Christmas 2017: a lot more barf than I imagined

Well we survived it. I might have high-fived it... on its way out the door. That was a doozy. We surprised the kids with a visit from our friends from Minnesota. But before that I surprised the kids with a lot of cleaning because HOLY MOLY WE LIVE IN FILTH. Mostly because no one ever remembers to flush the toilet but also maybe because I can't stay caught up on laundry to save my life. So we cleaned and then our friends arrived. We played and played and played.

Hank snuggled Monica like he's never snuggled me!

Will caught Beau up on the latest happenings since we last saw each other in MN

We got everyone fed, bathed, and in bed. No small feat when there are 8 children and only two adults. That night though, things started to go downhill. Monica's oldest son was complaining of a tummy ache. He stood up from the sofa and started barfing. I instinctively grabbed a bag and ran towards it. (They say that's when you know you're a mom- when you run towards the barf instead of away from it. Almost like a firefighter runs towards the flames, police run towards the danger, soldiers run towards the battle. Like that but just way less heroic. The only thing at stake here was my carpet. So, still important to me obviously.) Anyways, as he's barfing (and hitting my arms more than the bag), I see a giant SPIDER out of the corner of my eye. I yell for Monica's nephew (12yo) to kill it. Except 12yo's are very literal and I didn't want him to smash it with his hand and possibly get bit. So I told him to kill it! But with a diaper! Or something! Anything! He threw the diaper at it. I seriously just started laughing. Covered in puke and now a killer spider is loose in my house. Merry Christmas. Can I tap out now? But just you wait, there was more fun to be had. A lot more fun. And when I say fun I think you all know by now that I mean barf.

Since our entire street has had this stomach bug for a hot minute now, we knew it would be a 12-24 hour deal. Luckily it was closer to 12 and everyone was playing nicely and vom-free the next day. We kept most of the activities outside since I feel better about fresh air and germs mixing.

Monica's truck proved to be a very effective, very expensive play pen

Watching a Christmas movie with Willie and his little crossed legs kill me

We had some really nice weather while they were in town, and one day we even let the kids go barefoot. They literally played outside all day long, and they all mixed well with the neighbor friends too. It was like a big ol' block party outside every day.

I tell you what, feeding eight children has completely turned me off to having eight children. Not that I was ever really considering it but holy cow. #1 we'd be completely broke. #2 that is a lot of work. #3 that is an impressive mess three times a day.

Molly has been d-y-i-n-gggggggg for the neighbor down the street to come over and bake Christmas cookies with her. Well the stars finally aligned and they made some sugar cookies. No one was more disappointed than Molly to learn that the dough has to harden for a few hours, but in the meantime they made a loaf of banana bread. And it was instantly devoured upon its exit from the oven.

So it turns out my oven cooks very unevenly

my little babushka

At some point, it started getting chilly. Of course, anything below 65* and we are all complaining of the cold, so I can't remember when we all started worrying about our impending frostbite, but it was probably premature. It didn't even seem to help when Monica's neighbors would text her weather updates from MN. "-34*? Shoot, it's 56* here but I swear it feels colder than MN."

All of these pictures are probably out of order. We pretty much did the same thing all week- make a crap ton of food, disperse food to hungry natives, throw clothes at children, shoo them outside, hours of playtime, inside for more food, prison baths, bed. Those kids played so hard and slept so well.

Rick arrived the night of the 23rd and was greeted with much enthusiasm.

Christmas Eve mood

Around 4am on Christmas Eve, I heard Molly bumping around in the hallway and finally came into my room. I was crossing my fingers and toes she was about to tell me just had a bad dream..... but instead, she had barfed all over her bedroom door and carpet. Lovely. We cleaned up the carpet and Molly and got her situated on the floor in the room with Hank and me. She threw up randomly for the rest of the morning. When I opened the bedroom door at 6, I was staring at Sam on the toilet (because why shut the door amiright) and he clutched his belly and said, "ohhhh I have diarrhea." Yayyyyyyy

