Mommy, I need a nap!

On Friday Daniel was in Johnson City to tune 4 pianos leaving Bella and me to our own devices. The day was uneventful until 9pm when we went to walmart, and mommy made the executive decision that it was ear piercing time in Tennessee! Daniel had previously stated that he didn't care if he was present for the baby torture, so I figured "why not get it over with?" After picking out her earrings and having not 2, but 3, walmart associates come to help with this gargantuan undertaking it was time. They thought it would be best to leave Bella sitting in the shopping cart. They were playing with Bella and let her have a glove to play with, but as soon as one of the girls started to wipe her ear lobes with alcohol her face changed totally...she got the look of an almost 2 year old who knew something was up. They proceeded to: mark her ears, messed them up, wipe those marks off, and finally remark. By the time they had done all that Bella was positive that something scary was about to happen. Two of the associates got into position on either side of Bella, and I had the wonderful job of holding her head still. Unfortunately the ladies were not in perfect sequence and thus Bella got WHAM WHAMMMMED instead of just one big whammy all at once. Bella took in a huge gasp of air, held it, turned beet red, and after what seemed like 5 min let out the shriek to end all shrieks....luckily we proceeded to go look at balloons and party favors and she only had to cry about 34235235 more times in an hour period!

Saturday was Bella's birthday. My little doll  baby of a girl is now two. We decided that it would be a really good idea to have her party at the pavilion outside at EPC and to use the enclosed playground so the kids could play. Well for any of you living in Knoxville you know that we basically had a monsoon yesterday which threw a bit of a kink in that plan. Obviously we would need to do it in the fellowship hall. I panicked for a minute (ok maybe a little longer the a minute, maybe like oh 60 min?) because I didn't know how we would entertain the children up there, but Mary Catherine talked me off the ledge and told me to just bring a bunch of coloring stuff. Daniel and I got everything together and loaded into the car. Bella was napping and Dad came over to sit with her while we went to set the church up. Daniel went to put the car seat into the car and when mom asked him what time the party was he told her 5. This would have been fine and well except that the party was at 4! When he told me this as we were on out way to church I had to freak out a little because I know my mother. She would think to herself, "Oh good! I have plenty of time to get Bella's gift and dawdle around!" Daniel couldn't get her on the phone or anything to correct the time, so we just had to hope that mom would go back to our house in time because dad did know the correct time.

As we are driving through the torrential downpour it dawns on me that we had failed to get the fellowship hall key from my mom. Daniel assured me that he knew where one was in the main church...after 3 trips running up and down the hill in the rain he couldn't find it. I was sitting in the car, watching the rain, thinking "Could this get any worse? Downpour, no key, and a party without the birthday girl!" I told Dan to just grab every key he could find and I would try them all. Thank the Lord there was a loose key floating around that was the right one! We get into the building and lo and behold, all the tables and chairs were set up for moms surprise lunch that happened today after church! My blood pressure shot through the roof as we stood there with 45 min to: Move all the tables and chairs, set up partition to hide them, ice a ton of cupcakes, make PB and J sandwiches, pick up ice, pick up pizza, blow up balloons, tie balloons to chairs...etc etc etc. Lucky for us Kate and Kevin showed up early and they helped us knock it all out. We had everything done in time and the birthday girl arrived a mere 20 min late! Which was fine because everyone was slowed down by the rain. Poor Mary Catherine misunderstood where the party was being held and went to our house in South Knox instead of the church in East Knox. Leslie and her crew had to wait on their PRECIOUS, adorible, eat your heart out, 9 month old to wake from a nap, Auntie had to come on her lunch break, Renee and Josh had to rangle their babies in the rain, Ashley and Quinton and to wait out the storm, and Adam is just Adam.....did I forget anyone's craziness? But you know what I learned? That even when everything seems to be going crazy and out of control it can all work out and be fine! We had a fabulous party, with the sweetest little girls, and somebody even got great news! Thanks everyone for making Bella's bday so special! Oh and just to give him props...Sam was there ON TIME :-) He was very proud!

Oh and that great news? My awesome sister-in-law passed her test to be a manager at Home Depot! We are all so proud of her and all her hard work! She is the best Auntie in the world!!!

Oddly enough, this is one of my favorite pictures from the party. These wonderful little girls were so amazing and sweet! Bella and Marley picking out glasses and blowers. Emma looking too cool for school! Isabella getting ready to blow that blower! Love them all!

This has to be a new tradition! It's called group present opening! All her gifts were open in about 5 min flat with a massive 4 girl group opening! It was a real blur!