Ainsley's Birthday party in Livermore

Ainsley and Claire working on decorating their wooden purses:
Dancing with the Fairy Godmother:

Patiently waiting to be crowned princesses:

Having tea and tea-type kid food:

Anxiously waiting to open presents:

Last weekend we had a joint birthday party with Ainsley’s best friend Naomi, and it was a blast. However, the morning started out a bit rough. Everyone thinks Ainsley and Reggie are so mellow and usually, they are, but the 2% of the time they are not, they can be a real handful. We’ve been having some listening issues and it exploded, when, after almost 2 hours of asking, Reggie wasn’t dressed, hadn’t eaten breakfast or picked up his room. I warned him that I would clean up his room (which means I get my bag and take everything I pick up to be earned back at a later date) and he still didn’t move. So, I got my bag and collected quite a few toys. Reggie was screaming, grabbing my arms and then Ainsley got upset and was scratching me and screaming (she gets VERY distressed when Reggie has a fit). They were out of control and I ended up running and hiding in the bathroom while they both had fits. It was like 10 minutes of screaming….I’m sure the neighbors thought someone was dying!!! Thankfully, that doesn’t happen very often, and I’m thinking next time I give a warning, it will be taken seriously.

The day could only get better after that and it did :o). Ryan came home from volunteering at church and I took Ainsley over to the birthday tea party. Libby had done a beautiful job decorating and taking care of every detail and after doing some last minute things, like frosting the cake, the girls arrived. They decorated their goody purses with rhinestones and then some girls painted nails in anticipation of the fairy godmother arriving. The girls were in awe when she showed up. They danced together, painted nails some more, ate lunch (with real tea) and then each girl was crowned a princess. Any of you who know me, know that my party for Ainsley would have been much different, so I have to thank Libby for giving her a beautiful day. I hope she remembers it because she’ll probably never have a party like that again!!!

Ryan and Reggie had some good quality time, riding bikes to McDonald’s, enjoying a nice meal and ice cream and then heading the 3 ½ miles back. At the end of the day, Reggie, said he really enjoyed hanging out with just dad, so we’re going to make an effort to have more one on one time with the kids.