Surprises are a wonderful, and Anna Marie knows just how to pull off a surprise celebration. She decided to have a surprise Moody Book party for Sarah. I have to add a little sis-in-law promotion. Anna Marie is super sweet, and she knows just how to make someone feel special.
Here is the list of events as they unfolded.
Mary and I were playing with the kiddos on Friday morning at Gigi’s house when Anna Marie popped over to discuss the party food. We came up with a long list of foods that were in the Moody books (mostly desserts) and started weeding them down. We ended up deciding to keep it simple—homemade pizza and sugar cookies—because there was so much to fit into one evening besides eating.
Plans were coming together. The day before the party, we had Aunties’ playtime at Anna Marie’s house so Sarah wouldn’t come visit us. Mary let each of the girls take turns helping her make the cookies while I played with the littles outside. We then finished with a walk, staying away from our house because we didn’t want any little girls to announce that we had been making cookies.
Anna Marie busily worked on creating a sign and other projects while the rest of us felt a bit helpless, because we couldn’t do too much without Sarah knowing.
Tuesday, party day, rolled around, and things were finally coming together. Joseph and Elissa asked Sarah for some last minute help before dinner in order to allow us to finish the party preparations. Otherwise Sarah would wonder where we were all going. Yay! We could finally talk again as we raced over to Anna Marie’s.
Christopher called Joseph to see if Joseph would ask Sarah to drop a tool off at Christopher’s on her way home.
Sarah texted us to let us know that she would be a little late for dinner.
Christopher was out front “working” when she pulled in.
She gave him the tool, and Christopher asked if she could go inside for a minute because Anna Marie wanted to show her something.
Everyone had gathered at the end of the front hallway. As she walked through the door, we all said, “Surprise” and then told her we were celebrating the completing of her Moody book series.
Anna Marie’s surprise worked.
After dinner, the little ones went outside for a Moody I-J-N (In Jesus’ Name) project, picking up sticks at a widow’s house (aka Gigi’s house).
We had Bible time and read 1 Corinthians 13, just like the Moodys did in one of their books.
We then played a Moody trivia game that I had written. It had everyone thinking hard and laughing hysterically as they tried to answer questions like, “Who was Mr. Adams?” Abby was the only one to get that one right.
Even Abby, Bethany, and Tina played.
Meanwhile, Andrew occupied himself by trying to turn summersaults.
Nathan got 1st place, Sarah 2nd place, and Abby 3rd place. Nathan has been reading the Moody books to his family in the evenings so they got almost all the questions right—even more than Sarah!
We closed out the evening with one of the games the Moodys enjoyed playing—rhythm.
Anna Marie did an amazing job of planning and coming up with a festive Moody-themed party! We all had a blast together that night.
Congrats to you, Sarah, on a job well done!
“Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation,
in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”
1 Timothy 4:12
