A Big 3-0!

 After being released from the hospital and cooped up in the house for the week, I really wanted out.  Conveniently, one of my good friends was turning 30 and many of our good friends wanted to really help her celebrate.  I wasn't able to do much, but I hitched a ride, helped decorate posters, laughed, and enjoyed just a taste of some of the good times.

We made signs that went down the major road by her house that said, "Ashley's No Spring Chicken!  Happy 30th Birthday, Chick!" 

 The girls.  After this, it was time for me to return home, pop some pills, and get some sleep. 

 But, I had Stephen drive me by the house the next day to witness the masterpiece.  When I turn 40, we better have a new house with small, SMALL trees. 

Kindergarten

We have a Kindergartener!  Our little 6 year-old man had a great first week of school!  I'm so happy that he is doing well, making friends, and making a good first impression.  {Because, if past behavior is a predictor of future behavior, as I believe it to be, we just might need that good first impression to help out with one or two instances in the future!}  I am already a believer that the best thing we could've done for our Kyle Coop was keep him in the Bridge program last year, giving him one more year to be truly ready for school.  I can see so much growth and maturity in him.  He is becoming much more sweet, respectful, obedient, kind, loving, caring, quicker to apologize, quicker to do what he's asked to do, etc.  That's called breaking a stallion, my friends.  We've got a good one, but it has NOT been without effort in parenting. 

 Kyle picked out all of his outfits for the first day of school.  We had that all planned out before I went in for surgery.  He wanted to wear his Chinese Dragon shirt first. 

Dad got to take him to school.  Here he is, right outside the door to his classroom!!!  It's a brand new school, so he's part of the first class of students to go there.  His one disappointment in that he had to use his old backpack for the first few weeks.  The personalized one we ordered was on back order, but he'll get it soon enough. 

Found his seat, and all ready to learn!

Here's another day, later in the week---still happy to be going!  That's a good sign.  Also, I had to take a picture of this shirt--he picked it out himself while school shopping.  I swear, we're back in 1987!  T-U-R-T-L-E power!  

Kyle's teacher left us the sweetest message on Friday, "I'm just calling to tell you that I am loving having Kyle in my class.  We have had a wonderful week.  He is such a sweet, sweet guy.  He is always smiling, always happy, and always trying his best.....I am so happy that I get to share Kyle with you guys this year!"  That made me smile.  I'm so proud of Kyle's attitude and that he is off to a great start.  I'm excited for him to have a good teacher and to have a happy place to go everyday, especially with some of the chaos that's been going on at home!

SURPRISE!!!

 I LOVE birthdays!  And, I LOVE surprises.  But, it's not often that I am surprised.  It's not like I go searching out my gifts or sneaking to unwrap and rewrap presents.  But, somehow, whenever there's a surprise coming up for me, someone says SOMETHING that gives it away or kind of ruins the surprise.

This year, my birthday surprise was completely and totally a shock.  I had NO IDEA whatsoever.  All the planners covered all their bases, and not only did they do a perfect job of keeping the party a secret, they did an amazing job of putting on a fabulous fiesta.

The theme for the party was Favorite Things.  Everyone was asked to bring one of their favorite things to share with me, and the decor, food, and games went right along with that theme, too.

Here's some pictures of the amazing set up:

The kids played and the adults mingled while waiting for Stephen and me to come back from our movie date.

We had lots of my favorite things to eat: grilled corn and avocado salad, pineapple and cherry kabobs, spinach dip, tortellini skewers with three types of sauces, chips and queso, mini tacos, stuffed mushrooms, raspberry lemonade, Dr. Pepper, and a ice cream bar! 

We're just pulling up!  Stephen always lets me out of the car first because he has to park too close to the wall in the garage and I can't get out of the car when we're in there.  Usually, I just go through the front door.  For some reason, I went through the back door today.  I walked in the laundry room and could smell food and thought, "Oh, I guess Jordan and Julia already made something for the kids to eat--they had offered to watch the boys so we could have one last date before surgery and before we left, we talked about making a plan for dinner when we got back. I just thought the kids must've gotten too hungry."  So, I walked through the door and expected to see the kids eating.  Instead, I saw all these decorations and then everyone jumped up and yelled, 'SURPRISE!!!" and shot confetti everywhere.  I was in TOTAL SHOCK!

So surprised!!!  They got me!!!

Brenda, Bando, Ashley, Melanie, Nick, Joni, Adam, Mimi, Jan, Kathryn, Karlee, Kent, Jeff, Laura.


Stephen coming in!

I hugged and greeted everyone and then we started to get our grub on!

Michelle showed up a little later---she was driving up just as we were getting home, so they drove around the block!

Julia got the ball rolling and got lots of help from Emmy and Ashley.  These girls know how to party!  We were supposed to meet Emmy and Eric in San Antonio the next day, so this was a double surprise having them there to party with us!

 Stephen missed the big surprise because he was still parking the car, but he got to enjoy the party, too, and made a great DJ.

The kids had fun trying to clean up the confetti.

Kyle was busy playing upstairs.

Kelli

Jan and Sherrie

Evan kept pretty busy with the confetti--some even stuck to his face!

One game was How Well Do You Know Mel. 

Another game had brown paper packages tied up with strings, each containing one of my favorite things. 

People had to guess what was inside and then won it if they were the closest! 

Another game involved a bunch of *not-at-ALL-embarassing* photos of me throughout the years.  Some were numbers and involved guessing the correct age from that photo. 

Another game was an estimation station with one of my favorite candies--chocolate covered nuts. 

When the prizes were awarded, there was a 3-way tie on the How Well You Know Mel game.  Michelle didn't care so much about the chocolate--she just wanted to be crowned the winner.  I was able to dig out some leftover gold medals from Kyle's birthday party to award her.  SO FUN!

Nick one the age game.

Julia won the estimation.  She's pretty good with numbers.  Too bad she hates nuts! 

Ash won one of the favorite things--a candle, I think?

Bando won Back to the Future--one of my MANY favorite movies.

Here's more pics of the kids having fun:

Present time!!!!  I really enjoyed getting to share some of everyone's favorite things--Karlee had to give me a stack of gossip mags--they came in quite handy in the hospital.

Pedi gift card---SWEET!

So, so many wonderful gifts.  I'm so blessed to have made some great friends since we've lived here.  There's some amazing people in Texas!!!!

Many were even kind enough to stay and clean up.  We had a little after party, pumping up the music and laughing and cleaning.  Even that part was fun!

The boys enjoyed the AFTER-after party of playing with the balloons for the next few days!!!

Here's the adorable invite Em made.

I'm so grateful and so touched and uplifting by all the love and support.  This party really helped take my mind off the stress and anxiety of all that was going into surgery just a few days later.  Thank you, thank you for all who put it together and came to support and help me laugh and celebrate {almost} being one year older!!!