The birthday weekend!

I had such a wonderful weekend, definitely the best birthday celebration in years to my recollection. It surely beats LAST YEAR in which I woke up on my birthday in the hospital with KayTar, wearing clothes with the previous night's vomit on them (KayTar's vomit, not mine). This year my very best cousin and her son came into town and we had a wonderful time with them here. We haven't seen them since BubTar's 6th birthday, so it was wonderful to catch up.

After returning from KayTar's camp on Friday, I frantically began to clean the kids' rooms and the bathrooms. All areas under my direct supervision were cleaned and ready, minus the fact that the cat had torn the guest bathroom shower liner to shreds and the room my cousin was to stay in had no light fixture. I called Josh and asked him to stop by the store on the way home to get these items and he said he could leave work a bit early so we could finish preparing for our guests. However, in about 30 minutes my cousin called and said she would be here a little early (internally I thought, okay, I'll call Josh and have him come home a bit sooner) and then she said she was ON MY STREET already. AGH! So much for being prepared, right? At least it was family! Josh got home a while later and installed the light and the curtain and TA-DA! Problems solved, just a bit later than we would have liked. That night we went out for Mexican food, which was delicious and fun, and then we stopped by my parents' house so S could visit with them a bit. The kids swam with Josh and we sat around talking and comparing new cell phones (my big birthday gift was a new cell phone with email and internet capabilities, and a full keyboard. I'm thrilled!). After that we headed home and the kids played for a while and then we all headed to bed.

Saturday morning was pretty lazy, Josh made chocolate chip muffins for breakfast and we all just hung out for a while. At noon we went over to my parents' house again for my birthday lunch and cake. Although I wasn't supposed to get anything, because I already had my big gift, my mom gave me a gift card to Kohl's and my cousin gave me a gift card for Starbucks. My mom had also given my cousin a Kohl's gift card for completing her Master's degree, so after the lunch party, she and I went shopping together while Josh watched the kiddos. Once we were done shopping, we came home and rested a little before J and L arrived with food from Chili's in hand. We enjoyed dinner before making a pit-stop at the liquor (for vodka and rum) and grocery stores (for juice, root beer, and vanilla ice cream) before settling in for game night. My sister-in-law, R joined the party and we stayed up until 2am playing Mexican train (dominoes) and having cocktails. We had a blast! J won, of course, he was the designated driver and the only completely sober one at the table, having only imbibed of a root beer float or two through the night.

On Sunday, my cousin and her son had to leave, sadly, and I spent the middle of the day playing catch up on cleaning and laundry and grocery shopping. By evening, it was time to go to Josh's parents' house for my second birthday party, dinner and cookie cake. YUM! After dinner, my sisters-in-law took me to see the Ugly Truth. It was HILARIOUS. I definitely recommend it, there was one scene that made me laugh so hard I couldn't breathe! It is a bit crass, so don't take your mom to this one.

Today the calendar is blissfully blank (minus swim team and math class) and I'm back to the boring work of laundry and studying math for my exam tonight. This weekend was such fun that I hardly mind all the extra work I'm having to do to make up for it!