Happy Birthday?

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Family Home Evening program in our church!  When I told the kids this morning, they all thought it would be a good idea to have a birthday celebration for the big day.  And since I'm always up for a party, I decided to make their dreams come true.

But that's where I got into trouble.  Because you see, I like to think of myself as a realist.  I'm not pessimistic, I just tend to see things as they really are.  Except for things in the future.  For some crazy reason, I'm always foolishly optimistic for things that will be happening in the future.  School's almost out for the summer?  That's okay!  We've got a lot of fun stuff planned -- I think the kids are going to be great and I'll stay totally sane for the next 12 weeks!  Another weekend's coming up? Woo hoo! THIS weekend we'll finally get it together and ACTUALLY have a relaxing and refreshing break.  An impromptu FHE birthday celebration?  It will be awesome!  The kids will be so excited about how over the top it is that I got balloons, giant cupcakes, and Oreos, that they'll TOTALLY cooperate and behave and have so much fun!  Hahahahahaha.  Silly, silly me.

In actuality, Family Home Evening was a bust.  The excitement and anticipation of the celebration and treats must have run out by the time we actually held FHE.  Once one kid started melting down midway through dinner, it was just a matter of time before the domino effect knocked over each and every other child.  In retrospect, it was probably too much to have everything out on the table for hours after school and then NOT start with the party.  Trying to have a quick lesson, along with the song, prayer, and scripture, was practically impossible.

Even after getting through all of that, there was still fighting as we moved into the dining room.  Who would have thought that the color of the candle on the cupcake would be such a big deal??  I tried to get a few shots of the kids pretending to be happy and acting like they loved each other, but I don't think it translates very well in any of the pictures.  What do you think?  Hahahaha.

Thankfully, after we sang happy birthday, and everyone dug into their treat, we had a few moment's respite from the freak outs, but all in all, it was not quite what I had envisioned for the night.  Wah wah wah.

 Here we are just thinking how wonderful our offspring is.  Hahahahaha.

To end the evening off, we attempted to come up with a list of 100 things that we love about our family or favorite memories we have with the family or ANYTHING at all that has to do with our family, and we petered out at 16.  Clearly we have some more work to do.  Perhaps it's time to dust off that "Love at Home" initiative we tried to make happen a few years ago...

And there you have it.  Another Family Home Evening for the record books!  Happy 100th Birthday FHE!!