He's like me and you can basically mind trick him into never throwing up, so luckily his illness began and ended with the diarrhea. Will "slept in" that morning (and by slept in I mean I sorta forgot about him and suddenly realized it was 8am and we were missing someone). I was terrified as to what I'd find behind his bedroom door. Surely it wouldn't hit all my children at once.... But surely it did. Will had not only puked at some point in the night, but he'd rolled over and gone back to sleep in it. (Molly used to do the same thing. Be right back, gagging at the memory.) AND he pooped! So that was a fun morning. I showered him and then started in on the cleanup and sanitizing process. I was suddenly grateful that we had fed the kids corndogs the night before and not tomato soup, like we originally planned. Cleanup would have looked a lot different. Luckily it seemed to be a one and done sort of thing. Will acted like nothing had ever happened and literally ate from the moment he got out of the shower until he went to bed. Molly lazed on the couch but I don't think that was so much her feeling bad as it was her milking the situation to watch tv. Whatever. The rest of us were outside and it was nice to not have to deal with that every 24 seconds.

So the worst had passed! Yay! We were done with the sickness. Until Rick came downstairs Christmas morning and told me that Monica had been up puking all night. Luckily she's a champ and the show went on, even though I'm sure she would have much rather been in bed all day sleeping it off!

Christmas breakfast (or snack, according to how you look at it)

I actually facetimed Steve while the kids were opening presents, so I don't have pictures of any of it. But they loved their new things, and they loved their friends' new things too, as evidenced by Will claiming most (if not all) of Beau's new cars.

We turned the kids loose outside after that because the neighbors were already out playing with their toys, and Santa was easily 10x more generous there than at our house. We also focused solely on outdoor toys this year since Louisiana livin' allows us to live outside 90% of the year. Thankfully our neighbors did too and got some fun stuff! (Like that roller coaster- Will is obsessed! Terrified me the first time he went down and hit that curb, but he loved it!!!)

Also not our toys

This one's mine

Hard at work on the new art set

We had minimal injuries Christmas Day, which was pretty much miraculous. Our neighbors got some of those bubble suits that you run into each other with, and between the crusty old mailboxes and the random (nonworking) light pole in the grassy area of our circle, I was almost certain we'd have to make at least one run to the ER. The worst to happen was Sam's chin made contact with the neighbor's tooth. Slight mark and bruising but nothing serious. We stayed outside all. day. long. We even skipped lunch. Will skipped his nap. It was insane. Around 2:30 I thought, oh haha I will go make some dip to bring out, and while I'm in there I guess I'll check and see how long I need to cook the ham for. It's been a few years since I've made one. Well the correct answer was RIGHTTHISSECOND so I ended up not going back outside and stayed in the kitchen to cook for the rest of the day.

Cooking would have not been remotely possible without all the extra hands to hold babies and referee big kids.

Oh my baby's first Christmas! Time, slow down! What's even scarier is that he is wearing the outfit Will wore last Christmas! (Size 18 months was only slightly baggy on him...) As happy as he looks, he noticed that I neglected to hold him myself the majority of the day and punished me that night. I remember stupidly thinking, wouldn't it be nice if he slept til 3:30 in the morning? Then I could get a solid 4-5 hours. But then ten minutes after I crawled into bed he coughed and woke himself up and ended up being awake UNTIL 3:30 in the morning, so joke's on me. I'll never wish for anything like sleep ever again.

This is what 7 years of no sleep looks like, folks. And my Christmas day sunburn.

Christmas Day was Will's last day of being 1. It snuck up on me so fast. I was still telling people he was "18 months"! (To be fair, I can't keep track and basically say "18 months" the day after they turn 1 until the day they turn 2. I like to ballpark it.) I seriously (SERIOUSLY) debated holding off on celebrating his birthday on another day. I was so tired. SO TIRED. But as I was showering that night, I realized that mothering is MY JOB and even though society tells us that the holidays are for "slowing down" and "vacation", it's like the Super Bowl in my line of work. So much cooking and cleaning and activities and laundry and celebrations and god forbid we don't make some mutherfuggin gingerbread houses and throw a birthday in there too (in addition to Baby J's birthday, of course) and it's pure madness. I did not want to skip one of my children's birthdays. Or postpone it. I needed to just suck it up and DO IT. So I finished showering and went and laid everything out for the traditional birthday waffle stack the next morning. Changed out the Merry Christmas banner to the Happy Birthday banner. Dug out the #2 candle I miraculously remembered to buy a week or two prior. Looked around at the destruction and called it a night.

Worth it. (It always is.)

