4 down, 1 to go!

**Averi's "hula skirt" is a little small but no one seemed to notice, not even her!**

Well, we made it through our super busy weekend! It was lots of fun. Averi and her friends had a great time. She had a Luau. They ate lunch, played "hot coconut", opened presents and THEN had dance party in our living room. They were cracking us up. Mandi's shower was.....well....the few snacks I got to inhale were good and I heard lots of laughter so I think she had fun. See, Will was having a REALLY hard time during the shower. We hung out in the spare bedroom while he screamed and I tried to get him to go to sleep. Averi was in the "behave like your mom's gone" mode, thank goodness. She got to see all the sweet baby things Mandi got. I'm really sorry I had to miss that but I think I would have been more sorry for everyone else if they had to listen to my screaming boy any longer. She waited to open the gift we got her until we could finally exit the bedroom. That was really nice of her and I was super excited about it so, thanks Mandi!

We went to a birthday party at the YMCA for Averi's friend from school and she had a great time playing on the slides. For favors, she gave treat bags tied to those plastic sparkly batons! I thought that was SUCH a cute idea. I think the boy's were tied to rolled up comic books. How creative! After that we had Aubrey's 8TH (holy cow, she should not be that old!) birthday party! It was really fun too! The girls had another dance party. I LOVE to watch them break it down. Averi also informed me of three more things that she is expecting to get on her "real birthday" tomorrow at her "family party". Nice! I'm finished shopping to say the least and we don't have a Toys R Us! Oh, to be five! I can't believe she is so big! We were in Wal-Mart the other night shopping for my mom a birthday gift and I seriously had to pull myself together! I wanted to just sit down in isle seven a bawl. She had on little cotton shorts, a sweatshirt with her t-shirt hanging out the bottom, flip-flops and her hair was on a messy bun. She looked like a mini teenager. When it's just us two she always wants to pretend I'm not the mom. Usually, she wants us to be "sisters and we're teenagers and our mom let us come here all by ourselves!" That makes it even worse! I usually play along but not that day! I was like, "NO! I'm your mom and your my little girl now let's shop for your Nana!" That same night she stayed the night with my mom and I was super sad that she was going. I kept saying, Are you sure you want to sleep there? I'll come get you." And she told me if I didn't want her to go just say no. Okay, I'll quit blubbering about my baby (big) girl!

I am super excited that we got to hang out with Kathy, Otey, Cooper and Grady over the past two weeks! They are so much fum! We went to their camper one afternoon and I'm not kidding that thing was rockin'! Our kids have lots of fun together. It helps that they have (excellent) laid back parents! For example, they were jumping on Coopers bed, flipping the mattress over and wrestling! Otey WAS napping until we showed up! Sorry Otey! But thanks for sharing your superfun kiddos! Okay, gonna get ready for another big day tomorrow! Hope everyone had a great weekend!