Happy Birthday, Monica!

It's my sister's birthday today. Her husband, John, threw her a small surprise party yesterday at her house. He made an 18 egg wedding cake and beat it by hand because Monica said wedding cakes were her favorite. He ordered out pizza and contacted Keely, us, my dad, and his mom. He cleaned up the house a little and thought of an excuse for her not to put their lunch in the crock pot Sunday morning. He's good at that stuff. It was fun and she was surprised when she came in and saw all of us.

Monica is a 3rd grade teacher. She works hard. She has 3 kids including Boston, in high school who does football and wrestling plus Chloe (3rd grade) and Cael (kindergarten) and they are involved in tumbling and baseball and soccer and church. Monica's one of those super organized people who will have her Christmas cards sent out by Thanksgiving (I saw the Christmas photo last night) and all her shopping will be complete by Black Friday. Her house is always clean. She always looks super cute with her hair and make up done and all dressed up cute. Her family is really involved in their church and not only attends Sunday services but they do things throughout the week sometimes. She's on committees and seems to have time to do things socially too. She bathes her kids daily (something I certainly do not do at which I'm sure she's appalled). She's a great mom, wife, sister, and she's one of my best friends too. She's always been there for me when I've needed her.

It's nice to get together. We don't do it often enough. It's hard since we live 1 and 3 hours apart and with work schedules and kids, you know the drill.

We even got all our kids together for a photo. I almost got a good one too except for cutting off Cael's head, sorry Cael!

Happy Birthday, Monica, my sister, my friend!