Am I Insane?

Maybe. In 2 days my oldest child will turn 8 years old. Yes yes, I can't believe it either. But what I can't believe EVEN MORE is that I was crazy enough to convince him to have his very first "friend" birthday party. Yes, you read that right. He's never had a friend birthday party, and I had to CONVINCE him to have one. He didn't want to do it and I made him do it. Of course now he's excited, the invited have been sent out, the RSVP's (sort of ) RSVP-ed, and there's no backing out! I am stressed to the max! The party is tomorrow.

I just have to keep reminding myself:

1. I have planned for every possible scenario (seriously, every possible one. It's a little ridiculous.)

2. It's only 1 1/2 hours long.

3. It WILL be fun.

4. I'm doing this for my son, so he can have fun with his friends.

5. And lastly, I have my supply of migraine meds waiting for me at home when the party is over.

Bye Sari!

My little sis Sari is headed off to the big bad world of college! So we decided to have one last sisters' night before she left. You know, a farewell to Mesa since she won't be back until...next weekend. Let's face it, she has a car and she's only 2.5 hours away so she will be back frequently! But still, it won't be the same. She's a grown up (kind of) now!

We started off by going out to dinner. We forced her to pick the place. And by forced, I literally mean forced. She is so indecisive! It was baby steps with this girl.

Me - "Sari, where do you want to eat?"

Sari - "I don't know, wherever."

Me - "No Sari, you have to pick! It's YOUR night! You have to pick your favorite place!"

Sari - "I don't have a favorite place."

Me - "Okay well where is a place you like then?"

Sari - "I don't know, wherever."

Me - "OH MY HECK! Okay...what kind of food do you like?"

Sari - "Um...Mexican?"

Me - "Okay! Mexican! Are we talking Taco Bell? Filiberto's? On the Border? Chili's? Serrano's?"

Sari - "I don't know..."

Me - "AUGH!"

Sari - "Okay okay...Costa Vida?"

And that is how we finally had a place to go! Here we are all ready to go. Correction, here we are where I am all ready to go and my sisters are making fun of me for being too overdressed compared to them. I can't help it, I don't get out much so when I do get a chance to go out in public, I actually do my hair (kind of) and makeup and put on jeans and a shirt without stains on it. :)

My boys wanted in on a picture too. Well, they all did until the last second and then Samuel tried to bolt but I forced him and then we got this:

Then since she had actually been up in Flagstaff the previous week getting to know her roommates and the "lay of the land", we made her dish up the details. Here she is ready to dish it up:

And here Nikki is ready to hear the good stuff:

And here I am with my giant scary eyeballs totally enraptured by tales of having to write your name on laundry detergent and food, splitting the cost of toilet paper, and weird roommate decoration choices:

We ate our delicious food and then left, and my crazy little sisters got in the fountain outside.

I didn't because I'm old and they said it was cold. Also I was wearing jeans and someone had to take the picture right? And then I saw a cricket almost crawl into my bag and I freaked out. I made Nikki carry my bag and empty the whole thing and make sure there were no other crickets that snuck in there. Have I mentioned my irrational fear of bugs?

Anyway, we got ice cream, came back to my place and watched a movie, talked, and had a grand ole time. I hope Sari has as much fun at college as I did! They really were some of the best years of my life. As I recently read in an awesome book I'm reading, Sari has "started a journey from which she will never really return."

Aw yeah...

You know what this pictures means right?

It means BACK TO SCHOOL! Today was the day I have been counting down for all summer long. Trey had his first day of full day Kindergarten and J.J. started 2nd grade. They were VERY excited to finally be in the same school together and ride the bus together! Usually I take them to school on the first day but they weren't having any of that. They waited long enough for this day and wanted to ride the bus NOW! So I decided to follow in my car and let them have their fun. Aren't they just adorable?

Trey can hardly contain himself.

The difference in personalities between J.J. and Trey sometimes cracks me up. Remember J.J.'s first day of school? Yeah, this was nothing like that. Trey literally ran off the bus.

He was the first one in his classroom.

After "Meet The Teacher" yesterday all Trey could talk about was how he gets his very own desk! Here he is, sitting at the famed desk!

J.J. was such a sweetheart, he didn't even want to run off and play with his friends he's missed all summer. He wanted to be with Trey on his first morning of Kindergarten! Here they are, still not embarrassed to be seen together. How long will this last I wonder? I hope it never ends!

And before I left I had to snap a quick picture of the big 2nd grader going into class for the day. Luckily he's not too cool to wave bye to Mom.

Well...here's hoping we have a great school year! Samuel starts preschool next week. Then I'll FINALLY get to clean this house! And trust me, it needs it.