Family Time

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had a lot of family come into town for Nate's birthday extravaganza last week. My parents arrived on Wednesday afternoon, and the kids were oh so excited to see their Nanny & Poppy!! After dinner, we wanted to treat them to a new popsicle place in town - Steel City Pops. It was a hit!

Thursday, Nate (sadly) went to school, so Abby had a few hours alone with N&P. She relished every minute. Mostly b/c when I told her we were going to the park, her eyes lit up. That meant she had THREE people to ask to push her on the swings!! ;)

Miss Priss surprised us all though and began pumping her legs/swinging by herself! I was so proud! And so was she, see below:

Then off to another new hot spot in town: Taste of Chicago. My dad and I share a love of hot dogs, and this place has the best! Not just hot dogs, but italian sausages, bratwursts, philly cheese steaks, etc. It was delish! We were finishing up our meal when the manager started going from table to table and handing out free pizza. Apparently, they are trying out a new product (Chicago-style pizza!) and wanted some feedback. I had one word for him: AMAZING!

After picking Nate up at school that afternoon, the kids played & played with N&P, inside and outside. Games, songs, toys, puzzles, you name it.

Friday morning, both kids were sent off to school and N&P headed to the B'ham airport to pick up this lil nugget (and his parents!):

That's right! It was Baby Anderson's first visit to Alabama. And it started off with a bang. Or, an oreo. 

The kids were anxious to see everyone when I picked them up, and once Anderson woke up from his afternoon nap we headed to yet another park. This was a smaller one so Anderson could keep up, and it was fun taking a stroll on the Riverwalk to get there. Love these two!!

Shaking her "pom poms"

Goofing off with Uncle Mike

Dance Party USA

My parents brought their dog, O'Malley. That was a treat. (Or not)

Round 1 of bday presents

Helping to bathe Baby Anderson

Hard at work on his first new lego set 

Saturday was a whirlwind, as we had Nate's party at Krispy Kreme in the morning. We all had fun, but you know when 3 adults are drinking a beer with their lunch, it's been a heckuva day so far :)

I promised Nate he could open his presents after lunch, so Anderson snagged the best seat in the house and got ready for the show:

This was my Dad's rocker as a little boy!

For the past 3 months, ALL Nate has talked about is this TMNT lego set. Like, for real we had to print out pictures of it from the internet so he could look at all the parts, descriptions, etc. And most nights he would go to bed with the papers on his nightstand. I am not kidding. So thank goodness N&P came through and bought it for him!!!! Pure joy, I tell ya.

We needed to get out after afternoon naps, so we took a family walk around the neighborhood. What a group!

Then Bec decided Anderson needed to run off some more energy, so we headed to our 3rd park of the weekend. 

Anderson pointing out every "guck" that he sees! (translation: Truck)

Saturday night I was tired of cooking so we got both pizza & BBQ take-out. Works for me! Abby entertained us while we were waiting for the food. This girls is a H-O-T  M-E-S-S! :)

Poor Baby Anderson. The only room we had for him was in the bathroom. Luckily, he didn't seem to mind and I couldn't resist getting a picture of that little butt in the air during his Sunday morning nap. Precious!

This is what Nate did most of Saturday & Sunday. He was holed up in his room, hard at work on his TMNT lego set!

Before Bebe & Mike & Anderson had to go to the airport, we had to get the obligatory "cousin" picture in. Abby was the one who reminded us! She loves loves loves some Baby Anderson. (And I think she will call him that even when he's 16.)

Photobomber Nate

I took Bebe & her family to the airport, and when I returned home, I found this:

Nate had FINISHED his new Lego set!! (And Abby had given him 2 medals for finishing so fast, ha!) Not only was this set for 7-14 year olds, but it had 600+ pieces. So proud of my little man!

The rest of Sunday was pretty rainy, so we stayed inside with N&P and then they took the kiddos to a late afternoon movie & dinner! Which meant Greg & I got to have a date night with another couple, score!

N&P left this past Monday, and the kids headed back to school as usual. It was a fun-filled but exhausting weekend! :)

Krispy Kreme Party!

 Nate is SO my son. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I l.o.v.e donuts. And always have. Well, ever since Krispy Kreme was (re)built here, we have started a family tradition. Every Sunday after mass - if the kids are good - we go get a donut. So, Nate's love for donuts has been growing over the past 2 years, little by little. And now he is full on obsessed!! So when I asked him where he wanted his6th birthday party, it was a no-brainer for him.

Luckily, I have 2 friends (with older kids) who had had parties at Krispy Kreme before. So I knew it would possible. After lots of talks with the manager, I was able to talk them into letting me have a party with 18 kids. It was a wee bit crowded in there, but Nate had a ball and that's all that matters to me.

 They even let me bring in extra food to make it more of a brunch than a morning sugar-fest (we had the party at 9:30 am). The workers kept coming up to me and saying it was the "fanciest" party they'd ever had there. Hilarious!!!

 Growing up, my parents always made a big deal about our birthdays. Whether it be a party at McDonald's, at the bowling alley, or a sleepover with a scavenger hunt, I remember my childhood birthdays very vividly. So, as a result, I usually go "all out" for my kids' parties (according to Greg at least). I feel like it's their one day to feel extra special, so why not!?

With that being said, I looked into hiring a magician to come to Krispy Kreme but it was WAY too expensive and he was not "pleased" with the small space to begin with. So Plan B was to hire Nate's friend's mom to come & do balloon animals. She did an a.m.a.z.i.n.g job!! So T-Town friends, check out her FB page here if you want to hire her sometime.

She was definitely the hit of the party! We had created a "menu" for the kids to choose from ahead of time, with about 10 designs. But Nate - as the birthday boy - got an "advanced" design, that Dawn did at home ahead of time and brought with her. How cool is this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle!?

Once all the kids got there, it was time to line up for our TOUR!! (Notice Abby is not in this picture. Yeah, she was having a hard time with all the attention Nate was getting and was crying. In my arms. For like 30 minutes.)

Parading to the back of the store for our tour. Of course everyone had to wear a special glove!

Each kid got to make their own chocolate-glazed donut with sprinkles!

One word: HEAVEN.

And then came the cake! Nate was in shock, but as you can see his friend Jack was even more so! Ha!

BFF's....having some Lego talk

All the boys from Nate's class wanted TMNT too :)

My little sis & her hubbie flew in for the weekend with my nephew Anderson. We had such a great time with them!! (More on that later.) Anderson had a rough night the night before, so he took a long morning nap and Mike brought him to the party near the end.

No worries though, there were plenty of donuts left!!

Oh, Poppy. He is something else. He made friends with some of the workers early on, and ended up bartering with them. Yes, he gave them a few of our leftover sausage balls & mini muffins, in exchange for a dozen donuts. (As if we needed more!) Look how proud he is!!

Abby was the very last one to get a balloon animal made. She was so patient! And by the looks of this face, her butterfly was worth the wait!

It was "the best party ever" according to Nate, and I think all his friends had a good time too. A big thank you to my parents and Bec & Mike for helping so much with everything!!

I can't wait till after mass on Sunday when we head back for another donut! :)