eric and dave's birthday dance bash

ever since dave turned 30 we have planned a buddy's pizza/laser tag birthday event. we know a TON of people with birthday's in early december so we try to make it a big combined b-day party for everyone to come and have fun. last year, our friend eric said that we should plan a big dance party for next year since he would be turning 40 and dave would be turning 35.
we met eric back in about 1999 when we started attending the bridge church where he was the pastor. we met a ton of terrific people there and when the bridge shut down, it took us until just about a year ago to finally find a church that we loved. we still really miss the bridge and the people that made it up. we do still see some people at least once a year, but many others we have only recently reconnected through facebook.
so a few months ago, eric, jennie, dave and myself got together and started talking about really making this dance party happen.
eric called the owner of the building in pontiac where the bridge met. the owner was kind enough to offer us the room for free if we had a cash bar and appetizers. so we spread the word that our party would be taking place on friday, december 4th and started working on details.
with the help of facebook, we found a friend that had a button maker so we made the most ridiculous looking buttons of dave and eric to give out to everyone that came. eric also had 2 mugs made up, 1 with one of the ridiculous pictures of him and one of dave, that we gave away as door prizes.
we originally were just going to have hayden and talan come for a little bit so they could get their dance on, and then we realized they would be more than happy to stay for the whole thing (especially talan). we opened it up to other kids as well in case people couldn't find a babysitter, and it worked out perfectly, at least for the boys (and us!), as they had several other kids to play with most of the nite.
we had probably a little over 60 people come and everyone seemed to have a pretty good time. it was so nice to see so many people from the bridge, especially since we were in the building that we had all met in.
dave is already talking about trying to put together a half birthday party next year for all of those people that get hosed having birthdays in the winter.
happy birthday, dave and eric!!!

setting up the room:




the door prize mugs:
eric and dj quarterhawk:




it took the adults awhile to get out on the dance floor, but the kids loved it!:

hayden and estella:
matt, niki, joseph, daren, jen and michelle:
former bridge peeps. jennie shanburn, matt and niki nichols, joseph, scott and samuel loudon, daren and jen bossenberger, michelle azema:

jason and sarah and jennie:
niki and sarah:
the loudon family. joseph, susie, scott, samuel and estella:
nic was a HUGE source of entertainment for the boys. here, hayden was terrified:
the party throwers:
jen and daren bossenberger:
matt and niki nichols and andy brockman:
the birthday boys:

talan was singing along to "so what" by pink. he loves that song:
hayden insisted on having his picture taken with a lion. and when hayden wants his picture taken, you jump at that opportunity: