Find Kardus

I cant believe the weekends go by so fast.  Sigh.  At least it was a fun and very productive one.  Joel had to work Saturday so the kids and I had a little breakfast treat at McDonalds, did our grocery shopping and Target shopping.  The kids were actually pretty good for me which was such a nice change.  I had kinda been dreading it since Joel informed me he had to work. 

Saturday night it was Kjestines Sweet 16 party.  But before we got in to the birthday celebrations, the kiddos opened their Christmas presents from Uncle Josh and Aunt Ree.

They scored pretty big.   Lily got a ton of Frozen loot.  Tyler got some awesome trucks picked out special by his Uncle Josh.  And they both got the BEST, I mean BEST, handmade gifts from Auntie Ree.  She made them their very own aprons since they are in to cooking with me these days.  The aprons are so cute.  I mean so, so, so cute.  Lily got an Elsa one, a Snow White one (my favorite) and a Belle one.  Tyler got a Mickey one.  Complete with chefs hats.  Totally adorable.  AND, as if that wasnt enough, they also got their own horsey (or unicorn) riding sticks which they havent really put down since.

Kjestine had a Cosplay themed party - so we were supposed to dress up like a cartoon/movie/book character.  Lily, of course, was Elsa.  Tylers Spiderman costume was too little (which I found out when I tried to put it on him and when I pulled it up and tried to stuff his arms in, he said, "Ouch!  That hurts.  Cant fit, Mommy.").  So Tylers back up costume was Bob the Builder (which is not clear from any of the photos).  I pulled out an old Breakfast Club costume - Betty Rubble.  It was about 2x too big so I took about 12 inches out of it by sewing a seam straight up the back.  Joel, well I dont really know what he was.  He tried to claim "Irish Mafia" by wearing some St Pats Day suspenders and a gun holster....riiiiight.  

Heres a pic of some of the food spread.  Did Marie do a kickass job on this or what?  I cant believe I didnt get any pictures of the centerpieces.  They were so creative - books along with little jars filled with relevant figurines for the theme of the books.  

The kiddos ran around in the gym all night.  Playing with balloons and their horseys.  And they ate cake. 

Whitney - posing like a rock star.  For the rest of the weekend, any time Lily was posing for a picture, shed really strike a pose and claim, "I"m doing it like Whitney does."

While the cupcakes were baking we wrapped a present for Lilys friend Charlotte because we had another birthday party to go to later in the afternoon.  Then we worked on filling treat bags - assembly line style (cause the industrial engineer in me just will not retreat).  By then, the cupcakes were done and cooled off enough that we could decorate them.

Then it was off to fun day lunch.  I picked Mexican.  Oy....it was sooooo good.   Chips, white cheese, salsa, fajitas.  Nom, nom, nom.  I had planned on only have 1 major splurge meal for Fun Day.  However, Joel and I didnt share a meal like we normally do and we both had SO MUCH FOOD leftover that Mexican Food Fun Day lasted into the evening as well.  Delicious.

Back home with the kids for nap.  Joel worked on a special game for Lilys birthday party (its turning out so awesome!) while I ran back to run errands (Walmart - again, Target - again, Joanns, Marsh, Circle K) - all of that in < 90 minutes. 

Run back home, grab the kids and head to another birthday party at the gymnastics center.  Tyler and Graydon ran around and played together while Lily and Ashu (Lily pronounces his name "Ah-CHOO" and she INSISTS that is the way you say it) hung out.  Well, mostly Lily bossed Ashu around and he happily did whatever she said.