Monte's Birthday Party

Every year we've picked a fun theme to celebrate Monte's birthday. This year we picked Indiana Jones, thinking it sounded fun. (I'm always tempted to re-do the superman party, it will probably always be my favorite, and so appropriate for our little hero!)
With all the craziness that happened the weekend before and of the party, I could not have pulled it off without a team of willing volunteers! (Ok, and some slightly unwilling, but they healed fine...)
As I thought more and more about our theme, it seemed to perfect for Monte! I ended up giving a short, teary speech, and here's the gist of it. Like Indiana, having Monte in our lives has been a terrific adventure! Filled with peril, (no explanation necessary) skeletons, (how many MRI, CT's, and x-rays has this kid had!!), fear, excitement, and a strong belief in our Savior Jesus Christ. As Indiana could not retrieve the cup without recognizing the hand of Jehovah, so we could never have made it through this far without our faith. We're so grateful for our Heavenly Father who has given us such a special son, and entrusted us with this adventure. We stumble and fall, and bleed a lot, but we have gone to places we never knew we could, and seen things I never would've believed! And how thrilled we are to be celebrating 8 YEARS! We are so excited that even after 44 surgeries and countless other crisis's, he's doing great!* ish. (We'll let that go for now).
Anyway.
Here's the details of the party:
I gave Garrett Anderson, our favorite nerd, the assignment of drawing in chalk letters on the driveway with the words "Iehova" in them. You know, to represent Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail. He not only did the word Jehovah, he also added all the letters to spell Montgomery Tyler Fogelquist, Monte, and mixed it all up, making the biggest scrabble game I've ever seen! We had great fun hopping from letter to letter!
Doug's dad, Dave, it the ultimate hard worker. Anything I asked for, he was thrilled to produce. He managed to hang a rope swing on our 30 foot branch. We placed a pool of freezing water filled with snakes underneath. I admit a little snickering when a few of my "favorite" kids fell in!
We also had a balance beam set up where we took turns throwing huge "stone" rocks at the kids to see if they could make it across. (beach balls covered in duck tape). We also had a treasure coin sand dig, a diamond sand dig, and a blind simulation. We hid the holy grail and other random cups in a dark playhouse, blindfolded them, and sent them in two's to retrieve it.
Most popular might have been the snake cake...I'll post pictures later!
I sent them home with homemade white chocolate skeleton skulls and skull rings.
We invited our favorite families. This too is interesting. I initially wanted to invite just the kids that are special to Monte. Ie, his church class. But as I thought about it, I realized that those kids also had siblings that were Monte's friends, and that their parents were also his favorite people. So instead of a small intimate party, there were probably 45 people. So, it was a huge, awesome, amazing bash! The lesson here is simple to me. The parents that embrace kids with a difference, and want to befriend them and be a part of their life...had kids that also realized how special it is. We sure love them, and all of our friends that have been a part of Monte's life. Thank-you for caring for him and us so much!