Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is officially my dad's birthday, but we actually already celebrated last weekend. You see, we were home for my brother's wedding (a separate post to follow about it), and decided to surprise dad with a birthday celebration 6 days early. It was pretty fun. Between all of the kids, we got dad 60 gifts to represent his 60 years of life.

We actually got the idea from Scott's mom who has sent 30 gifts for 30th birthdays. We turned the tables on her this June when she turned 60, and sent our portion of 60 gifts her way. This was actually the first time we were able to be present for such a birthday gift opening. Here's dad just getting started on the gifts.
There was one gift that he didn't want to open until the end...PARTY HATS! We didn't hide the gift in our wrapping, and I think he knew he'd have to at least put them on. We had 8 hats, just enough for everyone present.

You can see how much fun Scott and my other brother had with the hats. The look on A's face cracks me up.

Even grandpa put a party hat on for a few seconds.

It was a fun, small celebration after a weekend of wedding preparations. Scott and I are hardly ever able to celebrate holidays or birthdays with our family members in person, so it was a special treat to celebrate this monumental birthday with dad.

Dad was anxious to show us his massive garden. We had to take pictures to document the height of some of the beans. My brother, A, is on the left and my other brother, D, now married, is on the right.

And finally, I'll leave you with Scott's attempts at creative photography. I'm not sure what he was doing when he took this picture, but here it is, unedited for you. I call it the swirly one.