Saturday is a special day...

We took it easy yesterday...no, I'm kidding. This is how it really went:

Sisters Sullivan at the finish line: Helen, Bendy, Kay, Ang & Honey

Began the day with the Sisters Sullivan down at the Jordan River Parkway for the Utah Marathon Relay (their slogan: "a whole marathon, 1/5th of the pain" - I can live with that). Of course since sister #1, Holly, is out of the country we had to take on a replacement to complete our team. Our good friend Honey joined us. She is not only a practicing midwife, capable of delivering a baby on the race course should the need have arisen, but also one tough runner. We weren't too shabby considering that we have a combined 15 kids among us, AND considering that Honey actually STOPPED for 8 minutes to administer first aid to an unconscious runner: between 40-50 minute legs each, official time - 4 hours 2 minutes .

...And then we rushed home to rearrange the whole house just for Jessie. By nature we're not mysterious people (I love that line from "Ocean's 12") - but for her birthday we've been secretly planning to surprise her with her OWN room (she's been sharing all her life). What more could an 11 year old want? I got with Holly, my design expert, before she left for Mexico to engineer the switch. And based on a picture in the IKEA catalogue that Jessie had wishfully shown me once, Holly put together measured drawings, detailed shopping lists, and clever solutions for our lack of space. We shipped Jessie off to Mike's parents Friday night and Saturday after the race we dug in and finished the move (thanks to Bendy and Roy-son for the help). Since we were going to surprise her anyway, I figured I would invite a bunch of her friends over for a surprise party too...because we didn't have enough to do. It came off perfectly: her friends kept the secret, we finished on time, Grandma & Grandpa delivered Jessie safely, she was surprised, the kiddos ate their way through about 4 large pizzas, my friend Kirsten helped out with a batch of the cutest birthday cup cakes (thanks!), and ALL of my children are STOKED about their new digs.

So... after many hours of hard work, one long shopping trip to IKEA (and shorter ones to Home Depot and Target),

this is how the rooms turned out...

Grace moved into the room with Sully. This is the girly side of the room.

Jessie's room

Jessie's lounge

The boys' room

The coolest part of the boys' room - the Lego/geology/work table

How all great parties end: with the crash of a stunt-pyramid on the front lawn

I was SO tired at the end of the day. All credit and muchos gracias to Holly.