Melissa's 18th Birthday

As you can see, we did something a little special for Melissa's birthday.

You see, we set up the party with the bowling alley and didn't tell her family. The only thing I did was tell her parents to be ready to take a trip when I showed up at their house at about 12:30 to take them somewhere. When I did show up at their house, I was wearing my geocaching shirt and my gear, so they though we were going geocaching for Melissa's birthday. Boy, were they surprised when I pulled into the bowling alley!

So here we are and both Melissa and her mother are having at the pins. Nice to have a mother-daughter moment like this. The alley was set up for 'Cyber Bowling' which means they had the DJ working overtime, the black lights were on and the disco balls were twirling (that's what is making the bright light spots on the floor).

In this picture you can see one of the disco balls spinning on the ceiling and the black lights are making everything glow kinda bluish-purple.

And Karen was here too. She helped with taking pictures of the event from a different perspective. You can see the unusual 'cakes' that we made up for Melissa.

You see, when we were shopping for sneakers for Luann at the outlet mall in Orlando (we were there to celebrate our 22nd anniversary, remember), we saw this really cool cake mold in a kitchen supply store. I knew we could get it cheaper back home, so we found a couple of molds at a Micheal's craft store and practiced making large cupcakes and a giant birthday cupcake for Melissa's party.

Hey, wait a minute! Who is trying to grab the cake while Missy was posing for this picture?

Here's another view of the cup cakes. The yellow ones on the left were made with reduced sugar specifically for Melissa's mother. We test-baked quite a few cake mixes and frostings to find something that actually tasted good.

Ah, the man with the hand... so to speak. Yes, it was Melissa's younger brother, Phillip, playing around like he was going to grab the giant cupcake. In this shot he is showing us the bowling pin that we all took turns at signing.

Ok, it's time to get serious, Katrina is breaking out her custom bowling ball with the skull and crossbones on it.

And here is a closeup of Melissa's custom birthday bowling ball. Now you can understand why I called her Missy a couple of pictures ago.

Yeah, I think she likes it. What do you think?

What is neat about this bowling alley is that the house balls aren't simple, monotone balls.

Ah, now you can see the geocaching getup I was wearing. Some people thought I was wearing a bowling league shirt.

There's nothing like a little victory dance when you send those pins spinning.

Or, how about a 3-way dance?

And then, there are other celebratory dances... Like Brad's "I'm having a stroke" dance.

I'm not very sure what is going on in this picture. It almost looks like Katrina dropped her ball on Karen's foot...

Well, it looks like the 2-some has done well on the lanes...

And here is Katrina's "Ballet-Leap" celebration dance. Hmmm... Too weird for me.

It looks like everybody was getting into the act.

And this should be about the time Katrina was appologizing for stepping on Luann's toes...

Melissa's Mom and Dad. I like this picture...

At one point, the kids had to get up and do a line dance. Meanwhile, I went crazy with taking pictures. You never know when 'blackmail' pictures like these might come in handy, ya know?

Uh yeah. You're looking suave and debonair kids...

And now, a view of their best side...

Well, now that the line dancing was over with, it was time for the birthday song. Apparently, we didn't do so well with that, but did try our best. Next, it was time to pass out the cupcakes. It was actually quite a bit easier than cutting up a big cake and making a mess of things. The best part is that Melissa was able to take the giant cupcake home (intact) and share it with her other family members that couldn't make it to the party.

Well, this was really fun and I'm glad everything worked out as planned. And look, they're still smiling!
Good night everybody!