And.....her birthday party

Better late than never, right?

 Ok, so it was hot last Saturday....I mean HOT.  I knew this was going to be a little bit of a problem so I tried to prepare.  Friday night we hit up a party store with my sole purpose to purchase water balloons.  Jackpot!  Unfortunately for Joacim, he was assigned the task of filling ALL OF THEM.  I have no idea how many that was, but his fingers looked pretty sore after tying all of those little balloons.  Izzy, of course, was a HUGE help.  She's wearing a little princess hat that came in the birthday card that her Great Grandma sent her.

 My dad, or Gampa, got there shortly after Joacim and Izzy started.  He rode his motorcycle down because they were riding in The Miracle Ride on Sunday.  Have I mentioned how much Izzy LOVES her Gampa?

Izzy had picked out some Curious George party hats when we were at the party store, and Joacim decided that Rosie needed one.  Funny enough..she didn't even seem to mind.

 Time for PRESENTS. We HAD to move this inside.  It was sweltering at this point, and I was miserable, so I waved the white flag at Mother Nature.  Glad I did too...made this MUCH more enjoyable.

 After presents, the kids headed outside for some water fun.  I had set up a slip 'n slide, but clearly did a crappy job of placement.  My little sis, Bri, went down it one time, wiped out completely, and came up with a severely bloodied knee.  Joacim found a screw that had been sticking up from the drain in the yard.  My guess is that Lawn Pride broke something when the aerated the lawn earlier in the spring, put in a screw but didn't tighten it enough.  It looked pretty bad, but my dad, being the smarty that he is, cleaned it up and super-glued it back together.  I know that sounds horrible, but it worked.

 Once we got everyone settled down again, it was time for cupcakes!  I'm so glad I made cupcakes again this year...so easy, saves on the paper, and easy cleanup.

 And Izzy loves 'em :)

 And then it was time for a water balloon fight.  It probably wasn't too fair..Joacim and JT against Taylor and Bri (not the boys vs girls part...the fact that JT and Joacim were elevated on the patio and poor Taylor and Bri were down in the yard). 

 Looks like JT was throwing a baseball :)

 But even he wasn't safe from Joacim

 A little post-fight mending of Bri's knee

 And then more water.  I got Izzy these little water guns for her birthday, figuring they were easy for her to use, and they were, but she didn't like getting sprayed with them.

 But she DID enjoy spraying the fence with the girls

 An then a little crazy face from Taylor

 They're REALLY into peace signs...I too, remember this phase of my life :)

 So, that night we had a full house.  We had Gampaw, Gammaw, Aunti Bri, Taylor and JT staying the night.  After a delicious dinner of KFC (don't judge, it's yummy and easy), my dad wanted to take us all out for ice cream.  The boys decided to ride their motorcycles so they could fuel up for the ride tomorrow, and us girls headed off in my Jeep.  No more than 5 minutes into our journey, my Dad called and said that the weather was looking pretty bad and they were headed home. I thought they were just wimping out..I mean, I looked at the radar before we left, and it didn't look like the storms were moving our way.  Apparently, I was COMPLETELY WRONG.  As soon as we got home, the wind picked up.  The boys got home shortly after us, and apparently Dad got hit by a tree branch falling.  He was SOOO lucky, because it was a BIG tree..but of course, he just shrugged it off.  Thank God he was OK.  We lost ANOTHER outside umbrella (thank you Mother Nature AGAIN) to this storm, but I'm pretty glad we turned around and came home, judging by the skies....

It wasn't a total loss, though. Dad and Joacim went to the grocery story to get some ice cream, since Izzy was VERY disappointed that she didn't get any, and Gampaw didn't want to let his little Izzy down (it's really quite cute how smitten he is with her...it's a side I hadn't really seen :) And after ice cream, the kids played Just Dance on the Wii.

I seriously think all of the kids (well, except for Izzy of course) were asleep before 10:00, and I didn't think that was even possible when they stay here. It was an early morning the next day, so I'm glad they got some sleep.

I think Izzy had a great birthday. I'm very thankful that my family was so understanding of my swollen feet, and kept telling me to sit down. There just wasn't a lot I could do, and although frustrating, I tried to make the best of it. And it was really great to have everyone there at her party, and having family spend the night. That would've usually sent me into a panic, but not this time. Guess it's good that I'm starting to let some things slide a little....