Fascination with Birth Order

This is my Life: Fascination with Birth Order

Over the past year, I've become fascinated with birth order.  I have three sons and we are expecting a daughter in March of the new year.  So, seeing the different dynamics in my home, it's made me aware of behaviors and traits each one of my children possess.  

 My husband and I are both first born children.  We like to be organized.  The bills and finances, etc have become my husbands area now.  Before children, I had a binder, color coordinated, all three hole bunched, labeled when paid..oh yah, that's right.  But, now, as you can imagine, I don't have the time to be three hole punching bills, let alone getting them to where they need to be on time.  I've taken on a new role of where I need to be organized.  With my children and the children I care for.  My boys have so many different things they need for school, etc.  For instance, on Mondays, Jamison needs his clean sheets, etc for the week, his snow gear, back pack packed with his lunch and folder, water bottle for gym.  I'm sure there is more but I can't think right now lol.   For Connor I need to review his folder daily, lunch, snow gear, book if it's library day, I have to pay attention to what event is happening at school.  This week there is a theme every day and I reviewed the list last night and as we were driving to school, I said, oh Connor you forgot to wear a festive sweater!  Really I forgot to remind my six year old son.  But, I'll be on it tomorrow :)  You learn right?  For Nathan, my youngest who will be two at the end of this month, I have to remember to have him empty out before we hop in the van for drop offs in the morning.  I have to remember to install car seats on Sunday for the little ones I watch so I'm not rushing around in the morning.  Doctors, dentists...the list goes on and on. Just a lot of stuff, but that is what I have taken on for my first born organizing skills!  

The Firstborn Child: The Achiever
The eldest child will probably have more in common with other firstborns than their own brothers and sisters. Because they have had so much control and attention from their first-time parents, they are over-responsible, reliable, well-behaved, careful and smaller versions of their own parents. (Online resource) 
So, looking at my son Connor and actually both my husband and I, this is completely accurate.  My son Connor, who is our oldest, he's six, fits most of the descriptions above and more.  Obviously being six, he tests limits, etc.  But, even with discipline, he responds much differently than our second and third born sons.  My husband and I being the eldest siblings as well, we are much older than our siblings.  Connor is only 22 months older than our middle son Jamison.  I'm five years older than my sister and my husband is 7 years older than his sister.  So, we had a much larger gap of being the only children and these straights being enhanced :)   Any of you other first borns relate?    I remember one night at our small group with our Church friends, we took a pole of how many of us married first borns, etc.  It was almost exactly matching that each one of us married our spouses in the same birth order.  We work well with those like minded :)  Fascinating right?

The Second Born Child:  The  Peacemaker
If you are a middle child, you are probably understanding, rebellious, cooperative, thrives on friendships and flexible, yet competitive.You and your older sibling will never excel at the same thing. The personality trait that defines you as a middle child will be opposite of that of your eldest and youngest sibling. But those wonderful social skills that you have learned as the middle child -- negotiating and navigating within your family structure -- can prepare you for an entrepreneurial role on a large scene. (online resource)

So here is our Jamison (Yes, he is favored among many :) :) mostly second borns themselves lol)  and for a good reason.  I often say that God blessed him with an amazingly beautiful face because he was going to be tough.   By the way, he's the one the red arrow is pointing too! Jamison thrives on positive reinforcement.  He loves to know if he is obeying and will ask often and loves the recognition if the answer is yes!  He is bubbly, friendly, kind, caring, smart, energetic but then also, aggressive, loud, quick to anger,exhausting, uncooperative at times and before Nathan, we thought he'd be the one we disciplined most ;)  Where it takes Connor one discipline, takes Jamison probably five.  He certainly tests and keeps Anthony and I on our toes with being consistent.  When we tell people around us or I express to some of my Mom friends if I'm having a struggle with him, they are sometimes shocked because when he's in Sunday school, or with our family, etc.  (outside of our care mind you) we only get excellent reports.  In school, his teacher said he is wonderful, listens, loves to help, they actually had to make a praying chart for other children to be involved because he continually wanted to pray.  So, as difficult as parenting him may be at times, we see the fruits of our labor already at his young age of four!!
Also, most middle children, and much that I read it says they are forgotten or overlooked often.  I don't agree with that at all.  The middle child syndrome is silly to me and we often tell Jamison, the most special thing about him is that he gets to be an older brother and a younger brother.  Not many people are blessed with such a role as he. 
The Youngest Child: The Life of the Party
If you're the baby, your parents are already confident in their role as caregiver, and therefore are more lenient and don't necessarily pay attention to your every move or milestone as they did with your older siblings. Thus, you've learned how to seduce the crowd with charm and likability.As the youngest child, you have more freedom than the other siblings and, in a sense, are more independent. As the youngest child, you also have a lot in common with your oldest sibling, as both of you have been made to feel special and entitled. Your range of influence extends throughout your family, which supports you both emotionally and physically. Hence, you experience a sense of place and security. (online resource)

Our third born son, had this been my first, I probably would have been scared he'd break and arm! Now...he's good!

