So I am notoriously bad at keeping secrets. But I was actually able to keep a pretty big one recently, that culminated in a huge surprise birthday party for my sister and sister-in-law in Bell Buckle. The secret was quite elaborate; many of the kids in our family were in on it, too. And my brother and brother-in-law pulled it off wonderfully on Saturday evening. Both Nicole and Betsy were VERY surprised. There was a band, great food, and friends my sister hadn’t seen in ten years came to celebrate with us. It was awesome. Everyone had a great time.

And Betsy was further surprised with some quite lovely diamond earrings from her husband, who really did it up right this year. (Well played, Ray!). I mention the earrings because in some of the photos from the party (below) you will see various male family members trying the earrings on for comic effect, which might have left you with the impression that all the men in our fam routinely sport diamond studs in their ears. Nope. The guys were just checkin’ out Betsy’s new bling.

And the adorably, deliciously fat newborn (well, he’s 3 months now, but that’s sort of still a newborn) in the photos is my newest baby cousin. Isn’t he yummy looking? I totally want to gobble him up.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.