WOW - or should I say WAW!

W hat A W eekend !

The party went off without a hitch! I can now blab that for a few months now my sister in law and I have been planning a surprise 60th birthday party for my father in law! He was shocked, and everyone came and it was amazing. We had his senior picture from high school put on the cake (which was awesome - whipped cream icing kicks ass in a big time way). The food was great (and there was enough, which was a worry of ours). People came who haven't seen my father in law in years, and he was just tickled.

I spent the last three weeks or so making a scrapbook of his life. It ended up being two entire 20 page books (plus a refill kit for the book - so, about 50 pages or so!) Everyone loved it, and I was so happy. I worked SO freakin hard on this thing for ENTIRE DAYS and filled ENTIRE WEEKS! It is so nice to feel like they understood the hard work, and thoughtfullness that went into. Truly, there aren't too many people I would do that for, my father in law is just one of them. He is just a hell of a guy, and there aren't too many words in the English dictionary that can describe him. You just have to know him. He, my mother in law and my sister in law loved the scrapbook so much, they cried- which made me feel great! That was the reaction I was looking for.

Today was the Mike's work Christmas party which is mostly for kids (but it is INCREDIBLE!)... I should mention that my father in law works there as well, so we went to this party even before Mike started there. Santa Claus comes and there are jugglers, clowns, magicians, balloon animal makers, face painters, spin art, mimes, marionettes... just about everything a kid could want to do ! For adults, they have a free chair massage on each floor of the building, so there is never more than one person in front of you. They have handwriting analysis, a craft show, an amazing lunch and characture artists . I just can't begin to describe it!

So, Maddie gets her first shot at Santa Claus, who she finally understands this year. He came around the corner, and her face just lit up like a Christmas tree and she screams "Merry Christmas!" So adorable. She sat on his lap, and said, "nice a meet you!". He asked her what she wanted for Christmas, and even though she is able to rattle off a list to me, she goes, "toys!". He said, "Oh, ok, anything in particular?" ... she says, "no... just toys". I cracked up, poor thing just froze. I imagined in my head A CHRISTMAS STORY where the kid just nods and says 'Yea, a football" when he really wants the bb gun! Thank goodness there was no slide!

I will post some more pictures tomorrow. But here are a few of my favorites from the weekend!