So, it has been another week...
We are adjusting to life here in our little apartment.
We had our 2nd (and final) fantasy draft of the season.
The kids have been quite lonely, I have been lonely. But... the other day, outside, this is what we saw:
KIDS! Aaron has found a couple boys to run around with here. Charity sometimes gets to tag along. Note the nice view from our back patio. The kids think the basketball court is our backyard. I seriously almost cried because I was so happy for them to find friends!!!

They started school on Monday. Charity is in Kindergarten, and her teacher is Mrs. Smith. Aaron is in 2nd grade and his teacher is Mrs. Schiff. They both seem to be great teachers, and, all day kindergarten is really nice... Anyways, as expected, they love school. I think they are pretty cute.
Aaron has been playing TONS of football. He is really enjoying (most of the time) his first year in tackle. He is on the Cowboys ;) so of course, I am thrilled! Anyways, I am preparing my little tight end, so he has the best number: 82 (somehow, it got into his head that Mr. Witten on the Cowboys is really cool - maybe it is because mom is a big fan, and maybe she might have bought him a Witten Jersey too...) So far, 3 days a week we have been doing football. I am just waiting for charity to start soccer then it will officially be fall sports season.

Nate is very lonely while the kids are at school, but we have been having fun. I took him to the zoo the other day. He is my little buddy and gets lots of mommy time. I am ready for him to find a little playmate though... it is tough entertaining a 2 yr old all day when I have been so used to my kids entertaining him!

So, here is the question: why do we buy clothes for back to school? I buy the school supplies (from the PTA so i dont waste my time or effort finding all the items on the list) BUT i didnt do the whole back-to-school shopping. I bought Aaron NOTHING. I bought Nate NOTHING (he isnt going to school) WELL, I guess I ended up buying charity a pair of sneakers, and on an impulse i also ended up buying her 1 outfit for the first day of school (yes, that outfit came from walmart saturday night when i went to the store to get milk and a loaf of bread)... but really? I just moved into this apartment, and as I was unpacking all their clothes and hanging them all up, I just thought to myself: WOW THESE KIDS HAVE LOTS OF CLOTHES. I even budgeted and planned on going out and doing the obligatory shopping... but we got busy. then one night, i decided to make an inventory to determine what was needed, and as of right now, my kids are very well stocked. This is probably because i buy clothes year round (it is just so hard to resist those super target and walmart clothes! i swear, i go to buy ONLY groceries, and somehow cheap & cute kids clothes jump into my cart!) if i only bought clothes in the fall it would make sense. I guess soon enough my kids will start thinking walmart clothes aren't the coolest...what do you guys do?

So, there are a few things I have done lately that are worthy of a blog update:
1. I went to the breaking dawn release party at the barnes and noble here with a bunch of girlfriends. It was the night before we moved. I had a BLAST! notice the piano in the background... ya, that's mine. The Brann's are just kind enough to babysit it for the next little while in their home. sniff sniff. Even though it looks amazing in their house, i will see it again in mine... someday when we get another house... ps, i think that was my favorite of all the books. fun light reading. :)
2. We went down to Houston last weekend. Joe's dad was in a very serious horse riding accident, so, rather than going solo with the kids, joe accompanied me so we could go visit him (and of course see his bros). I have been looking for a house for the last few months. Joe's dad has been building his dream home for i dont even know how long. here is just one pic so you can get the idea... ok, honestly, how beautiful is that? you can see their dock on the lake. they will also have a pool out there too. I AM SO EXCITED!!! it is the mega house for fun (complete with a bunk room and play room with a stage for all the grandkids)...

We also were able to go to sydney's birthday party at chuckycheese. It was fun to see all the cousins. Of course the kids spent most of the weekend in Jeff's pool, and I spent most of the weekend lounging around. We had the first fantasy draft of the season there as well. I AM READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!!!

