Wait for it....

What a hectic week. My parents made the trek down early to help us prepare for our DD's 4th bday party. As usual, we put them to work! Dad helped my DH repair some missing panels on my greenhouse as we were going to be getting a freeze one night and we all got most of my plants moved into the greenhouse or covered to protect them from the winter weather. The guys also got the lights on the Christmas tree. Mom kept über busy cleaning the house for us and helping to decorate the tree and the house for Christmas. (While we are hoping and planning on making our annual trek up north for Christmas, on the off-chance we don't get to, I wanted it to feel like home for the holidays.)

The kids had fun helping to decorate the tree but my DS discovered just how tiring a job it is.

In addition to cleaning, cooking and decorating, my mom helped me pull together decorations to make a woodland fairy wonderland for my DD's 4 year bday party on Saturday. We were very tickled with how everything turned out. We had flowers and wood vines and "fairy" lights and tulle...it was a perfect little setting for our fairy themed bday party.


A mistake I made this year was not decorating the cake on Friday night. I did bake the cake and even worked on making some flowers but as I was already running behind, they weren't going to have enough time to dry and transport from the paper to the cake so I decided I could just pipe them directly onto the cake...no problem. Well.....with everything else going on to get ready Saturday, having to decorate the cake was, well, a little much on my plate, mostly due to the fact that I'd practiced piping the flowers on the nail, which spins, and when piping them directly on the cake, I couldn't tilt the cake and/or spin it (when doing the sides) like on the nail. Urg. I did get it done, and on time, but not without a few head spinning episodes. It all turned out well though, and it tasted yummy (which is the main thing)!

The FUNNIEST part of the day occurred while my DD was opening her gifts. As she'd unwrap each gift, she'd say, "Wait for it...wait for it". We were rolling with laughter. I don't know where she got that phrase, but it was funny.

We were fortunate enough to not only have my parents here but also my brother and his family. We took advantage of this reunion to take a family photo.

After everyone had left, my family sat around and enjoyed some wonderful time together. I got to spend some much appreciated time with my new little nephew (who's 8 months old now..holy cow) and my brother kept busy playing with my kiddos.
Between playing with Barbies with both kids (I don't know how I got just the boys in this photo, but it cracks me up) and playing "wheelbarrow" with my son, my bro did a good job wearing them out. His funny quote of the day was when he was was heard hollering, "Let's go accessorize!" to my DD (referring to dressing up Barbie in some new things he'd snuck off to get for her).

Sadly, my brother, SIL, and nephew had to return home. Our night wasn't over yet though. Well, my mom's wasn't anyway. Before bed, my mom rolled my DD hair so she'd have lots of curls for Sunday. DD had been beggin for this. Unfortunately, as soon as she went to bed, she pulled them all out so no curls the next morning.


Despite the lack of curls, however, our little 4 year old still looked like a little angel Sunday morning in her new outfit from Nanny & Granddad.

Whew...what a trip. One bday down, one more to go. This next time, I'll try to have everything done the night before the party. Hey, I'm already ahead of the game. I know what I'm doing for the cake... Stay tuned.