It was super rainy and freezing cold that morning, and our friends were headed onto greener pastures. Or at least warmer temperatures. Florida, specifically. So we said see ya later, and stayed in our pj's all day. We watched Thomas and opened a few gifts, made a cake, and had hotdogs for dinner.

Oh my goodness this handsome devil

We changed into fresh pj's before heading to bed. And I attempted one more picture of my newly minted two year old.

He was too far gone with his choo choos though and couldn't be bothered. I love that boy so much I could burst.

After getting the kids in bed, I reheated some of the Christmas dinner leftovers and instantly regretted it all. Then I went to bed and prayed Hank would let me sleep a few hours. Then suddenly, at 1am, I woke up. Not to a crying baby. But to a gurgling stomach. And the only thing I could see in my mind was someone turning ham with a spoon. And let me tell you, when your stomach has ham in it, and it's gurgling, the last thing you want to do is picture more ham. And for it to be moving. Sadly, despite disinfecting everything in between making a cake and catching up on laundry and birthday fun, I contracted the dreaded stomach bug. I sat in the bathroom and attempted to talk myself out of throwing up. I can't. I hate it so much. There is no one here to rub my back. Or take care of the kids. Or listen to me whine. But then I threw up anyway. Hank was screaming by that point. I cleaned myself up and mixed a bottle. I can sleep when I'm dead, right?

No shit November

Hiya friends,
Just finishing up Hell Week here aka nine straight days of fall "break." I don't ever remember getting that much time off as a child but the memory is a funny thing. Like I'm choosing to forget that Christmas break is twice as long as fall break. LALALALALALALALA We will cross that bridge when we come to it!!

We had a decent Thanksgiving. We had some plans with visiting friends fall through so we found ourselves on Thanksgiving with nothing to do. No turkey and no expectations. I'll admit, I was really bummed our friends couldn't make it. I was also really excited to not have the pressure of cooking and cleaning and wrangling kids. We were invited to a few friends' houses for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but we opted out. My kids are heathens that might not even try a roll and I didn't want to deal with the headache of them being picky and obnoxious at someone else's house. So we didn't go anywhere. We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade on tv that morning, facetimed with Steve, had lunch and put the small ones to bed, then played outside til dark.

Gahhhhh I miss this man!

Quite possibly my favorite onesie ever

It was then that I fired up the ol' electric oven and boiled some turkey dogs and cooked some oven fries. I dumped sweet potato chips in a casserole dish and sprinkled with marshmallows that were dangerously close to expiring. Rounded out the meal with some strawberry jello (that I poured into a can to give the look of cranberry sauce), snap pea crisps, and some rice krispy turkey legs/wings, and the kids thought it was fabulous. Some did not appreciate the jello so much (Will, my carpet) but everyone went nuts over the hot dogs so mission accomplished. I also had Thanksgiving paper plates! So clean up for Thanksgiving was at an all time low.

Meanwhile, both of my next door neighbors brought me plates (and plates and bowls and plates) of traditional Thanksgiving food, and another friend dropped off more turkey, and spaghetti with meatballs. To say I was taken care of on Thanksgiving would be an understatement. We watched Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving before heading up to bed and all in all it was an easy day. I enjoy doing our own thing every now and again for holidays. It's so much fun to not be tied down to any certain tradition or expectation. I won't lie though- I'm looking forward to celebrating the old fashioned way with Steve next year. And my corn casserole. I really love corn casserole. (Paula Deen is my spirit animal, yo!)

The day after Thanksgiving I lugged all four of our fall decorations out to the tub I keep them in in the garage, and started unloading Christmas decorations. I put up our sad little Korea tree and Will thinks it's the greatest thing he's ever seen. Luckily it's the only tree he's ever really seen so his expectations are set depressingly low. Ha! He loves it though and is enamored with the lights. Sam is concerned that it's a touch too little to fit presents under. Between the Little People nativity set and the tote full of Christmas books (omg yes an ENTIRE TOTE), the kids are mildly entertained when we're inside. I try to keep us outside though, because it's the most wonderful time of the year in Louisiana- we can sit outside, not sweat, and also not get carried away by mosquitoes and flies. I love it. Doesn't put me completely in the Christmas spirit but whatever. I'll take less Christmas spirit if it means more of this weather.

