BIRTHDAY PARTY WEEK!

This is Sophia!

Sophia will be visiting me for a little bit (not nearly long enough) on Mondays.  She is such a smart, smart baby who does not forget when she is interested in something (like the pretty socks with FLOWERS on them).

Asher went on his first field trip and Matt went with him!! It is definitely cooling off here (YAY!)

Look at how happy he is! This is a perfect depiction of why Asher brings me such joy.  He is just. so. happy! I Love this boy!!

I took pictures of this little guy's baby sister and he wanted some photos too, so I was happy to oblige!

This is his 6 pound sister.  Don't let her size fool you though, she has the wisest, most-intellegent eyes.  I was completely captivated.


Valerie came this weekend and I promised her photos.

Not bad, if I do say so myself...

She came to visit and to attend Asher's birthday party.

We had a FANTASTIC, AMAZING, COLORFUL, FUN DINOSAUR BASH!! Asher was SO EXCITED all week long talking about and looking forward to his party! When we were setting up, he was jumping excitedly all over the place, he just COULD NOT hold still.  I tried to get some photos, and that proved to be a challenge.  He just was TOO EXCITED!

These guests wore THEME-APPROPRIATE shirts- their mom knows me well! 

I set this up Friday night ( I was up till 2 am preparing food and decorations).  I could not find a banner, so I bought $1 ribbon and three 60 cent pieces of fabric, and used staples to make my own :-)  Also, I braved WAL-MART.  They had an AWESOME summer clearance section where I got the little circle things for 25 cents, baby.

This is Asher's cake.  Megan from church made it.  She made an incredible cake this winter and I booked her for Asher's party on the spot.

Then I started looking at Pinterest for ideas.  I decided on dinosaurs because they are AWESOME.


My friend, Katy helped with so much.  My tables of food were labeled and filled with delicious treats, thanks to her!

Cake pops, thanks to Katy

AMAZING!!!!! sugar cookies that look and taste good, thanks to Katy

Volcano (pineapple, lime-ade, orange crush, ginger ale) punch and water

Another Katy creation- which made an excellent breakfast today!

Goody bags.  I stress more over these than anything.  Again, yay for clearances.  I started buying a year ago for these things and I think they were pretty darned awesome.

Just before the cake arrived- looking festive!

Trying to keep Asher away from the food table AND get some photos of him in front of his volcanos (traffic cones I got when our building was moved- they were unclaimed- topped with balloons).  

I had a mom spot with fruit tray, cupcakes, spinach-artichoke dip (that was amazing) and this delicious chicken salad lettuce wraps Matt's two sisters make.  I called this area the "Momasaurus Feeding Spot"

The gift table with 75 cent safari hats, poky party hats, more balloons, and dinosaur pinata

Some junior archealogists

The only group shot I got! Then as I predicted "chaos ensued"

We got started with a little science/volcano experiment

Then we sang to Asher (complete with airhorn and massive confetti popper), everyone filled up their plates, kids played for two hours, and I sent them home with goody bags.  

I learned to not open gifts with kids present in Charlottesville. I think people might think it is weird, but it works well as a mom to enjoy and see what everyone brought.  Asher got fantastic gifts that he is just thrilled about.  Most of all though, he just really loved that so many people came to celebrate his birthday with him.  Matt, Valerie, and I are so happy too.  What a blessed day.

This is what Valerie got Asher...

His name is Marbles and he was trying to sleep when I got this picture.  He is a little cutie.