get into this goofy stuff like we did as kids.


As one final challenging game, we devised an obstacle course/relay race of sorts for the two teams. A person had to toss 3 bean bags into a bucket, then answer an '80s trivia question from Raylene or me, then spin around a bat twice, then drop three clothespins into a jar. Then run back and tag their next teammate. Above, hubby spins around while my dad acts as the "official" for the game. My team won, by the way.


When it came time for presents, I finally got to give Raylene her surprise book I created with pictures of us since childhood. She loved it! That still wasn't her best surprise of the day, though. That came earlier in the day when her son, Tony, who is in the Army, surprised her by coming home for the party. We hadn't seen him since Christmas. What a gift. Above, we hold up dresses we wore as babies. Our mom gave us each a box of special items covering everything from baby books to report cards to graduation gowns. No wisecracks that those are antiques, OK?

I will say that capping off the day by playing kickball in the dark, marking bases with glow sticks so we could see them, and shooting off fireworks, it's been quite a hoot turning 40. One might say it wasn't just a party, it was an extravaganza!

Carter's Great Adventures

Hi, this is Carter taking over my mom's blog. Today my class was playing kickball on the baseball fields and I found three Sacajawea coins, I was very happy about it. This also happened on the field. For playing so good at 1st base, one of my friends paid me 5 cents.(too bad they don't have a cent sign on the keyboard)

At recess I was on a team with 2 players and I joined them so it was still unfair teams, but we were the best soccer players on the field. The teams had 8 players on their team, but we had THE LUCKY THREE!!!! THE LUCKY THREE won 3-0.

When I got home I had a BIRTHDAY envelope from my aunt down south, and when I opened it 20 dollars fell out of it, 20 DOLLARS!!!! I don't know what this has to do with adventures but, I got all of my homework done. It was the easiest homework I've done.

Love, (Indiana Jones) Carter Austin

Alive and kicking

Snap, crackle, pop ... While that used to be associated with the sound of Rice Krispies, it sounded like my bones this morning when I tried, after several attempts, to get out of bed.

I realize I am older now, but sometimes I forget that just because my youthful enthusiasm is in high gear doesn't mean my body has gotten (or can get) out of low gear. Case in point -- our kickball tournament yesterday.

Yes, kickball! Remember the fun we had playing that in grade school? Jim remembers playing on the blacktop at St. Lawrence and I remember the grassy field at Oak Hill elementary school.

A group of us at work thought we'd relive those memories and formed a team for an adult kickball tournament over in Scandinavia (near Iola). What we forgot was that grade school was 20 or 30 years ago for some of us! A fact our bodies remembered today.

We quickly realized in our first game that it is not as easy as it looks. It is hard to kick that ball and keep it on the ground. And it is hard to throw quickly or accurately. It didn't help it was in the 90s yesterday either.

We dropped to the losers bracket after the first game and then started to strategize. In our second game we had a guy kick first in the "batting order." I then bunted to advance him and the pattern worked out well. We scored 3 runs in the first inning -- the only time we scored in that game, but it was enough to win.

In a double-elimination tournament, we felt the pressure in the third game. I did especially because I was pitching and they weren't kicking balls -- only strikes. So I had to roll strikes. Again, not as easy as it looks! The game was quite a showcase of defense. We were tied zero-zero at the end of 7 and went into extra innings!

Honestly, we didn't have much left to give. It was our third game of the day. We were hot, old and tired. But we hung in there. The other team finally scored a run in the 11th inning and we couldn't reciprocate. That was the end for us.

As we did in 6th grade. It was time for us to take our balls and go home. The only good thing is that as adults, we go home to air conditioning!