Calleigh Turns Six & Aubree Turns Four

This was the big weekend that the girls have been counting down for weeks.  On Friday (May 17), Calleigh turned six and on Sunday (May 19), Aubree turned four.  I thank the good Lord that he gave me two girls with birthdays close enough together to do joint birthday parties because honestly, it's a lot of work and I'm not crazy about it.  I never remember having big parties growing up (which has never bothered me, even then) but it's seems like it's the thing to do these days.  Not that I would call this party big by any comparable standards.  

We scheduled the party for 4:30 yesterday and I was a bit apprehensive because afternoon parties in May in Florida aren't really a good idea.  More often than not, we will have an afternoon rain storm and sometimes thunder coming through around then.  However, I was already scheduled for a baby shower that morning so that left us with the afternoon.  Goodness knows I was NOT scheduling a party for Mother's Day like I did last year.  Never again!  It has been a fairly easy May as far as afternoon storms go so we were hoping for the best but as luck would have it, about 30 minutes before the party, it started getting really windy and yup, just about exactly 4:30, it started to rain.  There went our plans for all the outdoor activities including the water shooters, water balloons and several other outdoor games.  But what are you going to do?  We moved the tables inside and just went with it.  I told Duncan we can be glad that we live in a bigger house this year so that we are able to now accommodate every one.  

We had invited about six families that we spend the most time with and then Aunt Wanda and Ron and Elaine (obviously).  There were about 15 kids here and about the same number of adults.  We served cold sandwiches, veggies, chips, dip, broccoli/strawberry salad, and fruit.  I had actually stayed up until 2:30 on Saturday night making the dips and sandwich filling so I wouldn't have to worry about it on Sunday.  We had been at another party on Saturday night and didn't get home until 10:45 and then I knew I had the shower in the morning.  Good thing I'm a night owl!  I don't know how much Duncan appreciated my running the VitaMix at 1:00 am but hey, you do what you have to do.  Ron and Elaine were kind enough to get here a little after 2:00 to help with putting everything together.  

Party prep with Daddy on Sunday morning.

Idea courtesy of Pinterest.

Despite the rain, I think we had a good time, and most importantly I know Calleigh and Aubree did.  Ron had brought some magic tricks with him that he entertained the kids with for a bit.  I think a few of the older ones may have caught on to a few of them.  Eventually the weather cleared and around 7:00 the kids decided to go outside to use up the water balloons and use the shooters.  We broke the teams up between the boys and girls and let them go at it with the balloons although they had to stay behind a line when throwing them.  Towards the end, Duncan and Allen went to the girls side to help them launch their balloons (the boys ran out much faster than the girls) and Allen heaved a balloon from way far back, not aimed at any particular person from what I could tell.  But the balloon hit his son Kolden right on the top of the head.  He must have been at least 30 feet away so it was a major fluke that it it hit him like that (not that you don't have good aim, Allen).  I only say this because Kolden was completely unphased by it but it was the funniest thing that he hit his own son like that!  As we were wrapping up, Duncan comes up to me and says that we should go over to our next door neighbor's house and bring them some cake because a yellow water balloon had landed on their side of the fence.  They are cool people so I knew it would be no big deal that it happened but I thought it was a nice gesture.  I went over and their 10-year old son answered the door and was appreciative of the cake.  I told him a kid had thrown a balloon over by accident.  A little bit later we were talking about it and Duncan casually mentions that it was HE who had thrown the balloon.  And here he had led me to believe it was some kid who wasn't being careful!

Grandpa doing his magic tricks.

Macey, Braelyn, Marley, Aubree, Calleigh, & Maddy

Evan, Kieran, Kaleb, Zachary, Blake, Kolden, & Brady (Adam and Luke had already left).  Perhaps we need to name our son with a "K."  I didn't realize how popular that letter was until just now.

Oh, and I have to give the cake it's own paragraph.  As you know, my friend Jennifer is a master baker and makes all the birthday cakes.  Calleigh and Aubree are still in their Nature Hunter phase so they have been talking about having a backpack cake for months.  Believe me, I'm most thankful for this phase because I have never been a princess-y person myself like many little girls are.  Calleigh owns a green back pack and Aubree a blue one so those are the colors we picked for the cake.  As you can see, Jennifer did an AMAZING job.  This cake would cost a fortune if we had to buy it.  How nice it is to have a friend with this kind of talent?!!

