The 3 party weekend - a rundown (Part One)

I slept in past 9:00 am this morning... hello, heavenly Spring Break! Man, did the weekend's festivities wear me out! They also wrecked havoc on my home, even though not one of the three parties was held here. Don't ask me how that works, I just know that presents and packaging and candy and dirty laundry have scattered to the four winds and I have my work cut out for me. 

Party #1: Cooper and Blake's family party with Russ's side of the family (Friday)

We had the party at Erik and Tricia's because their house is big and our house is small. Really small. The plan was for me to go over there to set up as soon as Russ got home from work at 3 pm, head back to my house at 5 pm to pick up my family, and return right away to be ready for the party to begin at 6:00 pm.

Of course things never go as planned. Russ decided he needed new tires on his way home from work and didn't get home until after 4:00 pm. In the meantime, I decided at 3:00 pm that I wanted to make a pennant banner, which I'd never done before, and headed to town for ribbon, a hot glue gun and glue sticks, and a Cadbury cream egg. All necessary components for crafting. 

On the way out of town I called Tricia to apprise her of the slight change in plans and as I was talking, passed two motorcycle cops. I immediately dropped my cell phone on my lap, mid-sentence, and yelled "cops!", hoping Tricia would hear me (it's illegal in Oregon to talk on a cell while driving without a blue-tooth earpiece. Which I don't own). Unfortunately one cop pulled out behind me and I began to sweat heavily. Then the flashing lights came on and I was ready to be swallowed into the ground of humiliation. 

Turns out it had nothing to do with the phone though, I had expired tags. "Oh", I laughed guiltily, "I had those renewed on time, I just forgot to put the new stickers on". LAST DECEMBER. A frantic search through the car left me empty handed, I had no idea where the stickers might have ran off to. I was left with instructions to find them or go buy replacement ones and drove home sighing in relief that I didn't get a ticket.

Kendall, Cooper and I joined forces and whipped out a 36 foot banner in no time. In fact, we had so many cut out triangles left over and I was having so much fun with the glue gun that I scavenged through my scrapbooking ribbon and made a 2nd 12 foot banner as well. By 4:40 pm I was packed up and ready to leave, but Blake, who I'd laid down for a late but much needed nap, was still sleeping so I took Kendall and Cooper with me and gave Russ instructions to wake Blake up at 5 pm and head over. As I was pulling out of the driveway and Russ was standing on the front porch I flashed my hand open and shut three times to signify he had 15 more minutes and he nodded in understanding. 

Or so I thought until he had still not shown up at 5:45 pm and I was calling him frantically. 

"Babe, where are you?!!" I asked.

"I thought you said to be there at fi.... OH MY GOSH!!" he exclaimed as he looked at the clock. 

Apparently he thought I was telling him he had 55 minutes instead of 15 and was enjoying his college basketball playoff game so much that he read the time wrong when he checked it.

Men. That is all I have to say about that. 

Luckily the party went off without a hitch, the boys had a great time opening presents and playing with all their cousins, and I received enough kudos on my cake to make me feel like a superstar.

And there you have a very brief recap of the actual party and a lengthy account of the prep beforehand that went into much greater detail than I'm sure you cared for. 

So to save you from yawn-dom I think I'll cover the other two parties tomorrow. And I promise I'll be more brief and to the point. 

P.S. No, I still haven't found my missing tags.