Happy Flag Day 2008

It's been a long standing joke in our family that we are going to celebrate Flag Day 2008 in a big way at my cousin Tyler's. We used to have Thanksgiving at his house, but he would make it too gourmet and fancy, so his mom (Aunt Sandy) said she's taking over Thanksgiving dinner again. Well, for some reason he decided that he was going to have a Flag Day celebration at his house, which is funny b/c it's such a random holiday that no one really celebrates. But not him...we even got an invitation in the mail a few weeks before the event, and the invitation said his Flag Day was going to be way better than Sandy's Thanksgiving.

So, in honor of our Flag Day Party, mom and I made this cake! It was so fun to make together and was very festive if I do say so myself. We loaded in the truck (we took the truck b/c Tyler & Emily are giving me their old kitchen table and chairs to use when I get my own place someday), and headed out to their house.

On the way, we saw this huge PINK stretch limo. It looked like fun and I wanted to ride in it, b/c "pink is my signature color" (that line is from Steel Magnolias).

We thought we were dressed festive, but had no idea what was in store for us. When we drove up, there were little flags lining the walkway, and when we walked in the door, Tyler had the national anthem blaring. Then he had festive tattoos for everyone to put on.

He even went online a few months ago and ordered an American Flag that had been flown over the Capitol of the United States. You don't get to pick the date that "your" flag is flown over the Capitol, but it just happened that his was flown over on May 6th, which is his and Emily's 8 year anniversary! Pretty cool I thought. I thought he made this certificate up, but it really is authentic. The bottom line says, "At the request of the Honorable Jeb Hensarling, Member of Congress, this flag was flown for the Tyler Johnson Flag Day Party."

Everything was decorated with flags...even the candy, napkins, and appetizers. We ate scrumptious food, talked, laughed, went swimming, and then they even had a rocket pinata for the kids.

I didn't think Autumn would know what to do, but she sat right down in the middle of the spilled candy and grabbed as much as her little hands would hold. I love this look on her face. It's like she's saying, "What? Who, me? What did I do?"

Tyler had his backyard all spiffy and nice. These flowers were so pretty. He had party favors for the little kids and even had T-shirts made for all the adults that said, "I won the swimsuit competition at Tyler's Flag Day Extravaganza." It was a total blast, and I hope this is a yearly tradition of celebrating Flag Day.

As you can see from this picture, we had a fun day and slept well when we got home!

By the way, the boys left early this morning for their 2 week trip to Egypt, Jordan, and Jerusalem. It has always been Nick's life long dream to see the pyramids in Egypt, and so they got to go. It will be fun to just be "the girls" for 2 weeks!