Birthday Party

Friday was busy, busy! We spent all day preparing both the house and Miranda for her birthday party that we were having on Saturday. We went out and I had Miranda's hair put up into french braids that I had *hoped* would stay in her hair for the party, but alas they fell out during the night. I don't even have any pictures of it but it came out amazing! The hair dresser left a little tuft of hair out on the bottom that just curled up so beautifully. It made my heart skip a beat and she looked so grown-up! We did a little bit of shopping in between. Auntie found the perfect pair of party sandals and a new pair of sneakers at Footbeats. From there, we went to the nail salon where we sat and had her nails painted up nice and pretty. Miranda picked out the most brightest pink she could and the lady even painted a pretty design on both of her ring fingers. It looked so sweet! (I thought for sure that her nails would last but she somehow managed to bite or suck two fingers completely clean by morning.) The rest of the day was spent cleaning and getting the house ready for company.

Saturday morning we had a few odds and ends to do but we had mainly done everything the day before. Adam went to the store to get balloons before Miranda woke up. When she came down the stairs that morning, everything was decorated and her first present of the day was waiting for her:

She loved it!

The only thing really left to do was wait for the guests to arrive. Which they all did, one by one. Things became very active and busy really quickly, so unfortunately there aren't many pictures on my camera of the day. I do know that everyone who came had a blast and Miranda was in heaven having a whole day devoted to her. She only had one *major* blow-up but considering how tired and cranky she was, that's not too bad. We did food, presents and cake, in that order. My mother-in-law made the cake and Oh.My.God. it came out AMAZING! See for yourself...

The best part was that it tasted as good as it looked. Miranda made out like a bandit, getting just about everything under the sun. Gifts like a playhouse, a castle, a guitar, clothes, books, movies, puzzles, games, jump ropes, and the aforementioned bike are just a sampling of her pile of loot. Miranda was so funny opening her gifts. If there were clothes involved she just took them out and chucked them somewhere like they were part of the wrapping. I was so embarrassed! Almost everything else she would open and yell "Oh it's a insert item here!" I would then have to remind her to say thank you to the person who gave it to her. Sometimes that meant running up and hugging them and sometimes that meant just yelling thank you to whoever was closest.

Again, everyone had a great time. There were adults, dogs and kids everywhere. It was a great socializing opportunity for Maverick who did pretty well considering he's only 14 weeks old. Since there was a keg involved (for the adults only, obviously) Adam was drunk by 2:00 but no one was harmed and the party stayed low-key. After cake, we gave Miranda a quick tubby and put her into a more comfortable outfit so that she could run and play more freely. She was in bed by 7:30 and she was so ready to sleep. While she slept, my siblings, husband and I all played board games. We started off with Apples to Apples and ended by playing half a game of Balderdash, which we found to be entertaining but hard to do at 10:00 at night when everyone is so completely burnt out energy-wise.

An awesome day all in all and the weather could not have been more beautiful!