Ryan's birthday party wagon

On a typical work day, Ryan drives around our 87 Nissan Sentra. The kids have dubbed it the "mouse car" because, well, it looks a bit mousy, and because when we first inherited it, Ryan found a mostly decayed mouse. This small, gray car smelled horrendous at first until Ryan took it apart and went to work at it...vacuuming, steam cleaning, and scrubbing down the inside. After cleaning, its still our "mouse car" but not smelly and not filled with the skeletal remains of tiny rodents.

For his 27th birthday, the kids and I decided to decorate daddy's car, just like mommy did when she and daddy were dating and he had turned 18. We hopped over to Walmart after Awanas the night before his birthday and picked up the "secret" supplies. The kids were practically skipping out of the store with excitement and ideas of what we were "gonna do" to daddy's car. Despite being up late that night, the kids insisted I wake them up when I awoke the next morning to decorate the car. So, at 6 am, an hour before Ryan was scheduled to get up for work, the kids and I tiptoed downstairs, blew up balloons, wrote on his car with a window marker, and decorated it with streamers.

When Ryan woke up and came downstairs, Oliver and Lorelai couldn't wait to show him their efforts. We took him outside to see the car. He laughed and said thank you and looked like he wasn't sure he wanted to drive it, but he drove it anyway, with the four of us cheering and screaming as he drove out onto the street.

His report when he got home: only one car honked at him. But, he did get lots of looks. Mission accomplished!