Happy Birthday!

Thursday, Chloe had picture day at school. She got all dolled up for them. She even put smell good lotion on. But they're expensive, so I took some pics before she went. She's so cute!

Everett and I frantically cleaned house that day. That night, Papa and Gigi and Uncle Jeremy snuck in after bedtime. We hid their car in the garage and they stayed upstairs Friday morning. Everett got surprised when we got home from school. He first saw Jeremy and their 3 dogs in the kitchen. He was confused b/c he didn't really remember Jeremy. He said, "why is he here? Why are the puppies here? They live with Papa and Gigi, far away." He wouldn't go near Jeremy for a few minutes. But when they came down stairs, it all made more sense. At lunch time we went to Chloe's school and had lunch with her. When we got there, we came in with me in front, then Gigi, then Papa, Jeremy and Everett pulled up the rear. Chloe ran up, broke a hole through the rest of us, and gave Jeremy a HUGE hug. She hadn't seen him in a long time. It was surprising and sweet. We brought her home after lunch and finished prep-ing for the party.

Saturday morning, I finished Everett's cake and ran off with Gigi to "Super Saturday." It's a big craft day at church where we buy supplies and learn new crafts. It was fun to socialize a bit among all the work of the party and guests. Uncle Tim showed up before we got home.

My in-laws were all SOOOOOO helpful!! I seriously couldn't have pulled off the party without Gigi. We got everything set up just in time for our friends. We only invited 3 families. I wanted to invite more, but... that would've just been too many people for me to deal with. Oh, by the way, here was the invitation. I was pretty happy with how they turned out.

First we did a marshmallow relay, using the water hose as a start line.The little ones struggled a bit. : )

But the bigger kids were fast...

... and quickly learned how to cheat, holding their hand over the spoon. It's ok though b/c we had too many marshmallows and would've been there all day if they hadn't.
The baby, Parker had fun trying to get in their way. Hehe. He's so cute! He smiled up real big when he saw I was taking his picture.

Next was a balloon relay. Just go to the end and pop it. That was funny! It was a blast watching them struggle and startle when it popped. The little ones needed help just to get on top of it.

After that was the pinata.Using the garden hose again as a "stay behind" line, we went youngest to oldest, thinking the oldest would maybe break it.The little ones had fun wailing on it.And Ireland, (next to the oldest) got it! I was shocked. I mean, I knew she was a rough and tumble tomboy kinda girl, but still. Those pinatas are hardcore. But as I was going back through my pics, I saw her studying and practicing in the background. She was determined. So her older brother just got to beat it a bit more on the ground.And get some candy.

Here's his loot.

Next we started the bubble machine and socialized on the deck while the kids played on the trampoline. Parker was the only one who was chasing and having fun with the bubbles. He was so cute toddling around with his hands in the air chasing them. But I didn't get a good picture.

Soon, Chad brought out their gift... the cutest puppy in the world.
It was love at first sight for Chloe, of course.Everett, not so much. He likes her though.She and the kids had a blast playing for a bit.All except this little guy. He was scared.Parker's family kept her for two weeks before the party. So he was used to her. Even though we did a "no gifts" party, a friend brought this cute little tiger toy for the puppy. Parker kept taking it and running away. Then she'd chase him and get it. They had fun and we had fun watching and laughing. It was awesome!

I tried my hand at cake decorating this time. And I figured since the kids had to share a party, they should have their own special cake. So here you go.

You win some:

And you loose some:

Chloe's cake went so well, it was a lot of fun to do. I had that one scoped out and planned many months ago. She loved it! Everything that could go wrong with Everett's did. I was honestly doing good to have anything for him. First, it didn't come out of the pan. My MIL went out and bought another mix. But I'd used the crumbly layers as the base, so the red building kept trying to fall over. Chad came up with the book-end idea. The fondant didn't want to work either. So I stuck some brick pattern on, gravel roof top, spiderman, and called it a day. Everett loved it, so I was happy with it.So we ate and the friends left. We had a great weekend with my in-laws. We all thoroughly enjoyed one another and were sad to say goodbye this morning. Well, Chloe didn't really care about anything but her new puppy, but everyone else was sad. We really did have fun!