3. Tuesday, I took the kids to go sleepover at my mom's house. I feel like it has been FOREVER since I've seen my family... so sad to have moved away... ANYWAYS, the kids had a blast and then yesterday, we woke up and took the kids to the mall to ride the carousel and to pierce charity's (and sarah's) ears!!! she was quite the drama queen, but the tears stopped as quickly as they started, and she is the CUTEST little girl ever. I thought i got a pic with both girls, but i will just have to get it from cherry... 4. We bought Aaron his football equipment... he is getting excited for his season to start. i am very nervous for him to be in tackle, but i think it will be ok.

If walls could talk...

So, this morning, we officially sold our first home. We are now in a lovely apt here in plano... fun times. I didnt get at all emotional during the whole moving process, until I was at my house, alone, last night. I was doing that final walk through making sure everything was clean and out (and yes mom, i even hosed out the garbage cans). I was about to pull out of the driveway for the last time and i got really emotional. Lucky for me, my camera was in the car, and I was able to do a final walk through so I could jot down the memories I had with my house.

This room was the practice decorating room: it was the first room to be painted and it was the first to get crown moulding. Purple use to be my favorite color when we were first married. This room was a tribute to that color and that phase in my life. This is where my grand piano use to reside. I LOVED walking into my house and seeing my beautiful piano. We added the lighting and the chair rail. Becky Eastman helped me paint the room that color. The drapes cost less than the rod they hung on... I had most of my piano recitals in this room. I taught several piano lessons in this room. Choir practice and other music practices were held here too... And now, to my kitchen... I painted the room that red color (all by myself) - then i went ahead and added a shiny stripe (you cant really see it...) i also made the drapes, but they aren't my fav. (again, rod cost more than the fabric). This is the place we had lots of people for dinner and settlers games. This is also where i tried to avoid cooking.

Notice the back door? that was one of the GREATEST investments we made in the last year or so... even though we opened a big can of worms when we replaced it, SO worth it. oh ya, we also put in that 25$ light from home depot... a big step up from our ugly brass one people cracked their heads on.
This is just a shout out to my geek of a husband. He and his dad wired our entire house. every room was wired for highspeed and all of the wires came back to the master closet and the big networking station. we always had a server and maybe even more computers buzzing in my closet. now, many nice homes come wired like this, but not 5 years ago (and esp NOT in our price range). joe you rock.
This is the backyard my kids played in. This is where we had our trampoline. This is where Aaron would play baseball. This is where we put the bounce houses we rented for my kids birthday extravaganzas.
This was my office. It started as Joe's office, then I was able to move in with him, but then I kicked him out and it ended up all mine. Joe put up the crown moulding and chair rail and picked out the paint colors (and even helped paint!). This was the BOYS room. My mom helped me paint this. They built forts on the bunkbeds. They giggled at night and allowed charity to have sleepovers in there too.

This was where I would stand when we couldn't decide which room to have prayers at night. that way, all of the kids could be in their beds, but we could all participate together.
This was charity's room. mom helped me paint it and put the flowers on the wall, and dolled up the little valence with ribbons....
This is how we built out the closets. I needed a way to make my kids more able to hang their own clothes up... joe needed an excuse to use his pneumatic nail gun.
This was my room. I made those drapes the week before I put my house up on the market. I painted the room a few days before it went up on the market. (i was SO tired and did a terrible job - lots of areas need touchup - but that is for the new homebuyer to deal with, not me!!!) cherry and joe helped. cherry thought it was a waste of time, but painting my bedroom and bathroom made a HUGE difference! While all the houses on my street were still getting built, i walked up to one of those painting contractors (who doesnt speak english) and paid them 500$ to paint all of the main living areas which is almost the whole house -(and that included paint!) - these high ceilings were just too intimidating. 4 guys came one sunday (i felt so guilty for it) but they got it done in 2 hours... The drapes were a fun project too - cheap fabric (LOTS of it) and joe on a 18foot ladder about to kill himself as he installed the hooks and hung the drapes on them! SCARY! but speaking of ladders... in the middle of this ceiling is a smoke and carbon monoxide detctor - there were a few times we had to replace the batteries. we would call our buddy greg eastman over to help joe hold the ladder straight up and down so i could climb to the VERY TOP and replace those stupid things... lots of cuss words... scary.
This was my kids toy room. the kids would drive me crazy dropping toys down and popping their heads over the ledge. This was the only fan we installed successfully in the house. too bad it was in the upstairs office.
my mom and i made this upstairs bathroom the under the sea room... that was a fun project - messy paint!
I made the bench with my dad, and laid a bunch of stones to walk on...

