turning 29 (again!)

On my actual birthday, I invited my family to come over for dinner!  I didn't really want to go out with the kids to a restaurant because it's more work than it's worth.  I can never really relax when we're out.  And, I wanted to be able to drink my wine and enjoy it.

Me and my mom.  Boy, do I look pale.

homemade pink lemonade cupcakes that my wonderful husband made me.

My favorite little guy.

They were dancing on the Wii.

No one loved taking this picture.  Doesn't Jon look happy??

surprise!!

I was very specific with my mom that I did NOT want a surprise party for my birthday.  She assured me that Jon didn't say anything to her about a party.  So, I assumed there would not be any surprises.  On Tuesday  my mom invited us over for pizza on Saturday.  She said he friends were coming over to plan their trip to Vegas.  I didn't think much of it until that day.  Jon wasn't feeling well and had been on the couch for most of the day.  He decided not to come.  Before I left I just got this feeling that something was going on and told Jon.  He must have thought I was crazy since he was planning a surprise party on my acutal birthday.  So, I called my mom on our way over and there were two things that sorta threw me off... the first was the told me everyone was over there (Nicole, Mike and Luke).  I thought it was a little weird that she cared that they were all home, if her friends were coming over.  The second thing that threw me off was that she was concerned that Jon wasn't coming.  If we were just coming over to hang out, I didn't know why she cared so much that Jon wasn't coming.  I called Jon again and he just laughed.

So, as I was sitting there, cutting out felt circles, I mentioned to my mom and Nicole that it crossed my mind that there was going to be some kind of surprise.  They both assured me that there was no surprise.  Not even 10 minutes later the doorbell rang.  and rang.  and rang.  And, in poured my all of our friends.

I had to call Jon and let him know there was a party going on for us.  He took a shower, felt much better and came over.

It was a ton of fun!

Nicolette was Lysa's girl all night.

Baby Francesca came, at a whopping 3 1/2 weeks old.  And, she's a celebrity!  Cute little girl is on a magazine cover, already!!

All my friends were there!

Sisters!

My mom got us!  It was so much fun!

michigan trip

We took a little trip to Michigan over MLK weekend.  Jon and his sister hadn't seen their grandma in awhile and Miss Mattie hadn't met Great Grandma yet, so we decided to meet in Michigan for a mini reunion.  Aunt Kim and Uncle Greg graciously offered their home for us to stay at.  Even Grandma Jeanette came!  Poor Grandpa Gary was the only one who wasn't able to make it.  We missed him!

The kids were really excited to see "baby Mattie"!  I think she might be called that forever!

Inbetween the last picture and the next picture, Nicolette and I were able to meet four amazing women (and their children), who I have known for years.  I brought my camera, and then left it in the car (Jon dropped me off).  I was SO bummed.  It was a meeting that was cut much too short, but when you only have a limited amount of time, it's hard to fit everything in.

Rushed from the indoor play center, we were off to tea!  I have never heard of an actual tea party place before!  I have to say, it was one of the cutest places!  We arrived after the other girls had enjoyed tea and pumpkin bread, but just in time to enjoy a little tea and order food. 

Mattie had fun too!

Later that day we went to Ryan's house for a little pizza and rock band.  Cole thought he was all that when he was playing the drums!

Unfortunately we had to go home on Sunday.  We're hoping we see everyone again real soon!

This was not easy to do!  Mattie is pulling Cole's hair in this picture.

It was a fun weekend seeing family. 

soccer party

We had Cole's birthday a little late this year.  Poor kid, with Christmas and New Years, there wasn't a free weekend until January 8th.  I hate that he has a birthday so close to Christmas.  I envision this being an issue for years to come.

Lucy and I started the cake on Friday night, and worked until the wee hours of the morning.  You'd think, after how many birthday cakes, we'd be speedy.  Nope!  It always takes longer than we anticipate.  I had a vision in my head, but wasn't sure how it was going to come out.  We had never worked with fondant before so I wasn't sure how that would go.  Jon gave us a huge pan, that took 6 cake mixes to fill (yes, SIX!).  I ran out of eggs while attempting to bake the cake (Lucy brought some).

We frosted the cake in buttercream, courtesy of the bagel shop and then added the grass, with an awesome grass tip (who knew?).



Next came the fondant.  It was white and we needed it to be black.  We added the dye and kneaded and rolled until we finally got black.  Fondant was super fun to work with and much easier to manipulate.

The finished product!  We had enough cake to feed an army!  For our first time, I don't think it turned out half bad.  

Since the party was at the soccer center, I wasn't able to go wild and crazy with decorations and such, BUT, I still managed to throw in a few things I made here and there! 

The birthday boy, enjoying his day!  He had a ball (literally) running around!

Nicolette had a lot of fun too!

The lighting on the field was awful, but I still got a few pics!

It was a great day!  And, MUCH easier than having the party at home!

new years eve/day

I used to love celebrating New Years and needed to go out and do something.  This year all I wanted to do was stay home.  I had no desire to even go out to dinner like we've done the past few years.  And, after Jon lost his wallet at Coppertop last year, maybe it was good we didn't go out! 

Instead we had a little celebration here. We got some wine, some bubbly for the kids, aka fancy juice and some party crowns and counted down right in our kitchen.

We practiced counting down and singing our happy new year song (to the tiune of Happy Birthday).  It was a blast!  CHEERS to 2011!!!

New Years Day morning we had our annual name and year pancakes.  I hate the way the pancakes look on my griddle but they taste yummy!

New Years Day was spent at my parents with friends.  We had my mom's favorite lasagna, macaroni and broccoli, cheese fondue and greek dip.  After dinner we played games and enjoyed the first day of the new year!