After it was all over and done with, we were pretty wiped out.  I felt like I had been working at Friendly's again as my feet were tired and tingly from standing up so long.  I got the kids up to bed and then I completely sacked out in my bed to watch the Bruins/Rangers playoff game that I had recorded from that afternoon.  My phone had sent me an update so I knew it was 1-1 at the end of the first period so I quickly went through that period and I did see the second period but then something happened with my eyes and the next thing I knew, the game was over.  I do know the Bruins won the game.  By that time it was about 10:15 which is early by my standards to go to sleep but to sleep I did go...I hadn't even looked at the news or anything since early that afternoon.  You know I must have been tired.

This weekend was fully of activity.  Since Friday was Calleigh's actual birthday, Ron and Elaine took the girls for the day to eat, shop, and swim.  The kids and I hit a few yard sales on Friday morning and then dropped the girls off at their house around 11:00.  That left just Brady and I to finish up the yard sale-ing and I must say I had a good time with just the two of us.  He's a lot of fun to be with as he browses through the toys and various items.  Of course, everyone thinks he's like half the age he is and they're blown away when they hear him talking so well so I always have to explain, well, he's actually almost two...not the fourteen months you were probably thinking.  At each stop, he would get involved in playing or looking at something and wouldn't want to leave so I would start walking towards the car and yell back "Come on, Brady. Let's go."  He would finally figure out I was actually leaving and then he would start running after me "I coming, I coming."

Friday afternoon, the girls were still gone and Brady was sleeping.  Duncan got home to be with Brady and I was off to Target to shop for all the food for the party since I figured this was my one chance to do so.  I got back just in time to hop into the van to head over to the food trucks for supper.  It was a gorgeous evening with a wind blowing off the lake and although I didn't find anything too gratifying to eat for my supper, it left all the more room for my chocolate/strawberry/cream crepe that I tried to eat very discretely so the girls wouldn't want any of it.  Boy, was it good.  

How adorable is this boy?!

Sabbath morning we were off to church with the girls wearing their new matching pillow case dresses.  My sister-in-law Camille has taken up sewing as of late and made these dresses just by watching some videos on YouTube.  They came out really well and it has inspired me to maybe, possibly, learn how to do it.  Of course, I have no sewing machine so that might present a tiny problem.  Anyway, Duncan went to Calleigh's class this year since she had recalled that I had come last year for the birthday.  I stayed with Aubree and Brady and I was happy to see that Aubree would actually sit in the birthday chair without my having to be right next to her.  That was a Sabbath School birthday first for her.

With her teacher, Miss Deanna.  Calleigh just loves her!

Saturday night we had a birthday party over at our friends Karis and Amy's house.  They just bought a new house (ironically, I had gone to a yard sale at this same house a few months ago and had gotten the little Time Out chair there) a few weeks ago and we were really excited to see it although it is undergoing some renovations so they haven't moved in yet.  The house is nice and big and it is on 2.2 acres which is especially fantastic.  They had some tables set up on the back patio surrounding the pool and we had a really, really nice time just chatting with everyone since there were no kids.  They have a huge bonus room off the pool area which came with a pool table and air hockey so some of the guys, including Duncan, spent a large amount of the time in there playing games.  The time flew by really fast and the next thing you knew it was almost 10:00 and I knew we needed to get over to the Bergherms to pick up the kids.  We had three baby-sitters watching 10 kids at their house.  I was wondering what Brady would be like since it was well past his bedtime.  I found him sitting on the floor in Evan's room contentedly playing with some toy and he wasn't really that thrilled to see me.  None of them even fell asleep on the way home and by the time we got teeth brushed it was close to 11:00.  The girls woke up pretty much at their usual time (part of that could be that they were excited about it being Aubree's birthday) but Brady was still sleeping the next morning at 9:30 and we finally just woke him up to try and keep him somewhat on a schedule.  

