Today was my littlest baby girl's 6th birthday :)

Since she and Flower Child have June birthdays, we try to have a fun day out on their actual birthdays.

But first, was the annual photography session lol. On their birthday I get em all cuted up and take em outside for some cute pics :)

She did pretty good this year! I, on the other hand, REALLY needed mascara lol.

After that, as per her request, her daddy made her a snowman pancake :)

But she was NOT going to forego the traditional birthday trip to the donut shop ;)

She ate her chocolate bar ... AND the last of Flower Child and the Boy's donuts too!

After that she decided she DESPERATELY wanted to go to Chuckie Cheese. So off we went!

They recently remodeled our CEC ...

and they have a bunch of pretty fun games!

The kids had a great time and since we get there right at opening, we're the only folks there for just about the whole time!

I actually enjoy going. I bring a book, get myself a diet coke, and stretch out. The kids only come back to the table long enough to ask for more tokens and then they run off again. It's quite lovely :)

They must have rigged those machines because they came out pretty good!

Checkin out the loot lol

After runnin around there for about 2 hours, it was time for lunch.

Lil Miss requested the Del Taco because their play structure is far superior to anyone else's around these parts.

And the games of tag ensued!

After lunch, we took the Boy to his mom's and since we were no where near in the vacinity of a new cupcake shop I decided we needed to give em a shot and what better occasion than Lil Miss's birthday ;)

Lil Miss had herself a cupcake snow cone with whipped cream lol

Flower Child begged for got a HUGE brownie that was AWESOME

Teen also got the snow cone cupcake.

And I had a snickers cupcake :) I had high expectations because, well you know, it's a SNICKERS! But um ... it was just ok.

And then just as every one was enjoying the unseasonably cool weather at the park, Lil Miss informed me she need to use the potty. So we left, but not before Teen jumped off a high platform THOROUGHLY injuring her already hurty knee.

So when we went to the grocery store just to use the bathroom I wondered why she grabbed a cart.

Apparently, Mamaw had left her walker in the car.

And I called her Mamaw for the rest of the day LOL

FINALLY around 4pm we got home. After being OUT since 7:30am. It was a day. But it was a good time :)

We decided to go out for dinner and we hit up the local SnoWhite drive in and had some pretty great drive in food.

Oh that Lil Miss, she has more energy than any person I've ever met in my life. And perhaps someday she will use her powers for good instead of evil lol.

Oh I kid. She's a sweet girl ... when the mood strikes her ;) I'm really enjoying her growing up and her independence and how head strong and stubborn she can be. Like I said, hopefully she will use those traits to benefit herself ... and not JUST to drive her mother to the crazy house ;)

So Saturday was ROUGH ...

That is an understatement.

Saturday had me THIS CLOSE || to cowering in a corner drooling and mumbling to myself about sharing Littlest Pet Shops.

Friday night and Saturday were the kind of days where a MULTITUDE of my issues collide instead of just one or two like a normal day. The kind of days where I doubt everything about myself as a woman/mother/wife you name it AND I take EVERYTHING personal. It's fun, as those around me can tell you.

Then I woke up Sunday morning with the Hubs already at work and I said a quiet prayer and DECIDED that today was going to be better than yesterday. IT HAD TO BE.

And then I got out of bed and realized we had no milk for breakfast.

Or coffee.

And I started to worry about the day and my mental ability to handle it lol.

As I played all of the possible scenarios out in my head for how to handle the situation, I sighed. It wasn't looking good.

Then I stopped and thought, "What do *I* want to do? What would make ME feel better?" I wish I could say it was going to the gym ... but it ended up being "GO OUT TO BREAKFAST! :D"

So we did :)

And I can not TELL YOU how much better we all did! I know a big part of it was just getting up and out of the house. And getting dressed for that matter! We ended up going to Dollar Tree to get some more party supplies and we fared WAY better than the last time! Then we ran to the grocery store and then home. And it's funny but we were ALL so much less stressed and lighthearted! It was awesome :) I did run to the gym later that afternoon too, so that made me happy too.

And to top it all off ... the hubs and I got to get out ALONE for a little US time :)

I got dressed up in a new dress and after the little ones were asleep, we let Teen hang out downstairs, and we hoped a cab and headed downtown :)

It's just a little small town country hick bar, but it's only a $6 cab ride so it works for us! LOL and we had the BEST time just sitting and talking and staring into each others eyes :) It's amazing to me how 7 years later it can still feel like we're first dating and totally enthralled with each other. We enjoyed a couple of drinks and a couple hours talking and it just meant the WORLD :)

Friday of last week we finally got out of the house after being home for a couple of days. My good friend invited the kids and I over to go swimming and we were HAPPY to accept!

We had a little picnic lunch first and then the girls swam for HOURS!

And colored the pool area with chalk ;)

While I sat poolside enjoying my Rockstar and talking with my friends :)

Oh ... and totally eyein their BEAUTIFUL BABY BOY!

Isn't he just the CUTEST?!

And SO TINY!!! He's so itty bitty! And such a little snuggle bug! He's just 2 weeks old here and OH MY WORD do I love babies at this age :) I could just eat him up with a spoon!

It's funny because as much as I LOVE holding little ones like this, I don't get that FEVER anymore. Which is REALLY good since there's nothing I can do about it anyway ;) But I just love that little baby softness and sweetness :) No matter how old they are, I can STILL feel that softness and smell that sweetness like it was just yesterday :)

So it's another 105* day today. Which makes me REALLY glad that I couldn't run all the errands I SHOULD have. I have a ton of shopping I need to do but couldn't do it today so I just decided it was going to be a Pool kind of day and be just fine with it :)

You can see how much they minded that ;) My girls are water babies, that's for sure!

