Celebrating Curt’s 44 Legendary years!  With no further ado:

Curt entering the party room and hugging his mom.

 

 

 

 

 

Go Cindy!  You’re the best!  You rock!

Hats off to the best Dad in the world!

Look at all the love and support!

I’ve ALWAYS wanted to lick an ice sculpture & tonight was my turn! (see Anna Kate giggling at me… so fun!)

 

 

Sweet Cayden!  He has a special place in my heart being the "middle child!"

 

Clarissa all grown up and fancy!  She should be Anna Kate’s age, and it’s scary that I remember her when she was that age!

 

The fam right before C&C’s awesome video!

Daddy’s little girl!

 

Our girls love a good party!

Go Corbin!

Carolyn, Lori, Jaime, Me, Cindy, Lynn, Lisa, Margie

I finally got to meet the famous "Friday Friends!"  It was so fun to finally put faces with all of Cindy’s stories.  They are taking such good care of my girl and if I were in LA, I would be honored to be a F.F.  Oh the adventures…

Evyn, Brittany, Hannah showing off the party favors!  (Daughters of three of the Friday Friends)

All you can do is laugh and say, "Oh Corbin!"  What a wonderful kid!

What a night!!!

This party was the most incredible we’ve ever attended.  There were groups of people laughing and groups of people huddled together crying.  It was the combination of all the highest and lowest of human emotions happening all at the same time.  And that was okay.  It was actually beautiful and freeing.  We didn’t meet a stranger because we were all feeling the same things – happy and sad all at once and in love with this beautiful family.  This will be one of the most memorable nights of our lives.  The Ziemkes are family to us… here’s to love, to life, to happiness, to no regrets!  Cheers and Happy Birthday to our Curt!!!

 

If you need the most amazing ice sculpture in the world delivered to a party half-way across the country, call "The Ra!"  The Banks, Ebert, & Pond families gave the Ziemkes  a motorcycle ice sculpture for the big night.

Now, we didn’t get the idea to do an ice sculpture out of the blue.  Oh no!  There’s a story behind all of this.  So, at Curt and Cindy’s wedding reception 22 years ago, they had a swan ice sculpture, however, the neck of the swan broke off and they ended up having to tie it back on with a rope.  Poor bride, but we laugh about it now.

We kept the motorcycle ice sculpture a surprise from the Ziemkes until, um, we were in the car about 5 minutes away from the party.  One of Cindy’s bridesmaids called and said, "You’ll be happy to know that your ice sculpture doesn’t have a rope around it this time!"  She immediately looked at me in shotgun, and I knew someone had told her the big surprise.  It was fun seeing her face surprised before she saw it and then again when she saw it.  Then when Curt walked in and found out that was our surprise he just looked at me and said, "How did she do it?"  (Talking about my mom) because we all know she is incredible and can pull anything off, even from states away. 

I can’t tell you how much fun the big Texas surprise was.  Oh, one more funny thing.  The head mason (the party was held at their lodge) freaked out exclaiming, "The ice sculpture is on a 150 year old table!"  One of Cindy’s friends leaned over to me and said, "And it will be 151 years old next year!"  This is life at its best!

"Thank you God for being on this journey with us and giving us the time to laugh through our tears.  Tonight was perfect!  The weekend was too good to be true!  We love you!!! (to the point of clinging)  We dance with you, and we are devastated with you, but we thank you for being here in our midst."

 

Curt’s birthday is finally here!!!

After nap, too cute not to post… If you’re wondering where Noelley Belly is, she got to go on the campaign trail with Poppa and Rara while we were in California and loved every minute of it.  It worked out awesome for all of us, and Anna Kate got her first one-on-one time with Mommy and Daddy.

This was the biggest birthday bash ever, so we needed lots of help pulling it off.  There were lots of people buzzing around in charge of lots of mini-projects.  Everyone contributed what they were good at, and it turned out spectacular!

Let’s start out with the crazy cool cake!

And don’t even get me started on these cupcakes! (which turned out to be the best I’ve EVER had, and that says a lot because I’m a sugar freak)

We were having SO much fun blowing up balloons that I grabbed my camera to capture the memory.  Celia and I were about to throw down – it was hilarious – apparently I was the "bottleneck."  🙂

The stage has been set for the memory video Cayden and Clarissa made for Curt!

What’s left to do but smile!?!

Can’t decorate a party without a silly chick present!!!

The sign-in table was so fun and creative… lots of little bubbles to write messages on.

Cindy’s Friday Friends had too much fun with the signs!  🙂

They gave everyone shirts for the party favors (thanks for the great idea Aunt E)!

Couldn’t wait to get back to the party to try one of these!!!

Curt introducing Mike to escargot for the first time.

Anna Kate is in another state for the first time, getting all unpacked and ready to party!

We arrived in LA on Friday night around 6:30, right in time for Corbin’s first flag football game!!!  We had a blast!

Clarissa, Anna Kate, Celia (Cindy’s awesome mom), Melissa, and Cindy

Yay Corbin! 

The Ziemke family!

Friends… together at last!

We didn’t get any great shots of the game because we were too busy saying hello, and well, talking A LOT!!!

Sweet Julie Mangrem went to be with Jesus today.  She is the kind and compassionate wife of Mark Mangrem, who was Mike’s youth pastor and married us alongside Kyle Lake, who also prematurely lost his life in 2005.  These precious young families are losing their loved ones around us right now, and it’s heavy and devastating.  Julie fought cancer as hard as she could and is leaving behind her husband and her two precious little children, Major and Addison.  Please keep their family and friends in your prayers as they mourn.

Anna Kate is SO close to walking, but she crawls SO fast that she really has no incentive!

Here we go!!!

Cayden’s job was getting Anna Kate in the car!  :)  

*These Cali pics are going to take longer than I thought.  There’s a lot of emotion going through these pictures.  I cried and laughed more than edited and worked this afternoon (during nap time is my only chance, so I’ve got to pull myself together!).

Happy 7 year anniversary to us!  (10 years together!!!)

*The weekend in Cali was amazing!  I’ll journal through pictures this week.