Raelynn just recently had her 8th birthday. Jennifer wanted to make it really special, so she planned a surprise birthday party. Jennifer had several of Raelynn’s friends meet over at a neighbor’s house early in the morning, and then they all walked over to our house. The girls all snuck into Raelynn’s room and shouted Surprise to wake her up. Raelynn was very excited.

Then we had a pancake breakfast–IHOP style.  I made the pancakes while Jennifer helped everyone decorate their pancakes with whipcream, chocolate chips and cherries.

After that they played a game where each girl got blindfolded and had to find a teddy bear that they had brought from a big pile of teddy bears.

Then Raelynn opened her presents.

And finally they decorated breakfast bowls.

Last but not least, we all sang Happy Birthday to Raelynn and ate cake–except we didn’t have a traditional cake, instead Jennifer made a cake out of doughnuts.

Here is a short video of the surprise wake up and some of the activities.

After the party with friends we had a small family party where Raelynn opened some gifts from us, Jaren, Keaten, and Madelynn.  

After all the presents were done we went to the annual Town festival, called Harvest Moon, for some additional activities. The kids always love riding the horses, bowling with pumpkins, and going on a hay ride.