So although our Nafer wafer is our third born, he's not our last so I'm not sure how accurate that will be for him.  But, I will say, I'm grateful we are having our children all close together.   A lot of the description of the third born states that the parents are more relaxed.  Which absolutely in a sense we are.  More in the areas of we got this.  We aren't nervous about certain things as we were being first time parents.  I nursed awesome because I knew what I was doing, I had the experience.  He's adventurous where we were probably a little more cautious with what we let Connor and Jamison do,  although not too much. Nathan sees the world much differently and we are laid back more in that sense.  He sees more because he has two older brothers.  So, where Connor would have never climbed nearly as much as Jamison or Nathan do, they had an older brother they saw doing that at an older age and wanted to participate.  But, when it comes to behavior and correction.  We are evenly consistent with all.  We do not favor one over the other or let one get away with something that the other didn't.  We aren't tired in that sense.  Well I shouldn't say that...we are TIRED! Seeing how Nathan rises before the sun even comes up lol, and has a far more aggressive demeanor than Connor ever did.  But, there comes in play, the birth order! That's why I'm so fascinated with it.  Because, through every family, it stays pretty consistent.  

Now how will baby girl play into this birth order?  With where we are right now with behavior and discipline with the other monkeys, I'm praying super friendly and obeys our every word.  What?  I can dream can't I??

 Each child is different.  Although they came from the same parents, they are completely different and require different approaches and love.  Connor could snuggle me all day, where Jamison likes to snuggle only at certain times of the day and Nathan is the same as Jamison.  All are very affectionate (sometimes too much according to their schools) and we're working on that haha!  They love differently and need love differently and as parents, we need to recognize, correct and nurture that so they can thrive as their own individual people.

Love these muffins and all their unique differences <3 The best thing, they are brothers and that will never change.

Our Reveal

This is My Life: Our First and Final Reveal

Welcome Baby Girl Richard

 

This Gender reveal is probably some of the most emotional stress I've been under in awhile.  As most know, Connor (and over the past couple weeks, Jamison too) wanted a baby sister soooo bad.  Even that is an under statement.  Connor even had his Sunday school class pray for his baby sister before we even knew the gender.  Talk about pressure.

It is the hardest feeling when your children want something so bad and you have no control over it.  It's obviously not a material item I can run to the store and buy.  This is actually something their little hearts desired so very much and my heart was breaking at the thought of seeing their disappointed faces.  I mean let's face it, my odds weren't looking good lol! Yes, we would get over it and be overjoyed at having another little brother to the Richard brotherhood ;)  But, to have little boys, desiring to love a little sister so much.  ehhh.  All I could do is pray, pray, pray, (pretty much begging) the Lord to bless us with a baby girl. They also did the same during our bedtime prayers and were so confident it was a girl.  Anthony on the other hand was praying hard for another boy ;) 

Side Note:  I will show them this blog post when she is driving them crazy in the years to come. haha

This little muffin will be the one to complete our Richard Family.  So, we decided and by "we" I mean "I", decided I wanted to do all the fun stuff that comes with babies and that included a fun reveal with our families which we've never done before.  Let's go out with a bang!  So, we planned a fun reveal.  Some family said we wouldn't have planned an elaborate party if it was a boy, but lucky for them, we didn't know the gender until that morning and the party was already planned.  ;) 

First, on our ride home from our appointment I started calling out of town bakeries for our family and friends that live out of town, to order a reveal cupcake for them to have fun  and share in our excitement and be part of our fun day! :)
Here are some cute videos and pics from the family and friends that sent us their cute feedback.

Cousin Emily in Florida

Marissa in North Carolina

Jess in Rhode Island

Now to our Family Reveal!!

As our family arrived, we had them cast their votes :)   The bottom portion is from a game I'll talk about in a bit.

