Eli's Surprise Birthday Parade!

The birthday parade was a hit! Heather and I had decided to do it on Eli's birthday which was Thursday the 21st at 5:00pm. I told Tonna and she made the call to the police department to have them come to the parade at that time. Well, a couple days later Heather asked if she could move up the time for the parade to 4:30 so that she could do a birthday party for Eli at the trampoline park called DEFY. I messaged Tonna about changing the time but she did not reply for several days. I didn't want to start telling too many people about it until we knew for sure. She finally replied to me on Sunday and said that she was out of town on a hunting trip and didn't always have cell service. She said that the call was made for the original time but that I could call in and change it. Whoever I talked to at the station said she didn't know anything about it but wrote down the information and said she would get it figured out and that if I she didn't call back then it was taken care of. Well, I never heard back from her so I went ahead with advertising to let people know about it. I texted our neighbor friends. Then I posted it to the elementary school facebook page since both Eli and Charlotte go to school there. I called and asked Laverne if they could come. I got positive responses and seemed like I might get a good turnout so I wasn't sure I needed to post on the Relief society page but I finally decided the night before that I would go ahead and do it. I'm glad I did because between all the different groups we had at least 20 cars in our parade!

Those who were going to be in the parade met at the Baptist Church just down the road right next to our neighborhood park. I told people to meet there at 4:15 and that we would start the parade around 4:25 or so to try and be to Heather's house by 4:30. I bought some decorations at the store the day before plus some gifts. Then the day of the birthday I bought some balloons and took the van to get washed so I could write a message on the windows. I put everything in the van that I would need before picking Charlotte up from school and then we went straight to the parking lot after getting Charlotte because I knew I would need extra time to decorate. The wind that was blowing did not help when it came time to decorate. It was difficult to get the balloons tied on top of the rack but I made it work. I also strapped my radio to the top of my van so I could play happy birthday music. Unfortunately the police escort did not show up so I figured they didn't get the message about the time change but we were going to do it with or without them. As soon as we rolled out of the parking lot and started driving down the road my two signs that I had on the front of the van both ripped! Oh well, the show must go on. When we came around in front of their house I stopped the van so the girls could jump out and give Eli balloons that were tied to his favorite treats, Oreos and Sour Patch Kids. Then they got back in and we drove down the street a little ways before pulling over so I could grab the radio and walk back down there to have music playing while the rest of the parade came by. 

Our friend Ashlie came back around after the parade and threw lots of candy to the kids. While we helped pick up the candy for Eli I finally had my chance to give a hug to their daughter Alexis. I have been wanting to give everyone a big hug in this family ever since the tragedy. It had been about 2 1/2 weeks by this time and she cried and said thank you for doing this. Again, my heart just ached for their family. It's going to be tough.

A little while later after the kids had taken all of Eli's gifts inside I received a phone call from a police officer about the parade. I told him he hadn't received the message about us changing the time and that we already did the parade but that Eli was still here and they could come. So they did! There were about 7 police vehicles that came I think. Some were SUVs, some were on motorcycles and some in trucks. And one pulled over to go say hi to Eli and had him sit in his car to get a badge and a picture. Even though the police weren't part of the original parade they still had their own little procession and it was just as cool! They each did their sirens and one played the theme song from "Cops"...bad boys bad boys, what ya gonna do when they come for you! It was such a great experience to be able to do this for their family and how much happiness it brought them!

Laverne took this picture. I was the lead car and they were the 7th in line. The gals behind me were both teachers from the school, one was the librarian who did the card my yard sign.

He received a lot of balloons from people.

This was the last one. Their child is in Eli's kindergarten class.

I tried to put the signs back together for a picture but as you can see the wind was still blowing them around. It's my happy birthday sign that I have had for years. It went out with a bang I guess. Time to retire to the recycle bin.

I had the window wiper holding down the banner in the back. The balloons were supposed to be in two long rows on top. One row got tangled when the girls were holding it for me so I ended just tying it up there in a bunch instead. It worked.

I had to get a picture with the birthday boy. I wrote the message "Happy Birthday Eli!" on both sides of the van since we were going to be coming around in a circle on the cul de sac.

The card my yard sign looked awesome and everything turned out great!

A little later I took Charlotte to the birthday party at the trampoline place while Curtis went with Jack to the family showcase band night for Garrett. Ashlie watched Alice for me since she was coughing during the day and had a little runny nose. The kids had a great time at the party.

Enjoying some pizza and soda in the party room after jumping for an hour.

Happy birthday Eli! I'm so glad I had this opportunity to serve you and your family. I look forward to finding more ways to serve them and others.