Hope's birthday WEEK!

My baby turned 9 this week!  Holy cow, how did that happen?  I know all you moms out there know what I mean, right?  I just remember like it was yesterday that my arms were empty and then suddenly we were chosen to be Hope's parents.  That day and the days following were so emotional.  It was a bittersweet time.  I was happy to FINALLY be a mom, but I knew the heartache her birth mom had to be experiencing was so unbearable.  I have said it many times, but I can NEVER thank her enough for choosing Joe and me to be Hope's parents.  I love you (Jessica) and Robbie (Ethan, Luke and Hanna too) so much and glad you are a part of extended (crazy) family.  :)  Looking forward to seeing you on Sunday.

So back to Hope's birthday WEEK, because there has been little else going on (except work and school and all the usual stuff, and no school due to cold weather AND birthday party preparations)!  OH MY!  The first two weeks of January ALWAYS stress me out and then throw in a few extra stresses from work and life in general and you sometimes get "CRANKY MOM"!  Oh yeah, that was me this week, but nothing a little glass (who am I kidding a BOTTLE) of wine can't fix tonight!  Heehee!

Saturday, we went out to a local BBQ place, which is where Hope picked (she likes the mac and cheese) and the rest of us actually like the BBQ.  LOL!  Grandma Deloris came up and brought (Great) Aunt Bonnie too, Aunt Dawn, Annie and Ally came too.  Then back to the house for cake...

...presents...she got soft warm PJ's from Grandma, a stationary set from Aunt Bonnie...

...an animated dog (you know it barks and moves, but you don't have to take it out in the middle of the night to make a poo) from Dawn and the twins (along with a troll doll and a DVD).  LOL!

We let her open one of our presents, a set of Legos because I had a good feeling school was going to be canceled because of the "POLAR VORTEX" and thought it might buy me a few hours of free time while she put it together on Monday.  :)

THEN...after opening presents and eating cake, Hope and the twins decided to try out the photo booth we were going to use for Hope's party on Saturday.  That is the theme of her party, so we set up an area to use as a photo booth with A LOT of props the girls can use, including OLD Halloween and dance costumes, etc.  If the preview is any indication, I think they will have a lot of fun tomorrow at the party.  Check in next time for an update.

 We have 7 girls coming to the party, so I hope it works out as well as it did for just the three of them. As party favors we are making a small scrapbook and are going to print a few of the pictures for them to put in it before they leave the party.  We will see how it goes.  :)

Anyway...birthday week continues, because I haven't even talked about her ACTUAL birthday.  Well, as I mentioned above, the school district cancelled school on Monday and actually ended up canceling on Tuesday as well, which was Hope's birthday.  So Joe stayed home with her in the morning and brought her to my work.  She did pretty good hanging out with me for a few hours, even kept quiet during a client phone meeting.  I knew it was time to leave when I was back at my desk and she was making fart sounds in my ear while my co-workers were asking me "serious" questions about a new project.  LOL!    So we decided to go see a movie.  We saw "Frozen" for the second time.  I love that movie and actually like the music.  I think I will probably download the soundtrack. Very powerful.

Finally, once Joe got home, she finally opened the rest of her presents from us.  We got her a book about Goldendoodles to get ready for our puppy coming in March.  Yeah!

She got the new Girl of the Year American Girl (mini) doll Isabelle.

A LED clip mini light, which she seems to use as a flashlight to get to our room each night.  Oy!

And an animated kitty.  It cracks me up with the noises, meow songs and movements it makes.  I am not much of a cat person, so this is the closest we will come to ever having a cat in the house.  LOL!

And for her cake, we had a rainbow cupcake.

So tonight, she got her FIRST phone call from a friend in her class (while we were at the grocery store).  LOL!  So on our way home we picked up Lauren for a play date.    They played for awhile and then they helped me make the tie dye cupcakes for the party tomorrow.

I know the purple looks gross, but it actually looks better in real life.  LOL!  So in the morning, we will finish the final preparations for then party and then I can collapse because I survived another year.  :)

Here is what the invitation looked like that we sent to the party invitees. I used a polaroid die to cut paper to look like a photo, etc.  The rest was just paper/supplies I already had on hand ( you know from the ever growing STASH of scrapbooking supplies I have).  YIKES it seems to continually be growing, so I am trying to use it up!

And since it is Hope's Birthday WEEK, here are a few birthday cards to share with you too!

 Well, tune in next time for all the exciting details of the "friend" party.  I hope I survive!  Say a few prayers for Joe and me, because when you get that many 8/9 year old girls together, there is bound to be DRAMA!  Oh my!

Good night!

Darla