I should probably be doing...

My homework! This is the start of week # 4 and I have to get busy on some of the bigger projects. For the past week I have been busy cleaning, organizing and getting ready for a certain little someone's birthday party. Holy cow how did she grow so fast? For the past couple of months Anna has talked non-stop about her birthday party. We have never had one for her with her friends so instead of going to Disney this year we decided that we would have a party.

This is where my craziness starts to show. I wanted a party at home with a pony, all decked out in pink insert the but here. We do not have a crazy big house anymore so having 60 or 70 people here is hard then add in a pony and a big sprinkling of children and it becomes a big mess. Sigh! Gerard came up with the idea of having 2 parties one for family and one for the children at school. I have to admit that this made the most sense to me too. So this weekend we had just the immediate family over for Anna's birthday party which topped out at 40 people. A small little gathering for a big family.

I got to decorate the backyard with all the pink that I wanted. I think it turned out pretty cute. I am trying to stay to a certain budget and I do think I am a touch over but we will see next week after her second kids party. Gerard grilled, Jenny made pasta salad and homemade Reese's cups, and I made bean dip. I compromised on the cake to try and cut the budget back but it was still very tasty. So next Sunday we will have a pirate party at the amusement park which I think will be pretty fun and actually less stressful.

One thing that we did was we hung a picture frame from a tree and called it our photo booth. It was pretty fun and will become a staple at all our parties.

Nanny

Aunt Cassie

Jennica and Cole

Jillian and Joy

Jillian, Jaime, Joy and Julie

Sloan, Sir Barks A Lot, and Anna

Derrick, Jennica and Jessica

Oh did I forget to mention we even had a cotton candy machine (My personal favorite)

These are all my sisters with my Mom

Oh how she loves cake

Greg, Hans and Jaime

Papa and JoanMarie (She loved the frame the best.)

 

 

A bunch of them did a triatholon in the morning so this was a perfect day to have the party. This is the first time the my five sisters have all been together in a couple of years so the day was pretty special.