After we closed this morning, I drove the kids by so I could take their picture in front of the house so they could remember it. Good ol' 11512!!
This was such a great house, and this was such a great neighborhood. We picked out the house when Joe was finishing grad school (and we were living w/his parents in houston). I was pregnant with Charity. We moved in when she was 2 months old. Nate was born while we lived there. We had so many wonderful memories there. I loved this house and was really attached to it. I love the people I met while living there. As I was packing, the song from "unsinkable molly brown" kept playing through my head... "She's my friend, and she'll stay my friend..." it is a great song, and I really feel like I will keep in touch with the great people I met while living there in keller. My friends are so wonderful! Thanks to all the people who helped us move.

MEMORIES!!!

This is a fun game.

Here are the directions...
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I have together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember...

2. Next, repost these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty cool(and funny) to see the responses. If you leave a memory I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave a memory for you.

summer camps

So, Charity got to do 2 soccer camps, and Aaron got to do 1 baseball camp. Charity's camps were around here - convenient and not very pricy... Aaron's was all the way down in Fort Worth and kindof pricy (at TCU). I will say you prob get what you pay for.

Charity is young, and absolutely LOVED her camps. They were great. She went for half the day and played soccer. The camps were close by and run by one or two people, she spent the day on the field and that was it... She got pretty good at controlling the ball and I must say she is ADORABLE when she plays soccer! I think she will be good if she wants to be!

Aaron's camp was crazy. It was run by the TCU baseball team (coaches and assistants and seniors). They also brought in a couple high ranking highschool baseball coaches. I really didnt know what I was in for - I just thought it would be like the camps Charity went to - kids play ball for a couple hours and call it good. The first day, I took aaron with a lunch, his mit and a ball cap... upon arriving, i noticed all the other kids had big ol' bags full of their own helmet and super duty bat and hitting gloves and everyone was super serious... ya, those were the types of people at the camp. all the baseball prodigys of the fort worth area! all the kids were toting their allstar bags and stuff... ANYWAYS it was neat cause they got to use the full college facility - all their cool batting tools and cages and more... they did FILMS too!!! They played a game every day the last hour of camp. So, that first day, the 2 little ones and I make the trek back and come to find out, parents had taken the week off work so they could watch their kids ALL DAY at this camp. There were little 6 yr olds catching pop flys and making throws from 3rd to first for a double play... hitting home runs OVER the fence... aaron got pretty down on himself cause he is not a baseball prodigy... am i a terrible mother? regardless, Aaron got a lot better at baseball this week, and i had a lot of fun watching him. although he felt like he sucked, i really think he did well. he made it home lots of times, and can bat both left and right... he has plenty of time to develop into the sports prodigy i know he will become!!! ;)

Aaron is the kid curled in a ball on the ground...
he is making the dash for home here!
ok, just imagine the joys of watching your kid play baseball every day from 2-3pm in 100 degree weather... ya, it was this much fun.

I took the kids to the zoo one of the days while aaron was in camp- ya, TCU is a 45 min drive from my house - the zoo is down the street from the college... we have passes... great way to pass the time instead of driving back and forth and back and forth...

nate, my animal lover, was unsure about the birds...
this is seriously my favorite part of the zoo - feeding the birds - the kids LOVE it! (so worth the dollar!!)

the kids looking at the tiger...

Obviously, I spent a lot of time in the car last week (i dont think joe realized when he signed aaron up that it would take my gas hog 2 full tanks of gas and 3 hrs of driving every day and LOTS and LOTS of time)... but Aaron had fun. we are looking forward to a relaxing week at the pool... (with a little packing and house hunting and ...)

ps, Aaron had a basketball game this morning, and I just wanted to write down how proud i am of him. He played so well. Yes, he made lots of baskets and blocked a bunch of shots and stole the ball and had a couple fast breaks etc... BUT we are mostly proud of him staying focused and working hard for 3 straight quarters... he really played better than i have ever seen him play this morning. WAY TO GO AARON!

where has it all gone?