Not pictured: more kids, more toys

I asked the kids what they'd like for Christmas this year. Since we don't have cable, and we don't wander toy aisles at the store, they have no clue what is out there and thus, no clue what to ask for. Sam finally gave up and said, "surprise me." Molly agreed that she would like to be surprised too. I've tried paying extra close attention to the things they are gravitating towards and settled on getting Sam and Molly scooters. Will is getting a Radio Flyer metal wagon. Hank is getting some bibs and whatever other random baby stuff he might need that isn't being passed down to him due to his older siblings destroying it. I'm still trying to find some random gifts for Will to open on his birthday (December 26), so if you know of anything fun for a 2yo (preferably a toy that can be played with outside), send me your suggestions! Santa will bring them all new chalk and bubbles in their stockings. What am I missing?

Oh my birthday happened! I was expecting it to be a regular day, truly. But man my friends and family really went above and beyond in making me feel extremely special that day! Cards and gifts and flowers and boxes of goodies- I was spoiled! And felt so loved. It was a really good one, and I didn't think I would get to say that.

31: need eye bag filter

I took the kids to the zoo over fall "break". Prior to this I had only ever taken them to Petsmart and told them it was the zoo, so this was huge for me. The zoo closest to us is small and everyone says nice things about it, so I thought, what the heck, and we went. I might have also been motivated by a CFA lunch. I won't lie. The zoo was actually very nice. It was cool the day we went and the kids wore their jackets most of the time we were there. It was hilarious to see some native Louisianians decked out with hats and gloves and puffer jackets though. Fifty degrees is no joke, y'all. Bone-chillin' cold. Sam was enamored with the amount of bamboo in the zoo, Molly wanted to ride the train when are we going to ride the train is it time to ride the train yet when can we walk back to the train I am so tired is it train time yet, Will loved pretending he saw everything that Sam saw. In reality I don't even know that he saw the giant lion that walked up to the glass when he was next to it, but he really acted like he had a ball there. Stroller freedom is his jam. Hank was peeved that I made him sit in the stroller instead of being toted around like the royal prince that he is. We made it onto a train ride and then headed for Chick fil A along with 400,000 other people from the tri-county area. We had to circle the building twice before we were allowed in the official drive thru line. The guy directing traffic deserves a raise! We finally made it through and the hangry people were satisfied. 3/4 of them slept a bit on the way home and once we got there we just kept the party going and stayed outside to play. Kids slept good that night!

Last weekend was my unofficial (but pretty official) last weekend of church. Getting all the kids ready to go, then getting there on time just spend the entire mass chasing Will and pacify Hank only makes me irate. And I don't think that's what Jesus wants. So I'm keeping the kids in Sunday School and AWANA on Wednesday nights and calling it good. I can't handle church with no childcare for Will. This past weekend we spent a lot of time pacing the foyer in the back of the church. He finally acted ready to go sit back down so we rejoined Sam and Molly in the pew. Will scooted to the other end of the pew and then looked at me like he was ready to run. Since he always runs to the back foyer I told Sam not to grab him (and risk having him scream), I would just meet him back there and we'd keep walking. But instead of going to the back foyer, Will bolted to the front of the church. So he's running on the perimeter of the pews and I'm running up the center aisle with 20lb Hank in my arms trying to cut him off but he's so flippin fast that he made a mad dash across the alter and then darted into the hallway that leads towards the classrooms and parish hall. At that point I was completely over it. OVER IT. Everyone at church knows us so I wasn't embarrassed at all, I was just mad. Mad! Cancelling childcare during a deployment??! Who does that?! Saying you don't mind hearing children in church??? Ok??? And??? What about the parents who don't have to worry about the noise so much as the movement? I don't have enough arms to hold Hank and chase Will and I guess I'll just leave my eyeballs on the pew to watch Sam and Molly and while I'm at it I'll leave my ears too because then I'd have a slight chance of hearing some part of mass. BLUGH. Anyway. I know that's whiny. I'm sorry. I'm just irritated. I want to take my children to church. But not so much at the sake of my thin tiny shred of sanity.

Doesn't Will look extra naughty here?? He knows he's bad but he also knows he's cute.

I thought about creating an Advent calendar for us to complete circa Christmas 2012 but then I realized that I can barely handle macaroni and cheese night without losing my shit so maybe it would be best to just focus on surviving. We can Pinterest it up some other year. I do have Christmas pj's washed and ready to go for St Nick Day, and all Christmas presents ordered. Thank you Lord for Amazon Prime. My life is better because of it. If only I could live-stream mass from it or order a babysitter off of it, I'd be set. Amen.

