Insert Sound of Me Exhaling Here

The sense of relief I feel is overwhelming. The holidays, for us, are NOW officially over. Pinky and Ralph's birthdays are finally behind me and now I get to relax (ha.) until May, when Booger Head will be one. Having kids in January, not the smartest thing I have ever done. And apparently I didn't learn my lesson the first time.  I did it twice.

Ralph's party was a huge hit last week. We went with a monster theme. If the shoe fits, right? The little party goers were adorable in their awesome monster shirts. Yeah. I made those. (Flips hair over shoulder) Felt and inkjet iron-ons.

We played monster bowling after we had a monster hunt for the bowling pins. The offending monsters were captured and held in monster jail (aka: upside down laundry basket) while we gathered them all up.

I left this sign on the door all day... I debated leaving it up longer. Again. It fits.

Pinky's birthday was very low key this year, she got a big party last year. A breakfast pajama party. But that's another post for another day. This year we kept it simple. Applebee's for dinner, where the employees permanently scarred my baby by clapping and shouting a birthday song at our table, and some people we just can't get enough of over for cake after dinner.

The real fun yesterday happened before the party though...

When the crap wagon got a flat tire on the way back to Sam's house from the elementary school. (Yay for FINALLY being healthy enough to start volunteering again! Hoorah!) Luckily it crapped out on me within reasonable walking distance (read that as one block). Since the power steering pump has been dying a slow, noisy death the car has left something to be desired in the stealth department. Needless to say Sam was a little surprised when I all of a sudden showed up on her doorstep... Yeah. I'm much stealthier on foot. I called Dad and told him that his car needed him and that I would be at Sam's house until he got it fixed. Yes. I am one of those girls who doesn't know how to change a flat tire.

He got it all fixed while Sam and I contemplated whether it would look suspicious if we both lit our cars on fire in the same neighborhood in the same day. (Sam you really must write up a post about your car... really) Sam finally got her turn to go the school, I finally got to get Pinky's cake iced and Dad stopped and got new tires on his way back to work. I seem to remember something about birthday tires last year for my birthday too. Happy birthday Pinky! Stupid car.

AND this is the first time we've had to deal with a kid's birthday falling on a school day, since Stinky's birthday is in June. SO on Monday, rather than sending home bags full of stickers, lip gloss and bubbles with each kid in her class and making all of their parents hate us, we opted to donate a couple of books to the school library. It was really cool and we will for sure be doing it again... if you have kids and you haven't read the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems you should. No seriously. I wrote a little dedication in the front of each of them "Donated in honor of ... 6th's birthday. We love you baby girl! Love Mom and Dad" The librarian read the books to the kids and there was so. much. giggling. It was awesome and Pinky was beaming.

Happy birthday to both of my January monsters.

Now I'm going to have a nap.

See you in May.