Where has the time gone? It is now 16 days into July, and I haven't posted since MAY??? What has kept me away? BEWARE, this post is REALLY long!

June was busy...

One weekend, Joe and I took Aaron to the indy car races at Texas Motor Speedway. That was pretty cool. Jeff and Michelle (and their kids) Owen (and a chick) my dad, Cher, Scott and Luke came too. It was pretty neat. We were right in the front. It was so loud and amazing... One of those wow nights for me. Seriously, everyone needs to go to a race at least once in their lifetime. Yes, we are Texas WT... but who cares!

I finished the website: http://www.delphitrade.com/ ALSO, i did delphianalytics.com but that one looks VERY similar to delphitrade. ;)
they aren't super awesome yet (i havent added logins and the super secret stuff yet) EVERYTHING from "hey, build me a website" (like the graphics and all the programming and setting up the hosting) was done by yours truly ;) I am just going to say, it doesnt look like much, but my dad (the person who commissioned this) is not the type to sit down and give lots of instruction. He said "build me a website" so i went to work, although I have no clue what he does, or what his business does, or the purpose of the webiste, or anything... PS - i also haven't made a website since college 8 yrs ago. I had to learn/relearn SO many things! To complicate things, i had a client who said (essentially) build me a house - and didnt give me very much input as to where, what size, what style, how many rooms... (you get the point)... anyways, at least now, we are at a point where it is close to something?

Anyways, here's a big exciting piece of news: Joe was ready for a change... so, he took a job at Dr. Pepper (finance dept). We think it is pretty cool cause now he works for a company we are ADDICTED to! ;) The only problem is that it is super far away - in the plano/frisco area... SOOOOO... we decided to put our house on the market.

Putting your house on the market is kindof stressful... This market out here is not so great. So, I had a stager out here (provided by my AWESOME realtors) on June 16th. That gave me a week before the wedding to clean out and make my house look great. So, that week of the 15th - the 22nd, I didnt sleep. I painted my bedroom and bathroom. I cleaned out and staged (w/my mom's help) all my closets. I reorganized. I CLEANED. I got myself a storage unit and moved all the junk and extra furniture into it. Ok, here's something funny - i had a futon. however, due to time constraints, the only help available to move it to the storage unit was 7yr old aaron. So we got it in my yukon and i also had to pile all my kids in there too as i unloaded it there. Seriously, that is how my whole week looked. I was trying to balance finishing the website, staging my house, and finishing my sister's wedding video (oh ya, being a mom w/kids in gymnastics, and baseball and basketball...). SERIOUSLY, delphi and steph really need to appreciate my efforts. ;)

We signed off and officially put our house on the market Sunday the 22nd.

After a week of no sleep, I couldn't think of a better way to relax then by renting a tiny PRIUS, squishing me the 3 kids, and driving to MESA! My mom was with me on the way there. She was helpful. UNFORTUNATELY, due to some miscommunication between me and the fuel gauge, we ran out of gas about 60 miles before el paso - in the middle of the day in the middle of NOWHERE! What a fun experience! ;) We called AAA, but they would take forever... my mom sent me to talk to the first cop who stopped - he said, "ya, your best bet is to wait for AAA" then drove off. I obviously have absolutely NO CHARMING ABILITIES!!! so, i sent my mom to talk to the second cop who stopped to ask us what the prob was. She was obviously more charming cause he told my mom to wait there for AAA but he would take me and the 3 kids up to the next town for some gas. Did i mention that it was HOT? i was SO glad to get out of the sun! anyways, he moved a bunch of confiscated rifles to his trunk and we piled in and got gas, and got going again. I guess a road trip is just not real until there is a fun incident like that!

yes, this is a pic of my mom and my 3 kids standing on the side of the road in 100 degree heat in the middle of nowhere...

