To celebrate Wesley's birthday, we planned an outdoor party at Aaron's school. Because of the covered picnic area and awesome playground, it's the perfect place for a party! Well, except for May 9, 2009. Let me explain...The week before the party, a UGA professor went crazy and shot his wife (and two other people) at a local community theater. The professor and his family lived in a neighborhood very close to Aaron & Maddie's school. After the shooting, the professor went missing and his Jeep was found in a ravine less than half a mile from the school. Everyone was sure he had ditched his car and was trying to get out of the country.
WRONG!! When we drove up to get ready for Wesley's party, we saw fire trucks and a ton of unmarked police vehicles. I instantly knew they were looking for the man. And I instantly knew the party was ruined! Of all things!! How dare he ruin my party!! (I know, I know! Pretty selfish of me!) The police were very nice and told us we could still have the party, but we'd have to have it inside. Great, except for the fact that the school's lights are on a timer and the only person with access to override the timer is the principal, who lives over an hour away. After a long ordeal which involved the school custodian and the school district's weekend security person coming to the school, we were able to get the lights on.
So the party went on--NOT!! Within an hour of us arriving early to set up, we saw the coroner's van drive up really close to the woods. We knew something was happening and Aaron was so ready to get in the middle of it! We were amazed at how much information the police were willing to share. And we (okay, AARON and my MOM) were more than happy to listen. We knew all of the details of the police discovering the man's body hours before the media knew. It was absolute craziness! Click HERE to read an article about the shooting and the discovery of the body. This is the article that was posted on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's website, and Aaron (and the party) were mentioned.
And all of this led to us not getting anything set up until AFTER the party was supposed to have started. My Type-A personality always goes into overdrive during events like this, but oh my gosh, I could've use some major anxiety meds after all of this!!
Putting aside all the drama, the party itself was a ton of fun. I did a sports theme, because Wesley has been obsessed with sports since he could hold a ball. My mom did an AWESOME job on the cake, as usual! And Aaron's gym was the perfect place to have the party because of his wonderful PE equipment.
(He was SO tired by the end of the party!)The media showed up towards the end of the party and asked to talk with us, but one of the main law enforcement guys had asked us not to give them any details.
This the the stretcher they brought the body out on. My family was OBSESSED with this! I think Aaron spent 95% of the time outside, talking with firefighters and police officers. And I'm pretty sure my mom, Aaron and my sister got more pictures of the scene outside than the party inside. :)As we were cleaning everything up, a lady with this really different-looking dog came in to use the bathroom. Turns out this was the dog who found the body. Her trainer was really proud of her. She was a sweet dog who was willing to let all the kids pet her.
And because my family is CRAZY, they went in the woods, trying to figure out where the searchers found the body. They said it was too hard to tell where the police had been, but here's a picture of the woods, in case you were interested!
I'm hoping for a PEACEFUL, completely normal party next year!!
