you are the dancing queen, young and sweet...

here are the pictures from beth's party, as promised. sorry it took so long, but i was waiting for the appropriate people to send me the relevant pictures from their respective cameras. only one of them obeyed me. thanks, nicole! to everyone else, you've missed the chance for your photography skills to be published on this very famous blog. better luck next time!
here we were getting ready for the party. hammering those torches into the ground, filling water balloons, making food to feed 60 hungry teenagers, and crossing things off of our to-do list as we go along.

































since the party was so popular and everyone in town was dying to attend, beth made tim head of security. he put up a chain at the end of the driveway and as guests arrived, he had to make sure they were on the official guest list before letting them in.










after our deck, yard, and house were filled with the most important people in beth's life, dad made a "it was sixteen years ago and we were driving to the hospital..." speech and then prayed for the food. and then it was time for, well, food.











after food, there were silly string and water balloon fights. (we needed a healthy outlet for all the teenagers to "express their feelings")












then cake and presents. as head of security, tim examined and kicked around all the gifts to make sure there were no bombs, and when he felt they were safe, he let beth open them.











and then of course, we sang some karaoke, had a bonfire, and for some reason, beat up caleb.
























all in all, beth had a blast with her friends, and mom and dad looked on as yet another child becomes old enough to wreck--i mean drive--their vehicles.