 Our table with a cute display of Baby Richard #4.  She has so many of the same features as Jamison.  Just absolutely gorgeous. 

 Fun drinks!

 

This is probably one of my favorites that we did because I can frame it and keep it forever.  I found a silhouette of a baby online and drew the lines with a sharpie.  We bought ink pads and each family member put their finger print as to what their guess was :)  

This was the first game we played.  Old Wives Tale Trivia.  Everyone wrote down their guesses to the questions and we revealed the answer.  The bottom of the tally chart above is where my pregnancy matched up with the boy/girl myths.  Pretty great!   After we gave the answers, we had our family count up how many they got right and the winner got a little jar candle.  My mom won this game!

I forgot to snap a picture of our jar of candy, but this is similar.  We filled a jar with blue and pink candy, more of the color that the baby is :)  The family put down their guesses of how much they thought there were of each color in the jar.  The one who guessed the closest also won a candle.  My sister won this game!

Our third little fun game was for family to put in the jar some name suggestions they'd like for the baby.  We pulled the cards, even not gender matching and did first and middle name matches.  We got some like "Julia Tyson", "Noah Julia".  It was a fun silly game. Cute suggestions.

Now to the big reveal:

We had our families scratch these scratch tickets to find out the gender :)  It was cute and we wanted them to hold in their excitement a little so they didn't give it away to the boys who we had a different idea in mind since two of them can't read.

Now for the fun Big Brother Reveal <3  They were overjoyed!!

During our ultrasound it was surreal.  For all that know our experience with Connor you can believe we asked for her to view multiple times and confirm there was no wee wee hanging in the winds.  There wasn't.  It was and still is surreal for us.

Our daughter will be so loved and protected beyond belief with her Dad and three brothers that love her dearly.  Perfect completion to our family.  I'm soaking up every joyous part of this pregnancy as it's my last.  Not taking for granted the amazing feeling of having God's gift growing inside of me and feeling her move since it's a sensation I won't feel again (and it's one of my favs).   We love her so much already and Anthony and I were talking about it last night after everyone left and the boys were in bed.  We are going to have a daughter.  It's a different feeling for us, a different emotion we are feeling and we are very much looking forward to raising a confident beautiful daughter who will move mountains for sure. 

Hope you enjoyed our reveal :) 

Our Attempt

This is my life: Our Attempt 

 

 As many who know me well, know I'm quite in love (cough:obsessed) with the show Friends.  I can remember watching it every week when it was on the air.  When Anthony and I were engaged, for our first Christmas, he bought me the Anniversary edition of the 10 seasons.  He knew the way to my heart ;)   I've watched them so many times, and continue to just go through all the seasons.  It's actually on in the background right now! And after as many times as I've seen every episode, I still laugh! 

But, it's gotten to the point where I can pick up on places where the writers made a mistake.  For example : (lol I could list a ton but I'll just list one that comes to mind)  If you can remember the episode where Phoebe walks into Monica's apartment and starts complaining about how she hasn't had many massages and the massages she had given were bad tippers (as Ross and Monica are sitting at the table), they then said it was them she gave the massages too.  Now, flash forward to after Chandler and Monica get married, and she has the private masseuse come to their apartment and Phoebe freaks out saying she should let her massage Monica.  Flash back again, she's already given Monica a massage before.  LOL.  See, it's stuff like this!

So, move past my insanity, haha, for their 20th anniversary, a replica Central Perk was set up in NYC and opened this past week.  It's only open for a month.  They are giving out a free cup of coffee, have a bunch of memorabilia and the orange couch.  The whole ride there, I was picturing having a cute picture of my family and I sitting on the orange couch.  Was so excited!!!  

 Now my boys even love Friends, can name the characters, it's so cute.  They were also excited to see this place.  Anthony also loves Friends, he's a great competition when we play Friends Scene it. :)

We left Saturday after Connor's soccer game, we figured we drive through naps, so we'd get there good and rested.  Well Jamison is hit or miss now with naps, mostly miss, so Nathan was the only one who fell asleep.  We stopped at Market Basket somewhere and got some lunch and snacks for the ride.  The drive in NYC was great.  No traffic, and even once we got to the outside of Manhattan, it was great.  Well we set our GPS to put us right at Central Perk.  HUGE mistake! 

