Happy 16th Birthday Jake!!

A week ago we journeyed to Lee's Summit to help celebrate Jake's 16th birthday. Ginny, Neal, Theresa & girls were headed down to Roaring River the following weekend so we held his party a bit early. I don't think he minded. Dana was guinea pig sitting so I snapped this picture of Neal's girls, Madison & Brooke checking out the other two 'girls'.


Dana, as usual, put on a great meal. Theresa made some wonderful baked sweet potato fries to go with the hamburgers & hotdogs. Kinda made ya feel like summer could happen in a few years! Jake pulled out one of his fishing poles to show Neal while we observed Mom's dexterity with her camera!


Ginny, Neal & Theresa got Jake a great alarm clock - if you are a hunter (which he is). The alarm was a turkey gobbler and the snooze was a shotgun blast. It was really neat. . . . . .

and I think it may be on Madison's birthday list!

Jake gave us a reading of a poem Mom had written to celebrate his 16th - along with some green stuff everyone can use.



Jake has his Dad's older red pickup so Pat & I thought it might be a good idea to get him an emergency kit. Cell phones are great but battery cables and reflectors can come in handy sometimes.


Dana had designed a great cake showing all of Jake's hobbies and interests. You can see the fisherman, the red pickup and the deer head. Dana added the sign posts - Jake loved it!

Here's the birthday boy with his cake. It tasted as good as it looks.

Of course, we had the traditional Happy Birthday serenade. You can see Mom struggling to get up on my right out of her chair. I say struggling because I have a death grip on her left arm pulling her back down since she was getting up right in front of the video camera. We laughed about it later. She thought she was getting weak rather quickly.

We tested Jake's suction cup compass on Brooke and Madison. That way Neal can always be sure they are going in the right direction!!



Congratulations Jake - we are very proud of you!!