Mia's Birthday Party and more...

Here is the continuation of my crazy week! Monday evening (September 14th) I went out to dinner with my MIL and 3 of my SIL's fpr a late b-day gift to Jared's mom. Then we all went to a play at the Hale Center Theatre called Over the River and Through the Woods. It was done extremely well and I forgot how much I enjoy live theatre. We all had a lot of fun and thankfully Nicole remembered to snap a few cute pics of us. I'll have to get some copies. All I have to say is I'm glad I'm not the only bawl baby in the family and it's a good thing I was sitting next to Alissa so we could cry together and then laugh at ourselves :)

Tuesday was my first OB appt. for baby #3. Yes, I am prego with number 3, due March 28th. I feel great again and am really blessed to have pretty easy pregnancies. The appt. was fine. It took them FOREVER to find the heartbeat though. First the nurse tired - forever - and couldn't find it. Then the Dr tried and couldn't find it. So then they brought in the ultrasound machine . A lot of you have asked if I was freaking out at this point. And I really wasn't. It took them a long time to find both Mia and Gavin's heartbeats at 12 weeks, so I had mentally prepared myself for that. Apparently I have a tilted uterus, which makes it more difficult. Anyway, the doctor brought in the ultrasound machine and there was my baby, heart beating and doing well. The only TRULY frustrating thing was my dear, sweet, FRUGAL (I really try not to use the word "cheap" though that would probably be the better word choice) husband's response. As soon as the nurse mentioned getting the ultrasound machine my very first thought was, "Jared's going to complain about having to pay more." So...Jared's very first comment..."So, how much is that going to cost us?!" Ok, to be fair, he did wait until he knew everything was ok. But no...he couldn't just leave it at that, could he?! It's called PEACE OF MIND Jared! And yes, sometimes you do have to pay for it :)

Wednesday, September 16th was Mia's first friend party! She was soooo excited. I had tried to be super organized in getting ready for this thing b/c we had sooo much going on prior to it. I think it turned out great and I know she had a LOT of fun. We invited 14 3-4 year olds (yea...it was a lot). I only plan on doing friend parties for my kids every 4 years, so I didn't mind. And, truth be told, I didn't really expect ALL 14 to show. But all but 1 did. Which was great and we kept it low key and outside.



And I had major help that saved me! First, my wonderful friend Katie dropped off her daughter at the party and then took Gavin with her the ENTIRE time!!! Katie, that was so NICE not to have Gavin wanting to be a part of the party! THANK YOU!!! Then my 2 SIL's Alissa and Melissa brought their 2 kids to the party and then stayed and were my helpers. Seriously could NOT have pulled off this party with out them! Melissa was my photographer and took sooo many pictures. I was so happy. She got pictures of everything and everyone!

Finally, on to the pictures and the party!

Ater playing outside while everyone arrived we moved inside and each kid colored and decorated a bag for a treasure hunt we would do after lunch.

Then it was time for pizza! YUM!
We split into 2 teams for our treasure hunt. There were 10 clues around the yard (and the neighbor's yard!) and at 4 or 5 of them, there was also a small "treasure" for each kid. The final clue led them to a pinata.

You can't have a party without a pinata! The kids all had fun and each got plenty of turns. This pinata was NOT going to break though and I didn't want to be doing this forever, so I took a turn and then Jared finished it off and the kids had a blast searching the grass for the candy!
We had cupcakes and I tried to light 4 candles, but because of the wind could only get 2 at a time. I had to quickly convince Mia that was it and she had better blow them out before the wind got those as well :)

Then it was time for presents. And talk about presents! Man was that little girl spoiled rotten! Of course she loved opening each one and it was cute to see the little kids personalities and watch them help her open "their" present.

Funny story about the presents...before the first guest arrived, I reminded Mia she needed to say hi to all her friends when they got here, thank them for coming and thank them for the present when she opened it. Well, when the first kid arrived, she walked over, said hello, and said, "Is that for me?!" (as she grabbed the present out of the child's hand) "Thank you!". She did this EVERY time a child arrived. What a crack up that girl is!

And finally this mega-long post - which has actually been causing me quite a bit of strife - is over! No more birthdays for us until the spring! Hooray! Bring on the holidays :)