We have been to NYC about a few times now.  We took the boys when they were 3 and 1, went away for a weekend just Anthony and I one year around Christmas...we are pretty comfortable driving into the city.  But, this time, we went too far in and did not know there was also a food festival going on just a block over from the Central Perk.  We drove by Central Perk, I got all excited, we head to park, que traffic.   We sat in standstill traffic for 2 hours, no joke.  It was bad.  The poor boys had to go to the bathroom so bad, and let me just tell you, I'm so grateful I have boys and had an empty Snapple bottle ;)  The boys were so good.  So good.  I was also thinking that the whole ride how awesome our boys are in the car and on long distances.  Blessed!  

The boys in Time Square in 2011.

So, needless to say, Anthony got us out of the traffic eventually, but we couldn't find parking near Central Perk.  We pulled into one place and for two hours they were charging 61 dollars and apparently our van is an SUV.  ahh. So, we left and drove towards Central Park and visited there so the boys could stretch and run free for awhile.  We talked about all the fun movies that we love that are filmed in NYC, ELF, Smurfs, The Bee Movie, Home Alone 2.  It was cute and they enjoyed it.  We got NY bagels for dinner, left NYC around 8, boys slept the ride home.  It was for sure exhausting!  Was just disappointed we didn't get to go see what we were going for, especially when my husband was so great about knowing how excited I was and drove me there. 

But, it was another memory in the book and honestly, my favorite memory from the trip, I was telling Anthony this morning..When the boys hear Oceans come on the radio by Hillsong, they say "Mama your song is on", and I hear this song all the time, but sometimes, it hits me just right and can bring tears, this time it was tears of laughter.  Anthony says while I'm singing "Do you think if I pray" and I stopped him because I knew exactly what he was going to say and we start laughing.  He was going to pray for my pitch, bahahaha.  So, then my singing became hilarious and everyone is laughing, even Nathan although I'm not sure he even knew what he was laughing at.  It was just a wonderful time for our family and I loved that moment.

Anthony also stated we will never be going to NYC again! lol.  and sadly I still do want to attempt to see this. ;)

Dinner Resolution

This is my life: Simplifying a stressful time of day

Well, my oldest is in school ALL day now and my middle starting tomorrow.  You would think that would make my life easier, nope!  Between the pick up and drop offs and the watching the other children, the preparing dinner for my family was getting slim if lucky to none.  

Picking up fast food is not how I envisioned my family gathering around the dinner table to eat.  Not that it's horrible, there are moments where you just have to get it!  But, when 5 o'clock rolled around each day, my husband would call asking if he needed to pick anything up, and sure enough, Yes, everything!!  There is a great importance to gathering around the dinner to a healthy meal and I needed to grasp this back.

I was definitely in over my head with preparing dinner for my family.  So, the other day I was preparing dinner for a friend that just had a baby and for my family...and I thought, wow, making more than one dinner at once isn't hard and would be so much easier!!! 

So, what shall a Mama too do?

 Take one day over the weekend and prepare dinners for the upcoming week!!! 

This took me an hour to prepare five meals and I had one mess to clean up.  Rather than a bunch of pot and pans every night to clean, we have one crock pot!  You freeze the meals and thaw when you want to eat.  It's perfect.  

Last night we had....Pot Roast over potatoes and carrots.

Tonight we are having:BBQ Cranberry chicken already cooking in the pot with green beans!

I'm very excited about this new revelation, both for my stress level and for my family.  

A little side note, after the death of Robin Williams,  when I told the boys that Jumanji had passed away, I used his death as a shining light in our home. :)  I told the boys it was because he didn't eat that healthy.  They more than agreeingly helped me throw out any unhealthy food in our pantry, no colored cereals, no boxed mac n cheese, etc.   They were even grocery shopping with my husband this weekend, and Connor told me that Dad almost put Easy Mac in the cart and Connor told him we were not allowed to buy that and it was unhealthy.  Love it!  We are in a nice transition, not to say we don't eat junk food here or enjoy a good ol' hot dog but definitely changing our ways together !  

So, now I have my meals frozen for the week and a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders!  I have vegetables for the sides. If you are a Mom who stresses about getting a meal on the table for her family, I encourage you to try this task this weekend!  Also, saves money!!! 

Here are the recipes I used for this week a long with a few others I will be using!! Be sure to label the front of the freezer bags with cooking times.

