3 is the magic number

33 that is... saturday was kyles birthday and we celebrated in true KP fashion! funny how birth'days' seem to last a week in this family.. with that in mind, in order to really tell the story of kyle's birthday, we have to back up a little. as everyone knows kyle has been talking about building a poker table for quite some time (maybe forever). last fall he finally splurged and bought all the supplies and they have been sitting in our garage since...november??.. dont get me wrong, he has talked seriously about starting on the table, it just seems we always have another project going.

so, with the floors finally finished and a week or so of recovery time from that, on friday (3-30) the poker table project began. a week should be plenty of time to get it done, right??? how hard can it be.. thats what we all thought. all day saturday kyle and aaron worked.. on sunday afternoon kyle and i worked on the padded rail (the hardest part! not really but a good contribution).. sunday evening brye and derek came over and the fun continued.. monday evening work work work, tuesday evening the building party moved to leonard .. anyone know where that is? me either! thats were derek minchey grew up..his dad has a wood shop. and some really cool tools. kyle and derek (and poor nicole) worked until 1 am or so.. wednesday night the k-team and i joined them. we only stayed until 11ish.. they worked again until 2 am and then brought everything back to our garage for staining and construction. thursday night.. my mom and dad drove in to pick up the kids for easter. so the work did not start until 8ish when we got them on the road. friday - good friday - brye came over and spent the entire afternoon staining. nick and jenny showed up to lend a helping hand around 7. then derek and nicole came by and helped with some of the finishing touches (or i thought they were finishing touches)..

with the table just about complete, in plenty of time, around 930pm we headed to the cardwells. they had people over to see an old friend from college that no one had seen in a while - seemed like a pre-birthday party to me! we had a great time.. every one left around 1am - and then there were cardwells and palmers. we had a nice stroll down unt memory lane... and finally made it home around 230am.

of course that meant we got a late start on everything saturday.. no big deal.. its almost done right?.. after lunch and the 17th trip to lowes in the last week.. we got started on making our house 'party' ready. inside cleaning is for girls..outside 'cleaning' is for boys. easy for me to say.. that meant kyle had to cut the grass.. on his birthday.. between snow flurries. YUK! anyway, back to the table. kyle finished up the last of the staining and sealing stuff and all that was left was construction. in true form of the entire project.. it was not as easy as it was supposed to be. but with the help of awesome friends and family the table was complete. it was like a reality tv show where they are down to the wire ... a real 'will they get it done in time feeling'. around 8pm (one hour after showtime) it was done. and honestly - i think everyone was a little surprised. and anxious. and overworked. and under-thanked (not sure thats a word). thank you so much to everyone that helped. the party was a blast.. and kyle did get actual birthday presents from the fam.. but the gift of helping him build this table, i think was the best birthday present he could have ever gotten. it turned out so awesome. im sure it will be in our home for a very long time and we will make lots more great memories around it. THANK YOU MINCHEYS.. THANK YOU CARTERS.. THANK YOU CARDWELLS.. thank you to all of the last minute helping hands as well.

the pics of the table are actually kind of morning after pics... it was in use the second the last screw went in - no time for pics then!

as i said the actual party was a blast.. with the excitement of the table i kinda forgot to take pics til late. however, seeing that the mincheys left around 515am --- maybe the late night pics captured the party at its best. derek.. because im feeling so thankful about all that you did with the table..i will not post the hula hoop video.. but just know that it does exist.. and someday it will resurface like a certain video of kp in a girls bikini spring break 99 at padre did on friday night.