31

Anybody still out there? I'll be honest in that I haven't read a blog since before Hank was born. Here I was thinking I'd stockpile all these posts for some late night reading and then I ended up scrolling instagram or falling asleep with a pump strapped to me. All that to say I'm not sure if anyone still reads blogs anymore or if that's just me (not reading blogs anymore).

Everyone is still chugging along here. Life is crazy busy and chaotic. Moreso than I ever anticipated. When I was growing up, all I ever wanted out of life was to be was a mom. My mom modeled motherhood perfectly and effortlessly (or so it seemed to me) and I wanted the same thing for myself. When I played house, I imagined babies but also taking older children to their sports practices and on errands and it was so fun! I can't wait til I can do this for real! Well now it's for real. (Shit's really real, yo!) I have kids in extracurriculars and I have babies who need bottles and diapers. It's literally everything I ever dreamed of. My Prince Charming isn't in the picture as much as I'd like him to be (deployments aren't as romantic as homecomings) but I'm more in love with him than ever before. So by my definition of success as a 7 year old, I have achieved it. I have it all. Living the dream. I'm trying really hard to remember my 7 year old dreams. Because man this is hard. So so hard. There is not enough of me to go around. Not enough lap space, arms, patience, sleep, or one-on-one time with each child. Some days this feels like a prison sentence (especially when everyone is pooping and puking simultaneously) but most days I really do feel like I'm living a dream. How on earth did I end up with four beautiful healthy children? I have a husband that loves me? (Where? lol) Friends that encourage me no matter how insane I must sound to them. Life is so good. And I'm trying my hardest to remember that.

The last five years have been nuts. I was trying to remember the last time things were sorta calm and relatively normal. And it was in 2012. We had just had Molly and then all hell broke loose. Jk jk jk.... sorta..... But in all seriousness, after she was born, Steve's unit started talking of a deployment. He was told he'd be on Rear D. They transferred him to a different unit last minute and boom- you're going on the deployment. We had a couple weeks to get everything ready for that. So in the fall of 2012, he left for Afghanistan and ever since it's been one wild ride. While he was still in Afghanistan we agreed that he would volunteer for Korea. Came back, declined block leave, packed up, flew to Korea. Two years in Korea that were two of our best and most favorite years as a family (but also the hardest on Steve career-wise), and then he got out. We moved to PA and renovated a house. Steve job searched and had the worst luck ever. Will was born. He finally got the job offer in NYC and we moved again. We lived in a tiny apartment above our sweet landlords. Steve did not enjoy working with the Reserves. He was in active duty mindset still and the Reserves just don't work the same. So we decided we'd move to MN to settle down in the country and get an active duty job with our friends in the National Guard. But the jobs there never panned out (for a multitude of reasons) and we came to a crossroads of needing to figure shit out ASAP because HELLO! PREGNANT AGAIN! Army-wise he had to decide what was going to be best long-term and it was decided that he'd go back on active duty, but enlisted. That process was possibly the most stressful and mentally draining time of our lives so far. And I'm including months of unemployment in that time frame. Nothing was as back-and-forth as trying to get back into the Army. Once he got in, they sent him to the wrong unit and we had to wait six weeks for them to fix their mistake so we could move down to LA. We finally moved and got settled and then I had Hank. Once again, Steve was told he'd be on Rear D for this deployment. Once again, he was given about two weeks' notice to leave. And here we are. About two and a half months into this deployment and in between buying diapers and burping a baby, I drive one to football practice and another to dance. Every day is go go go go go from the minute I open my eyes until I fall face first into bed that night. I don't know when the slow down period is coming but cheese and crackers I hope it's sometime soon. I am exhausted. I can feel it behind my eyes and in my bones. I haven't picked up my real camera in ages. I haven't done anything creative (short of sending funny snaps with ugly filters to my friends). The only things I'm consistent at are feeding my kids, bathing my kids, and lowering every standard I've ever held. Y'all, I can even drink wine anymore. Everyone jokingly (or seriously?) tells me to just have a glass of wine and relax. But I can't! I can't. I have every minute of my kid-free time (when they're in bed) planned out and if I don't get something done while they're sleeping, then I just have to do it the next day. When they're awake. When it's harder. The task doesn't disappear because I skipped it. And I know people know that. But the other side of wine is that it makes me tired. And I think I might have mentioned before that I am already somewhat exhausted. So to drink something that's going to exacerbate that feeling holds no appeal to me whatsoever. I love wine. I really do. We're just on a break right now. We will get back together soon. Hopefully. I just can't do life any more tired than I am right now.