So after I went to the gym and forced myself to finish Body Pump (even though I REALLY wanted to leave during the squat track) we went to the pool.

There are some things that aren't the best about Condo living, but I'll tell ya, the pool during the summer MORE than makes up for it! We go early, round 10:30-11, and stay till they whine about lunch. Then it's lunch, showers, and quiet time and that's a day right there :) Not the most EXCITING day ever, but that's ok with me!

I'm so glad to have my girlies home :) They were with their dad for 6 days and I know that a break sounds AWESOME ... and don't get me wrong, IT IS. But 6 days is a LOT when it's not a once in a while thing :-/ Their dad is very involved in their lives (and I couldn't be more grateful for that!) but it's hard to share sometimes ... especially because they are just the best girls I could ask for :)

I love how my oldest plays with my youngest. She is so great with her sisters! She has such a great love for little kids, every body's kids! She would make an amazing preschool teacher, she enjoys little ones so much. She's going to be the kind of mother I always wished I could be and that just makes my heart so happy :)

My grandkids are going to be SO lucky.

Speaking of my youngest ... as I was putting away party stuff from Flower Child's party I had the STUNNING realization that Lil Miss's 6th birthday is NEXT FREAKING WEEK. To say that it snuck up on me is a GROSS understatement :-/

I keep thinking of all of these ideas, finding all of these pictures on other blogs of stuff I want to do. My mind, she is SWIMMING. I keep making list after list and getting so stressed out that I didn't SLEEP the other night after I finally sent out Evites! Seriously, I get a little wigged out :-/

And to make things worse, I usually have someone I can talk to about all of this and she did a great job of helping REIGN ME IN when I get all "OMG AND I WANT TO DO THIS TOO! AND THIS! AND THAT! OH GIRL AND THIIIIS!" but I don't really have that or her anymore and I'm not really sure why or what's going on. Besides the fact that thinking about THAT makes me beyond sad and cry, I'm also having trouble focusing on reigning myself in.

The girls even have a phrase for when I'm dealing with party stuff and I get that LOOK like if I hear one more word my head might EXPLODE RIGHT THERE ... "SHHHHH, Mom's in PARTY MODE" LOL

And they're totally right lol

Hopefully this week I will get to work on party stuff AHEAD of time and not save EVERY LAST THING til the last minute, like I did with Flower Child's Party ;) Cross your fingers for me ;)

The first day of Summer really hit us hard around here today! 105*!! And my car's AC isn't working :-/

We had a bunch of errands to run though so we got right to it. After a quick cup of coffee I ran to the gym at about 6:30am. When I got out at about 7:30 it was ALREADY HOT. UGH.

Came home, took a shower, loaded up the Boy and Lil Miss and we left to pick up my girlies! :D They've been with their dad for 6 days and I MISSED THEM LIKE CRAZY :)

After we dropped off the Boy to go to his mom's house we headed into the town we used to live in.

We met up with my cousin and her sweet little girl :) Lil Miss and her play SO well and are so super cute together. We'll probably be getting together with them more often since I have to bring the Boy back every Tuesday. So that'll be fun!

By the time the natives were getting restless ... and hungry ... it was about 11:30, and aproximately 150* outside, so we decided to get some lunch.

I needed to pick up some medicine for the Hubs from my Mom so we decided to drop in on her at work and kill 2 birds with one stone :)

We enjoyed a VERY nice lunch and some VERY nice air conditioning before getting back on the road that WAS PAVED WITH LAVA.

IT WAS HOT, let's just say. Eventually we got home and spent the rest of the day enjoying the AC in the house :)

Tomorrow is supposed to be another hot one so I think I'll run and get the grocery shopping done before the Hubs leaves in the morning so I can still make Body Pump at the gym. And hopefully not MELT INTO THE PAVEMENT lol

Father's Day this year was a bit subdued. The Boy had the stomach flu and our plans for doing some fun family stuff the day before had fallen apart. So we were a little unsure as to what all we could even try to do Sunday.

The Hubs got a bike for his gift and he loves it! He took it out immediately to try her out. He used to bike a lot when he was in college and really enjoys it, so this was a gift WIN :)

After he got back we decided to head out for breakfast :) We decided on Farmer Bros. after the wait time at Perko's FAR exceeded our patience.

The Boy was trying to put on a brave stomach face but ended up only eating about have a piece of bacon ... which kinda sucked because he ordered a whole kids meal ... so I hope that piece of bacon was AWESOME cause it cost $3.99.

After breakfast we ran to the store for some BBQ stuffs and then headed out to the pool.

We relaxed and I laid out in the sun absorbing all of that awesome vitamin D (and a drinky poo) and working on my tan :)

The kids had a great time running around with their noodles. Boy they love those things.



Lil Miss is quite the lil fish. She just swam ...

and swam ...

and swam!

You MIGHT think all that activity would wear her out and she would sleep good and maybe even SLEEP IN! Well ... you'd be wrong.

Apparently it makes her want to get up at 6am to greet the world with a smile :D

At least that will be helpful when we get back into school.

It sure did tire the Boy out though.

After all of the fun we came back in for some quiet time. The Hubs and I started watching the Empire Strikes Back on G4 or something and were all into and set to watch Return of the Jedi afterward because OF COURSE they would be having a marathon, it's Father's Day!

Except that after Empire came ... Coal? A show about the lives of coal miners? Sure ... and then 3 hours LATER came Return of the Jedi. Makes total sense.

But luckily I am a QUICK THINKER and remember that we had a DVD player! And the trilogy on DVD!

And so we ended Father's Day with a mini marathon and some cuddles. It was a nice Father's Day :)