Boone Family Reunion

God works in mysterious ways.  Where did this phrase come from?  God was surely at work today for my family, especially my father.  Today was the annual Boone Family Reunion at White Oak Church near Nashville, NC.  The boys had a good time and got silver dollars from their great Uncle Warren.  My dad had been out of town that weekend, and didn't think he would come to the reunion, but came home early.  

Since our car was full, Derek's grandmother (Alice) rode with my parents, along with my dad's aunt.  On the way home Alice started feeling sick and asked my dad to pull the car over.  He took the nearest exit as he certainly didn't want her to get sick in the car and she was already heaving from the backseat. Luckily, Uncle Warren's house is right off the exit and he was already home from the reunion so they stopped there.  While everybody waited on Alice, Uncle Warren told my dad that he had something for him.

It turns out that my grandfather (My dad's dad) had given his then 12-year-old brother-in-law his Navy issued knife when he got home from WWII and was married in 1944.  This knife was the only thing he had with him when his ship was sunk during WWII and most likely saved his life.  He had to defend himself against Japanese men in the water and also sharks.  My dad and I had both heard stories about my grandfather's WWII time, but never knew anything about the knife or that my great Uncle Warren had it.  Our entire family was just amazed about how God worked to show that knife to my dad that day.  Uncle Warren had never mentioned it to my dad in all the years he's been alive, or even at the time of my grandfather's death in 2003.  He gave the knife to my dad who treasures it and I know how it is a great reminder of the sacrifice his father and many others made for our country.  

Gender Reveal Party!

I had the privilege of throwing my first gender reveal party for my best friend, Kim.  She was super excited to find out the gender for baby # 2 and I was more than excited to be the one to surprise her and her entire family with the news.  It was a crazy busy day (like always) for me the day she got her ultrasound and so she dropped off a sealed envelope on my porch with the ultrasound picture inside.  She assured me that neither Jon nor she had peeked at the results.  I went inside my closet to open the envelope because I didn't want my face to show anything to the boys.  They couldn't be trusted with this secret!

I had just two days to make all the final preparations for the party.  Luckily I had planned out everything I would need boy or girl.  The big day arrived and I came over early to help put out the decorations.

Kim got this cute cake made, but it was not for the "reveal"

Everybody had pizza and salad and wrote their name down on Team Boy or Team Girl.  I think it ended up being tied for each side.  Kim had wanted an element of confusion for the reveal...

Originally I had filled up pink and blue balloons as well as some gold balloons with rainbow confetti. You could see the rainbow colors through the balloons so we decided to change that to black.  The balloons were filled with rainbow confetti and also a handmade scratch-off ticket that revealed the gender!  Everybody assumed that the confetti's color inside would reveal the gender.  One, two, three....POP!!!

I had prepped the crowd to scream out the gender as soon as they knew.  Even though the confetti was RAINBOW color...a few excited people screamed "It's a Boy!"  Kim knew that the real reveal would be the scratch off tickets, but with people screaming "It's a Boy!" she was confused....had somebody looked at a ticket already??

Then, Kim's Dad grabbed a ticket off the ground and yelled out, "It's a Girl!"  Kim looked at me, "Really?"  I nodded.  She burst into tears from excitement as her Dad showed her the ticket with the pink elephant proving he was telling the truth.  What a fun party and a super-fun memory!!  Can't wait to meet this little princess!

Fishing

Grandaddy Bob took the boys for a fun morning of fishing at a friend's pond.

All three big boys got to go this time, so Maverick was excited to join in the fun!  As you can see, there were no record-breaking fish caught today, but many memories were made, and that's what counts!

Maverick had a blast and probably ended up with the largest catch!