Weekend Happenings and Evie's 8th Birthday

I know you all are chomping at the bit to get updates from me on a regular basis.  Or at least 2 people who mentioned it last week are feeling that way.  It's really quite flattering.  Of course, if it makes you actually come see me to find out what's up in my life, then all the better for me, right?

So, anyway, last week was a whirlwind.  I have recently organized a Book Club that is actually a wine happy hour club.  Reading the book is not a prerequisite to attending.  It's just a pretense for me to see all my girlfriends every other month.  Of course, I had to make the first meeting awesome so that I could guarantee that people would come again.  It would be sad if everyone came to the first one, left disappointed, and I never saw them again.  Luckily, I think it worked out pretty well and everyone had a good time.  We went through 5 or 6 bottles of wine, so that's a good sign right?

 

Anyway, most of my week was spent preparing for the meeting (at my house), so I had to clean, clean, clean, bake, bake, bake, clean some more after the kids messed it up, clean the carpets, wash the party dishes, and attempt to make homemade cupcakes (which were a flop), then buy some good cupcakes and try to pass it all off as if I did it in a matter of hours.  Well, I'm just not that humble.  I tell everyone how hard I worked to get my house clean and presentable and how hard I worked on the cooking.  Maybe one day I won't do that, but I'm just so proud of it on the rare ocassion that I put forth the effort, that I have to shout it from the rooftops. I mean, look at this!  And this is after they came, they saw, and they ate.

The ultimate compliment was when someone asked me if I saw this on Pintrest!

To top that off, we had three soccer practices, girl scouts, boy scouts, Chuck out of town on business for a couple days, Shot in the Dark final preparations (it's this Friday), and Evie's birthday and birthday party, and Sunday School (which I'm shockingly teaching this year until the Heavens strike me down).  Plus there was a wedding that I decided to skip because it was Evie's birthday, and a Saturday night visitor who I babysat for while my friends went to said wedding.

The only relief was that the soccer game scheduled for Saturday got cancelled because of rain.  I was in charge of snacks too, so now I have a cooler full of Gatorade and a bag full of snacks that will have wait to be distributed at the makeup game.  Boo.

Despite the craziness of the week, I think Evie had a lovely birthday.  I treated her to whatever she wanted Saturday: lunch at Joe T's, double ice cream cone, the movie Super Buddies (a huge sacrifice on my part because I hate the "buddies" movies), a big pot of macaroni and cheese for dinner, and a visit to the park.

 

She got to open presents from Luke & George on her actual birthday.  Each brother got hugs!

 

Then the birthday party was at a trampoline park called Flight Deck.  We only had 12 kids attend (praise the Lord), and the place was awesome!  All I had to do was bring the cake and the party favors and they did the rest.  Amazing!  Well worth the money.  The kids had fun jumping for an hour and then they had pizza, cake, and party favors.  It was perfect!

Chuck and I are proud of her t-shirt choice from her summer camp.  It makes us look so religious. Bahaha!

Here's the cake she picked out.  The purple thing is a flower that is supposed to open up and revewal Tinkerbell inside.  Um, we couldnt' figure out how to open it until after the party, so it looks like a big purple ball on her cake.

Now, I think I've mentioned before that I hate kids' birthday parties.  I hate them.  I'll go to them grudgingly because my kids love them, but I pretty much hate every minute and I'm vocal about it.  I've even been known to bring work to the birthday parties so that I don't have to participate.  Yuck.  I also hate party favors.  I'm talking about the little bags of plastic crap that end up littered in my car right after the party.  Now, I don't blame parents for getting those types of party favors, because, gosh, they sure are easy.  But it's such a waste of money even though the kids love them.  So, in recent years, I've decided to forego the bag of crap party favor in exchange for a single-item favor that the kids might actually use or keep longer than 5 minutes.  Two years ago, I got Luke's friends all a Boxcar Children book.  Priced at $5 each, they were a perfect gift, although Chuck complained that I was going to make the kids think Luke was "a big dork."  Oh well.  The kids scrambled for them, so I see no problem with the purchase.  So, for Evie's party I got these water bottles that allow you to spritz yourself in the heat.  The kids flipping LOVED these!  And, also priced at $5 each, they were right in my price range.  The parents were pleased too, and expressed how nice it was to get a gift that wasn't a bag of candy.  Now, to be fair, I did load the bottles with a few pieces of candy, just to ensure hyperactivity and happiness.  But, all in all, I think it was a great gift.  And even my kids, who all already have one of these bottles, were thrilled to get a second bottle.  It's amazing!

 

After the party and after baths, Evie got to open her presents.  Here's just one shot of her with a present (and with her dad and brother).

 

So there you go. That's my update.  Seems rather boring, right?  I promise you guys aren't missing much.  My days consist generally of homework, laundry, cooking dinner and lunches, and driving from one place to another.  I had no idea how easily all this would fill my days.