My 31st birthday is tomorrow. We aren't celebrating and I probably won't even remind the kids. Sam has football practice in the evening and we will eat plenty of desserts and treats next week during Thanksgiving break. Maybe I will finally order myself some clothes that aren't maternity. Maybe that phase of life is done. (I know I've said that before during a deployment.... Y'all, I can't resist that man) Most of my 31st year will be spent solo parenting this wild bunch of monkeys so I'm not setting any goals for myself other than "survive" but I'm hopeful that 32 will provide some sort of break. A cool down period. Maybe some sleep. I'm thankful and hopeful and loving the chaos that 31 trips around the sun has brought me. Have a drink for me!

Molly's deer-themed birthday party

When Molly and I were first discussing her 5th birthday party, I asked her what kind of party she would like. She came right out and said "a horsey party." Which was exactly the answer I wanted to hear as I had found tons and tons of cute horsey ideas and our friends had barns and horses and it was going to be SO FUN.

Well.

The next day Molly changed her mind (a woman's right, y'all!) and said she'd like a deer party instead. (Steve drops them off at the bus stop each morning and will sometimes take them riding down some country roads if they have a little extra time and see if they can spot some deer. I assume seeing these animals up close and in large groups really made them that much more appealing to her.) I would routinely check in with her about this decision to make sure this is what she really REALLY wanted (hoping she would change her mind, again), but every time I asked, she seemed to grow stronger in her conviction that a deer party was where it's at. My old brain strained and creaked and moaned and groaned and finally came up with an attack plan for the deer party.

First, I obviously looked to Pinterest for guidance as I had no clue where to start. Pinterest was little help though, as it seems deer parties are not a thing. And if they are, it's more of a boy's hunting party, chock full of camo. I'm not opposed to this but I ONLY HAVE ONE LITTLE GIRL AND HER BIRTHDAY WILL NOT BE CAMO-THEMED THE END.

I feel like I hit up every thrift store within a 60 mile radius to see if there was anything deer-ish that didn't necessarily involve camo or John Deere. It was not easy, but I think overall it turned out great!

Toadstools and rabbit food

Toadstool cupcakes

Lake water

Twigs

Deer droppings (chocolate covered raisins), forest berries (gummies), and squirrel mix

It started out a little chilly and overcast, but by the time all of our friends arrived, the sun came out and it was absolutely beautiful weather!

My parents made Sam's and Will's shirts and I adore them. Sam has been dying to wear his - Molly was so thrilled that he had a John Deere shirt.

I found Molly's shirt on a secondhand children's clothing app (Kidizen). Perfect and sweet.

I (kind of sarcastically) bid on and won Steve's shirt at a silent auction at a church spaghetti supper - he wears it proudly and Molly LOVES IT. She was really disappointed I didn't have a John Deere shirt, but I settled for a floral shirt and my red mud boots.

We played lots of fun games - all deer related, of course. But first we bobbed for donuts.

Korea stick coming in handy

I highly recommend this game for a party as it is extremely entertaining to watch and the kids love it. Other positives include: cheap, not much prep involved, and easy.

We also played Hide From The Hunter.

Pretty much just glorified hide and seek but the seeker/hunter got to wear this sweet hunting cap.

I also had an antler ring toss game planned, but the set I ordered from Amazon was riddled with holes and we couldn't even get it inflated. We did limbo with the Korea stick and that was funny. We did a pinata as well that didn't hold up nearly as long as I thought it would!! The kids had a blast whacking it though. I settled for a "5" pinata (similar to this) because the alternative was either a tractor or a deer strung up by its feet and neither one of those seemed particularly appealing to me for a young girl's birthday party.

After my few attempts at organized fun, the kids just ran wild and entertained themselves, which worked out perfectly with the adults' desire to sit on the deck in the sun and sip on koolaid. Overall the party was a success, with Sam asleep before 7 and Molly telling me it was a really great party. I absolutely love planning birthday parties for the kids and even though the deer theme was challenging, it turned out to be so much fun!

Love you, my big 5 year old!!