Built On Trust

Party time

Today is my dad and Sherry's 30th wedding anniversary and Brad and I decided to have a party for them at our house. Alex and Ashley agreed to help us with it, so they did invitations and are going to help with the decorating. The girls are excited because we're letting them make some decorations too and they love when we have parties. I thought it would be nice if I made some cupcakes myself and let the girls help, so we're working on that while Brad works on the decorations with the others.

I hand Shay the cupcake pans and tell her to put them on the table, then have the twins sit next to her and let them all take turns mixing, then I hand them the cupcake holders "Put one in each hole." I tell them, and the twins don't really understand and end up putting them anywhere they want.

"I done." Aly tells me after she puts the whole pile I gave her in just one hole. Jess finishes right after her and tries to get off the chair "We play." I pull the chairs out for them and help them down then put them in the living room with the gate up so they can't get out and go back to see Shay trying to fix what they did. She looks up at me a little confused when she sees me "You do it." She hands me the cupcake holders in her hand and watches me. I finish mixing the batter then put it in the holders and put them on the counter to wait until the oven is preheated "Do you want to make some decorations a while? We need a lot."

She gets excited and gets her paper and supplies bringing them to the table and starts to draw. I help her make one so she knows what to write on the others, then tell her that she can help pick where they go when she's done. The oven beeps letting me know it's preheated, so I put the cupcakes in and set the timer and move on to the icing. We decided to keep things simple for the party, so I'm making some with black icing and the others will have white.

Brad walks into the kitchen with some bags of ice, and gets the drinks from the fridge to put in the cooler "How are things going in here? It smells really good."

"Well, they tried to help, but gave up pretty quickly, and Shay started to make decorations." I point out that the twins are watching TV in the living room and Shay is sitting at the table drawing what seems like 100 pictures "I told her she can help pick where they go when she's done."

He goes back outside to finish what he's doing leaving me to finish mixing the icing and clean up the kitchen. I finish the icing quickly, then clean the kitchen almost completely before the oven goes off because the cupcakes are done. I get them out and put them on the counter where none of the girls can reach them and give the twins some paper so they can draw as well. They're all content doing that so I finish cleaning the kitchen whilst I wait for the cupcakes to cool. I icing them when they're cool and push them as far back on the counter as I can, then help the girls hang up their pictures. They each pick a few of their favorites and I grab some tape and follow them through the house hanging some on the doors, and some at random places on the wall.

"It's time for all of you to get dressed." I tell them as I walk toward the stairs. Shay goes first and I follow holding the twins hands, then I go to our room and get myself dressed before going to their rooms. Shay picked out what she wants to wear and since it goes with the theme I let her wear it, and only have to pick out the twins outfits. I normally don't have them match completely so I just find some tights and somewhat matching blck shirts, so the fit in with the theme too.

When we go back downstairs we go outside and I let the girls run around and go over to some of the guests who are already here. Most of them are friends of my dad and Sherry who worked with him on Days of Our Lives, some are neighbors, and some are just other friends that they have. I talk to everyone for a while before I find Brad who is standing with the girls trying to get them to stop fighting over something. Jess runs up to me crying when I get closer to them so I pick her up and stand next to Brad "What's going on?"

"They're fighting over toys." Brad picks up all of the toys they were playing with and separates them into groups for the girls to pick which toys they want "Here, you all need to share."

I put Jess down and she runs over playing with them. We stand there for a little and watch them play and leave when they're getting along. I walk over to where my dad and Sherry are "Congratulations!"

"Thanks, honey." Sherry says as she walks over and hugs me. She separates and goes back to standing with my dad "Someone needs to have one of these for your and Brad's 30th."

"If I don't kill him before then." I joke and look over to see him walking towards me "Maybe he'll get lucky and I wont."

He walks right up behind me and wraps his arms around me "If they can make it 30 years, we can make it 30 years."

"You'll make it a lot longer than 30 years." My dad adds "You've made it through everything so far." He comments on past issues we've had and came out even stronger "I know you will, so will Ashley and Alex wherever they are."

I think about how happy they always are whenever we see them "They always seem so happy whenever we're around them."

We talk to them for a little longer then make our way around with the rest of the guests. Aly decides she's done playing and runs over to me wanting me to hold her so I end up carrying her around the rest of the party. We decide to get out the cake and cupcakes for everyone so I get myself a cupcake and share it with Aly "Do you like it?" I ask her after she takes a big bite.

"Yeah!" She yells and the icing spreads all over her face. I get a napkin and clean her off "You're a big mess." I help the other girls eat their cupcakes and go over and sit at one of the chairs near Ashley and hand her a cupcake "Here, Alex said you wanted this."

"Thanks, Jen." She says taking it from me and rips off a tiny piece for Aly "This is really good. Did you make them?"

"Thanks, yeah I did." I let Aly play with the cupcake holder that she's interested in for some reason "The girls helped a little, but left pretty quickly."

"Awe." She takes Aly from me playing with her "You did a really good job."

I watch how Ashley is good with Aly and love how much they like each other "You're so good with kids."

She looks up from Aly who she's playing with "Thanks, I can't wait for Alex and I to have one, we want to wait a little yet, but hopefully within the next year or two."

"You guys will be great parents whenever it happens." I reassure her when she looks like she needs it. I decide to get up and when I try to get Aly she wants to stay with Ashley, so I leave her there and go to socialize with the others.

I find one of their old neighbors that I haven't seen since Brad and I got married and walk over to where she is "Hey! How are you?" I ask her "I haven't seen you in forever."

"I'm great!" She replies in her happy voice I remember from before "How are you and Brad? And the girls? I don't think I ever met them."

"We've been good. I guess you haven't met them, Shay's only 2." I try to do the math in my head, and the last time I saw her was easily 5 years ago "They're all around here somewhere."

"I can't wait to meet them. I've seen pictures from your dad and Sherry, they love them so much." She looks around for s while and finds my dad sitting with one of the girls on his lap "Is that one of them with your dad?"

I look over at him to see if it is before answering her "Yeah, that's one of the twins, Jess. Aly and Shay must be with other people." I start walking over towards my dad and Emma (That's what I'm gonna call the lady) follows me.

My dad sees me and tells Jess I'm here and she gets excited running up to me. I pick her up so Emma can see her "Can you say hi?" I ask her and she very shyly does so.

"Awe, you're adorable." Emma tells her

"Thanks." Jess says again, just as shy as the first time. She then tries to get out of my arms "I play!"

I let her down and she runs over to where Shay is and I leave Emma and my dad to talk. I walk over to the side of the house where I can see everyone, and it makes me so happy to see everyone here. Each person was a part of my dad and Sherry's life, and helped them reach this milestone. I can already tell this is gonna be a great party.