Cranberry Chicken

Another easy chicken recipe, you'll love the sweet and sour tang of this dish.
You'll need:

• 3 lbs chicken thighs or legs, skinned (chicken breasts can also be used)
• 1 can whole cranberry sauce
• 1 envelope onion soup mix

In a bowl mix together the cranberry sauce and the onion soup mix. Place chicken in the freezer bag and pour cranberry mixture on top. When ready to use, thaw and place contents of freezer bag into crock pot and cook on low heat for 5 - 6 hours.


Teriyaki Chicken (I did two bags of this one)

• Bag of Baby Carrots
• 1/2 Red Onion in Large Chunks
• (1) 20oz can pineapple (undrained)
• 1/2 or 1 Garlic Cloves Chopped
• 2- 3 Chicken Breasts
• 1/2 cup Teriyaki Sauce

Chicken and Dumplings

• 4 Chicken Breasts Halved
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 2 Cans Cream of Chicken Soup
• 1 Onion Diced Finely
• 2 Packages of Refrigerated Biscuit Dough torn into pieces (this is added after cooking- place in a separate baggie.)

Place everything in slow cooker (except the biscuit dough) and fill with enough water to cover. Cook HIGH 5-6 Hours.  30 Minutes before serving, place torn biscuit dough in slow cooker.  Cook until dough is no longer raw in center.


Salsa Chicken

• 4 Chicken Breasts
• 1 Cup Salsa
• 1 Package Taco Seasoning
• 1 Can Cream of Mushroom Soup
• 1/2 Cup Reduced Fat Sour Cream

Add everything to Crock Pot (except Sour Cream).  Cook on LOW for 6-8 Hours.  Stir in Sour Cream at the end and serve over rice.


Pot Roast

• 1 Eye of Round Roast
• 1 Packet Pot Roast Seasoning
• 1 Bag Mini Carrots or Sliced Carrots
• 6-7 Chopped Potatoes
• 1 Onion in Big Chunks for Flavor
• 1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbs of dijon musturd

Add water just before cooking- 1/4 to 1/2 way full. Cook on HIGH 4-6 Hours.

 

Meatball Stroganoff
16 oz meatballs
1 cup onions (diced)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup mushrooms (sliced)
1/2 pack cream cheese*
4 oz sour cream*
Garlic

*You can add these ingredients in the last hour or two, but I see no harm in freezing them

Cook time: 5-6 hours. I like to serve this over egg noodles.

 

 

Hawaiian Chicken

2-3 Lbs. Chicken Drumsticks (legs)

1 (15 Oz. Can Crushed Pineapple

1/4 Cup Low-Sodium Soy Sauce

1/2 Teaspoon Ground Ginger

1 Tablespoon Minced Garlic

2 Tablespoons Cornstarch (optional)

 

Surprise!

This is my life: Roaring 20's

My husband turned 30!!  30!  It's crazy.  I remember when I was younger never thinking I'd be 30, and here I am around the corner.  But 30 is a big deal :)  To me, it's true adulthood.  Most settle down in their thirties, get married, start their family.   For us, our family will be complete and our thirties will hopefully bless us with our forever family home, our babies will turn into teenagers in our thirties. yikes!  We just have a lot of amazing stuff to look forward too in our thirties together.  For now though, I wanted to celebrate my man. 

I hopped on pinterest (of course) and fell in love with the idea of celebrating by saying good bye to his roaring 20's and welcoming his 30's.  So fun, and who doesn't want to dress up when they get a chance?  

So, thanks to my dear friend Beth who so selflessly offered to help me, we started planning together and getting all the details nailed down.  This is probably one of the most stressful things I have ever done.  Planning a surprise party for the man you spend your life with is NOT easy.  I started a board on pinterest with the ideas I wanted to include, but until August, yes the month of the party, I had nothing.  The only thing I had made and ordered were his invites, and I had to place these on our debit card and he saw the purchase....here is where the lies began. 

Now my husband is our money man for our family.  I know very little about our account except when we discuss purchases and paying off our debts.  Other than that, the daily account stuff I am unaware of.  But, I know he checks it every day and all transactions.   He saw the first purchase and asked me about the charge.  

LIE #1:  Beth asked me to order invitations for a surprise party she is planning for James.  (now we had to roll with this)

Due to this, I knew I had to go about buying stuff for the party another way.  So, I have always loved the online yard sales.  I started to list all the stuff I do not wear or use and selling it all to "raise" money for his surprise party.  I then had to buy a rechargeable gift card and put the cash on there so I could start making purchases online and sent them to Beth's house.  See all this little effort to keep it a SURPRISE.  phew!