Ok, so we made it to AZ. I stayed at Dawn's house and the kids were in heaven playing w/their cousins. It was a crazy wedding week, so that didnt really leave me much time (and i really didnt have much energy) to see many people. The wedding was fabulous. it of course made me jealous. nobody roasted steph, the reception was SOOO beautiful, they had a wonderful photographer, i would say things went pretty well. we stayed in a hotel while joe was in town (he conveniently got to fly 1st class both ways - he had to fly out after his last day w/deloitte, and fly back before his first day w/DP - meanwhile i got the privlage of driving a tiny yet fuel efficient car 17 hrs with kids both ways...) anyways, congrats to steph and nate. i had fun in mesa. it was a good trip.

So, I came home from my trip July 1st, (owen drove back w/me) and my realtor called telling me maybe we priced it too high, but we should wait till after the weekend of the 4th to re-evaluate... Joe and I weren't too worried. We weren't in a hurry to sell - so who cares if it takes a long time...

We wanted to stay out of the house and keep it clean... so we headed down to houston for the 4th of July weekend. We stayed at Jeff's house. The kids swam all day, the brothers rode jeff's motorcycles and played basketball... I vegged out. ;) I love those kinds of vacations. Jeff has enough motorcycles for all the brothers... all of the wifes would just ride on the back... still fun. ANYWAYS, We went on a motorcycle ride on the evening of the 4th. Joe and I rode one of jeff's crotch rockets to reminisce about the old days when he had his honda CBR (ya, charity is named after his motorcycle)... Anyways, the next morning, I woke up SOOO sick - i was puking and dizy and wanted to die - i think i even cried and thought i would. by the evening i was recovering. then sunday i felt better, so we went on a ride to some national park before we got in the car and drove back up to dallas. monday, i woke up wanting to die again. Apparantly, I can't ride motorcycles anymore. I got crazy veritgo!!! went to the dr and got a shot of something and felt a little better. Seriously, i must be getting old - i cant seem to do anything fun anymore!!! :(

ANYWAYS, that next day, we had 2 offers on our house!!! We of course accepted the best one, and will be hopefully closing here on aug 7th!!! (30 days from the offer)

ok, so if you are still with me, you will look and see that i have not said we found a place to move yet. We haven't. I have gone out house shopping and been online ever since trying to find a house - ya we didnt expect to sell it as quick as we did. Now, we have decided to just move into an apt until we find the perfect place to live - cause we dont even know WHERE!!! we are thinking CARROLLTON, FRISCO, or THE COLONY. anyone want to weigh in on that?

So, now, I am frantically looking for a house, trying to prepare for a move... etc...

Things my kids have been up to:

1. Soccer camp for charity - she is SOOO cute!

2. Baseball camp (at TCU) - thanks Joe... maybe that will be tomorrow's post.

3. Gymnastics camp - just the little half day things when Aaron & Charity are wanting somewhere to go

4. Aaron is still in baseball and basketball... w/various game times and practices...

ANYWAYS....i feel really busy and feel like i am barely keeping my head above water... maybe i'll check in later

Hey look, an update!

So, it has been a while... been kindof busy. Here are the things we have been up to...

1. I had to decorate the stage again... for the last time!!! (i think)

2. My brother Owen moved out here for the summer!!! It is so fun to have him around. He's good w/kids - PLUS he's single and cute. SO -if you know any available young ladies in dallas who are looking for a good time ;) this was when he and charity were playing w/a mega bubble maker thinggy...

2. I had a birthday... Officially, this is the last of my 20s... Joe complained cause the party seemed to last a couple days - we went to a nice dinner (cause it was cherry's bday too) sat night at Trulucks... YUM! then we had friends over sunday (the 18th) and had cake and icecream (carieanne made a lemon cake, joe provided the chocolate) and we played rock band... then tues my girlfriends treated me to sushi! it was so nice. Anyways, cute story: Joe took Charity out on saturday(the 17th), I supposed it was to shop for my bday.

Emily: "Charity, where did you and daddy go?"

Charity: "I am not supposed to tell you, but we got you a bike".

