Our Western Shindig - Emma and Drew's 2nd birthday party

This weekend was busy, to say the least. But fun. We had Em and Drew's 2nd birthday party, and the days leading up to it, I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off getting everything ready and organized. Anything to make this thing go off without a hitch, and give my munchkins the best birthday party ever! They had a total blast, so my goal was accomplished. Lots of Sugar (Cake icing), lots of really cool new presents, lots of friends... what's not to like about it?!
Sorry about the lengthy post - but I have a LOT of pictures to share. And actually, (Believe it or not)... This is really just a few of the pictures that were taken yesterday. We have hundreds (thanks mom!)

So it was a Western/cowboy/cowgirl theme. It was fun to decorate and dress up for... and everyone got really into it! Here are just a few pictures before the party started.... (Before all of the craziness!)

 My Cowboy!

I think he's a pretty cute cowboy if you ask me....

 My little cowboy & cowgirl... (Drew refused to keep his cowboy hat on, so his outfit was just a little incomplete for the majority of the day.)

 Drew with Aunt 'Cha cha'

 Andrew with his yia yia and sister Amy

 Drew and aunt Jo-Jo!

 Emma & uncle Matt - being silly. Always!

 Emma & "Baby Fi". This is pretty funny... Emma and Ffion are about 3 months apart, and have spent a lot of time together, but Emma has always referred to Fi as 'the baby.'

 CAKE TIME!!!

 I got this gigantic cupcake thing for the kids (and really, it was probably 60% icing, but oh well, once a year, right?) So actually all of the kids wound up just digging in and going to town on it!

 Emma & Drew with Mimi

 They kept feeding eachother cake

 My mom and her girls!

 This car was such a hit! (Thanks Tracy and Bryan!)

This was one of their presents, and Drew wound up just driving around the party the rest of the day. He crashed into walls a few times, but eventually he started to get the hang of the steering wheel and brake.

I just wanted to try to capture the total chaos that was going on when we were opening presents. This doesn't even do it justice.

Thank you to everyone that joined us yesterday for making their birthday so special! We had so much fun!

Locks of Love

I have been debating for a LONG time over cutting my hair. Not just a little trim, but major hair cut, in order to cut enough to donate to Locks of Love and still have enough hair to keep. It drives my poor husband absolutely nuts because every 3 or 4 months I get this wild idea that I'm going to cut all of my hair off, and will continue to ask him his opinion over and over until he eventually says that he's tired of this same conversation, since I have been talking about it forever and I never actually do it.

I have always loved the thought of Locks of Love, which is an organization that accepts donated hair to make wigs and hair pieces for little kids with cancer.
http://www.locksoflove.org/
I strongly encourage that anyone considering a major hair cut check this out and consider it.
You do have to donate a minimum of a 10 inch pony tail.

So.... Today I took the plunge! I was ready for a big change, and I was tired of my hair. It takes forever to wash, comb out, dry, straighten, it's long, heavy, hot in the summer, I have been sitting on it lately, and it catches behind my back and gets stuck often, my kids use it as a 'rope' to pull themselves up off the ground with. So, I had just had enough and was ready.
I wound up donating 14 inches of hair for a little girl to have a beautiful pony tail some day.

 Here are a few 'before' pictures. My mom and sister came with me, and my mom was the photographer...

separating into smaller pony tails

And, now there is no turning back!

 There was so much hair, we had to divide it into four pony tails -



And.... What I have had several requests to see - - - The 'after' pictures!

So... What do you guys think?!?!
I don't even remember when my hair was this short last, if ever.
What I'm absolutely looking forward to most, is the time it will save me! And for those of you multi tasking moms out there, you know how valuable time is! You can not even place a value on time, and that extra half hour that I no longer have to add on to my morning routine is priceless!

Birthday Continued...

I am sure we will have a few "Birthday continued" posts on here by the time this month comes to a close. Because we haven't even gotten to their birthday party yet. Which by the way I think is going to be really cute... We are doing a Western/Cowboy/Cowgirl theme. I've been having fun shopping for the decorations and their little outfits & hats.
So yesterday for their birthday, They had cake for breakfast (eek!!), and later in the day we went to my parents (Mimi & Pop's)...
Some more presents....

 She is pretty much always coloring....

 And... the second cake of the day! (It looks like Em is trying to figure out how she can color it.)

Then, Chuck E Cheese. Yes... we bucked up and dealt with it.... It's definitely not my favorite place in the world, and I am easily annoyed by places like that... but I will do (pretty much) anything to make my munchkins happy. And, we succeeded. They  had a lot of fun.

 Drew loved this little car, he probably rode it 6 times.

Funny story. We take them to an indoor play place called "Monkey Joe's" - and they have bouncers, slides, etc.. This was their first time at Chuck E Cheese, so I think Emma was just a little confused. When the ChuckE Mouse-thing character came out and was walking around, Emma was following him around calling him "Monkey Cheese." because she is used to monkey joe's. I thought that was pretty funny. And no matter how many times you corrected her, she was going to call him monkey cheese anyway.

You don't have to get Drew presents, just boxes!

Happy Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my two most favorite little people in this world. Emma and Andrew are TWO today! Where does time go?!
We are having a big party for them next weekend... but definitely had to do something for them today, on their actual birthday.
I took the day off to hang out with them all day, and last night after they went to bed I played the *Birthday Fairy.*

On this ONE day a year.... they were allowed to have cake for breakfast! So we did a miniature cake, and they loved it. The big cake comes next weekend at their party.

They  have been singing 'Happy Birthday' to each other all morning. And when you ask them whose birthday it is, they will point to the other one. Not quite sure they totally understand yet, but we are getting there. So my dad called this morning to say Happy Birthday to them, and I put him on speaker... When he said Happy Birthday to Emma, she responded "Happy Birthday Pop!!!" hmmm?

One of Emma's balloons has Tinkerbell on it, and she keeps referring to it as 'the lady.'

And Drew thinks 'birthday' is 'cake.' He doesn't understand that it is a day. So when I ask him "Who's birthday is it?!" he says "birthday all gone, I ate it."

Last night Drew got a hair cut. He's a pro at it now... I think this was his 5th haircut. Andrew just brings him to the same place he goes. But he knows the routine... he knows where to go when we walk in, and he jumps right up into the chair. And when we were leaving last night, they both said "Bye Rachael!!" She does all of our hair... Mine, Andrews, Drews, my  moms, sisters, Matts.... Emma has yet to have a haircut, because with her curls her hair bounces up and would be pretty short if I got it cut.

So... more birthday fun to come. Andrew and I were trying to think of a place to take them tonight when he gets off work to go for dinner, that's kid friendly... and that they would actually enjoy and have fun instead of being restricted to a booster seat and crayons. Unfortunately, I think the only place that matches our criteria is ChuckyCheese. Ugh..... We both cringe at the fact of having to go there, but, I think that's where they would have the most fun, so we will probably just have to suck it up. I think Dave and Busters is way too old for them, but there isn't anything in between. So we'll do that tonight when daddy gets home.