Why does Bruce seem to nonchalant and Duncan so intense?  This was not a rhetorical question.  I didn't take this picture so I don't know.

Jennifer had found the babysitters which happened to be three teenage girls from church.  It turned out that one was the daughter of a guy that Duncan works with a lot so Duncan made sure to introduce himself to her when he heard her last name.  The next morning Duncan got a text from his friend saying that his daughter LOVED (his word) our kids and that she would love to babysit them whenever we need someone.  So that was nice!  Calleigh did admit on the way home that she had done some wrestling with the sitters (geesh!) and that one was 19 and one was 17 and she wasn't sure how old the other one was.  Sunday morning I was talking to my mom about them and I said something like "Yeah, they are in their late teens like 18."  Of course, Calleigh had to cut right in, "No!" They weren't 18.  One was 19 and one was 17."  I have no idea why but she always likes to ask people their ages and clearly it's important to her!

Sunday morning at 10:30 I was off to the baby shower for my friend Kelli who is having a baby girl at the end of June.  She has a son, Erik, who is a little less than two months younger than Brady so I told her that this time I let her go first.  The funny thing is that it was a lot of the same people at the birthday party Saturday night, the shower Sunday morning, and then the girls' birthday party Sunday afternoon.  The other funny thing was that the aforementioned babysitter, Carly, was at the baby shower, so I got to talk to her some more and she reiterated that she would love to babysit over the summer.  She goes to Southern during the school year.  The shower was lovely (and yes, I did feel a little twinge looking at all the cute baby girl stuff and was thinking "I'm never going to have another baby girl.  That's kind of sad.") and really, any time you are having a little break from the kids and socializing with other ladies and eating good food, it's a great time.  Am I right?

A little blurry but you get the drift...two pregnant ladies at a baby shower.

Speaking of a break from the kids, Mother's Day was just awesome.  Awesome, I say!!  You know that commercial from a few years ago about a little boy who is going to Disney World and they show him in bed and he's saying "I'm too excited to sleep!!  Well, that was me except instead of going to Disney World I was going to Goodwill.  I seriously I had the worst time getting to sleep...I had stayed up late anyway planning out my route, getting coupons ready, checking store hours, etc.  This is where I went:  CVS-Kohl's-Goodwill-Goodwill-Goodwill-Old Navy-Bed, Bath, & Beyond-Motherhood Maternity-Panera-Goodwill-Goodwill-Goodwill-World Market-Kirkland's-Home Goods-Target-Burger King and then finally West Oaks Mall where I was meeting Jennifer and Tangie for a movie as a nightcap.  I had found a movie called "The Big Wedding" that was supposed to be playing at 8:30 but when I arrived, discovered that was not the case.  I must have still had my phone on the Saturday showtimes by accident.  They only had a few movies playing and we ended up seeing a Tyler Perry movie which is, ah, geared toward a different genre of people.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  Anyway, it wasn't that bad and it was nice to be with the girls.  The shopping was much more successful and I had just the best time driving around town all by myself.  Duncan would send me pictures throughout his day which he spent the majority of with Allen.  He first went to a nursery with the kids and then they all went to the Science Center, a splash playground, blueberry picking, and the pool.  A full day.  Oh, and I should also mention that Duncan had gotten up early that morning to make me a grand breakfast of pancakes, stripples, and home fries before I left.  Delicious!

At the nursery.  The first thing I noticed is that Calleigh is wearing a dress way too short for her and that I only let her wear with leggings.  Apparently she forgot to mention this to Daddy.

Getting ready to go in to the Science Center.

Lunch at the Science Center.

Couldn't stay awake between Science Center and next activity.

After the splash playground, neither could the girls.

Wrapping things up at the pool.

A few other pictures from the week:

"No, no, picture." He says to me.

He was very upset when I realized I had taken one.

But then he sat down in the bucket and it was all good.

The first signs of life from the garden (as far as stuff we planted from seeds)  These were the cucumbers I believe.

The girls get front row seats to watch Duncan do the watering.

Fooling around at Party City.  Nice look, Brady.

Have a great week!