I didn't even have to ask her twice or even press her - i was just testing her cause joe was standing there (and to be fair, all of my surprises for him get ruined, so this was just payback). Anyways, I love my new bike, and it is so fun. Joe was even sweet enough to get a big cushy seat and make it a full on cruiser. what a sweety...

3. Charity graduated from preschool Tues night. (I almost forgot about it, but luckily a girlfriend called and we went!) To be honest, I kindof got emotional thinking about it - I have no clue why - maybe because she is so stinkin cute and I can't believe how fast she is growing up. For graduating, they all got a bible. ;)

ok, so the first few songs they sang were pretty good... i think by the 10th song, they were tired of putting on a show - what do you think?

at first they sang all together...

but i think they lost it by then... ;)

4. I am working on Steph's wedding video... we'll see how that turns out - got a cool new tool to do it with, but that means I have to learn all over again... I am excited for her, and that is coming up so QUICK!!!

5. I am also building a website - from scratch, and setting it up and everything... one would think with a degree in computer science, I would be able to do it no sweat - not so much. I am ok with the easy stuff (like graphics and all that)- but there are a few things I am just CLUELESS with, and I have been reading books and doing so many online tutorials. Seriously, I am so deep in tutorials about MODX, CSS, mySQL and PHP (and how to set the whole thing up and get it hosted) that I am completely OVERWHELMED! I am at least 6 layers deep in my imaginary tutorial tree... On top of the things I am learning, I am also having to relearn how to not be so retarded.... frustration. I know I can do this, and to be honest, it is kindof fun to be stretching again... BUT I will surely be glad when that project is over, and then maybe i will share the url w/all my blogging friends.

6. We went down to Joe's dad's ranch for memorial day. I didn't take any pictures... It was fun. Friday night we drove down to the ranch... then Sat we went to the lake - I thought I was so tough - I was fighting for a chance to ski first - wanted to hit the slalom ski before I wakeboarded... I got up once, and seriously, threw my back into some SERIOUS spasms. It hurt so bad. I got up once more, but had to give up. WHAT A FRICKEN WUS I AM! I AM GETTING SOOOO OLD AND FEELING IT TOO!!! :( The rest of the weekend we just hung out at the ranch, riding 4wheelers and canoing in their lake, and fishing, and swimming, and just sitting around enjoying how unbelievably beautiful the place is. I didnt get any pictures. It was hot and we came home SOOOO exhausted. 7 of the 9 Robinson kids (plus spouses and children) were there w/his dad and Trish... FUN TIMES.

My mom

So, it's Mother's Day, and I have the world's best mother!

She is the greatest. She taught me music, and to love music. She taught me to be flexible. She taught me that home is where your family is. She taught me to bloom where you are planted. She taught me to be strong and independant. She taught me to be ok with who I am.

She encouraged me to be everything I could. She encouraged and supported me with all my random endeavors. She drove me everywhere I needed to go. She loved me even when I made bad choices. She is seriously the best friend anyone could ever have. She is amazing. She comes through in any pickle. She is always ready and willing to help and serve. She is super supportive and fun! All of her spare minutes are spent helping others. She is the world's best grandma too. (my own daughter would rather live with her than me!)

This picture is classic: I was not the best daughter at this point, but she insists I was still "FUN!" she put up with all my drama...

She helps me so much, with EVERYTHING!

All the things she taught, she did by example. She never pretended to do or be anything other than what she was. She is real, and in my eyes, she is the most perfect mother anyone in the world could ever have. She is beautiful. She is my mom, and I hope to be just like her!!!

Charity

So, yesterday was Charity's real birthday.
We celebrated all day long. She had a cupcake and a candle in the morning. I had to drag her along visiting teaching. We went out to lunch w/Phanelb and Grandma, (and ran into Courtney at McDonalds!). Got some ice cream and came home... then we watched a Hannah Montannah show, then went to ChuckyCheese for her dinner. I think she had a lot of fun, but kindof got sad and didnt understand how it could be her birthday dinner without a cake (aaron got another one when we went to chilis) but she got over it.... just one place i failed but she got over it easily - we just had to get up and sing happy birthday to her.

ANYWAYS... She is the most beautiful and sweetest thing I have EVER encountered.
Today, she is sick. I didn't even know it. I just so happened to take her to the doctor for a skin thing, and they had to tell me she was sick - with a high fever. You wouldn't have known. You would never know with this girl - she HARDLY EVER complains. She is always so sweet and really epitomizes her name. CHARITY. That is what she is. She shares so well. She is so kind. She is so accepting (most of the time) when things don't go her way. She is so patient too! She so sweetly serves around the house. She is so full of love too - always making friends. She often says, "I love you, and I love everyone" - honestly, I believe her. Sometimes she gets lost in the shuffle sandwiched inbetween 2 crazy boys, and with a mother that isnt very girly wonderful. I just want her to know that I think she is amazing, and I am so lucky to have a daughter like her.

The annual birthday bash

So, Friday night, we had our combined party for Aaron and Charity. I must admit, it is really nice to have them be able to share a birthday party. I hope we can continue the tradition because I would so much rather have 1 crazy party than 2...

To be honest, I don't even know how many people came - seriously, I stopped counting at 60. All I know is that the cake was ALL CONSUMED! Some people left with cupcakes! (i was glad i had those for backup). PS - I got VALERIE to do my cake. She is amazing, and totally worth it... not having to make my typical ghetto cake was SOOO NICE! If any of you live by me, you totally have to check her out...

We had 3 bounce houses... the weather was perfect. My house still hasn't recovered, but that is just because I don't even know where to start cleaning... and, yes, this birthday party got them more gifts than Christmas... next time, I need to write "IF YOU FEEL COMPELLED TO BRING A GIFT, PLEASE JUST BRING A BOOK... WE DON'T NEED ANY TOYS OR PRESENTS... WE JUST WANT YOUR COMPANY!" maybe my kids would be sad, cause they really do love everything they got. To solve the TOO MANY TOYS problem, I just put it all in a bucket, and we cant take it upstairs till we go through and pick more toys to give away. Really, I am proud of them because whenever we get new stuff, like birthdays or Christmas, they are pretty good about going through their old stuff and picking out toys to give to children who don't have very many.

******************************************************

Anyways, today was Aaron's real birthday. I love that kid. I am really hard on him, and KNOW I am screwing up on him, but he is resilliant, and I think he will come through ok. He is so sweet and honestly, he is the BEST oldest kid in the world. He is so concientious of his other siblings. He is so smart and kind. He is sweet and caring. He is laid back. He is FUNNY!!! He is a stud. Happy birthday Aaron, I LOVE YOU!!! (ps, notice I STILL hadn't cleaned up my kitchen by SAT morning... but, it is clean now...)

So, for Aaron's REAL birthday: He chose Eggos for breakfast, so he got to eat on the special plate and got a cupcake and a candle. T-ball practice, driving around, signing him up for next season... Then, he played with his toys until this afternoon, we drove up to Allen to play with his cousins. While there, we watched Paul play football, then we went to CHILI'S (his choice) and we sang happy birthday, then we went to their house and he got to ride their four-wheelers.

I went to Wal-mart last night. I left Aaron and Charity home with Joe and just took Nate.
When I walked in to the kitchen (arms full of groceries), I saw this little present on the floor:
Who would have done this sort of thing? Aaron came down the stairs. I asked him if he used the scissors, and whose hair it was. Proudly, he said "I cut my hair because I want to look good for my party on Friday"
He looks good alright!! ;)

Then there's Charity. She is so sweet. I feel like I am not giving her enough attention, but no matter how hard I try, she seems to still get lost in the shuffle. I guess it is a middle child thing. The other day, she said she didn't want to live with me anymore - she wanted to live with Grandma, Cherry and Sarah. After she saw how it made me sad, she told me she would stay with me. But, secretly, I think she is happier over there. :(

Last, we have Nate. I have really slacked with this child. He falls asleep watching cartoons. He is my most finicky eater...
Whenever he wants attention, he just walks right up and weasles his way into the middle of things. (reminds me a bit of myself that way). He sure is a cutie. when someone else is getting their picture taken, he walks right up to the camera, gets in front and says cheese!!!