My most exciting purchase was my punch fountain.  :)  I loved it! 

Two of my close friends are awesome party planners and instructed me on how to order labels on etsy and print them to Fedex office.  This was all new to me, but with their guidance I did it.  I ordered water bottle labels and labels for all the food, Gatsby style ! 

 LIE #2: My friend called me to give me some direction on printing and I had to step outside because I was sitting right next to Anthony.  When I came back in, he asked me what was going on, I told him she just wanted to chat for a second because she was stressed about her husbands surgery coming up.  

LIE #3:  To get my husband to dress up, I told him Beth was throwing her husband a surprise promotion party and it was Friday night. (this part cracks me up)

LIE #4: So he knew I was actually planning something for his birthday, I told him we were going out to dinner Saturday night with a bunch of our friends and family party Monday night.  He wanted to go to Masa, so I pretended to plan a dinner at Masa.  Now my husband so kindly kept inviting other people that I then had to get in contact with and tell them this dinner didn't really exist.  lol. ahhhhh

The Divine intervention: I was getting so stressed out not being able to organize or plan anything with him being home every night, I had a bunch of stuff on the bottom of my closet praying he wouldn't see it.  FINALLY, he told me he had a training for work he had to go to in Ohio Wed-Fri the week of his party. THANK YOU JESUS!!!!  I was so stressed.  Still stressful being left alone with our three boys and planning a party, but WAY easier.  

LIE #5:  His sister would be picking him up from the airport Friday because I needed to go set up early to help Beth.  

LIE #6:  James (this is Beth's husband) would be picking him up, thinking they were going to a surprise party for Meg (their Sister in Law).   PS: I do not know how pathological liars keep it all straight, I was getting so nervous because I do not lie and keeping it all straight was getting hard. 

Thursday night I went to the library with the boys to get a feel for how I wanted to set up the room.  I'm a very visual person and I felt like I couldn't buy decorations and room stuff without knowing where I wanted everything.  

LIE #7: My husband wanted to Skype when I was just pulling into the library.  I told him we were doing a quick visit to the library to pick up a movie and just get out of the house for a few minutes...this was a minor one :) But, I had to rush him off the chat! 

I could not sleep the whole week of the party!  My mind could not shut off with all little details and things I didn't want to forget.

Now I'm finally at the library Friday.  Was a great location for his party.  5 minutes up the road.  Down side: No alcohol.  Not a problem for me and about 50% of those attending are pregnant lol.  But with the 20's being during the prohibition, would have been fun to have a speakeasy party, but our friends did just fine ;) wink wink! 

Set up went great, only hiccup I really hit was I forgot to pick up the shrimp, but my Mom so gladly picked them up for me. 

 Beth also came early (seriously, could not have done this without her) and so did her sister in law Meg, which was such a blessing because she has a great eye for party set up as well.  Little ideas that we would have never thought of were just wonderful touches for the whole decor.  

Some of the stuff on the menu:  Olives and Nuts, Pretzel Cigarettes, Deviled Eggs, Shrimp cocktail, swedish meatballs, sausage bread, caprese skewers, spinach dip, Wings and provided sauces for all the make it their own way, and pig in a blanket.

 LIE #8:  It's 6:30 , party starts at 7, Anthony was" instructed" to be picked up and brought to the library for 7:20-7:30.  He texts me at 6:30 saying James was already there.  I panicked.  I told my husband to makes sure he stalled and not to leave our house any earlier than 7:20 and Beth was freaking out.  lol ahhh...when in reality, it was me! 

Dessert had the beautiful cupcakes, fondue fountain with lots of fruit and pretzels to dip with a coffee bar. 

My friend Erin made the gorgeous cupcakes. Joel was my awesome DJ, this was something that stressed me so much because I'm not techy and good with music stuff....he was awesome!!  Friends/family made some food.  My friend Jenny was the photographer (link in her name) I LOVE pictures, but I knew I could not capture everything I wanted to capture, and she was awesome! All were awesome and as I looked around the room, we are just beyond blessed with such wonderful people in our lives!

He finally ARRIVED!   He made it to the parking lot for the surprise.  I did not think of my families cars giving it away, but that's pretty good ;) 

He arrives :) and picked up a flower for me because he was trying to "stall"

I feel relieved now.  I could finally relax, he was in and being celebrated!!!! 

It was a great night of food, poker, friends, family and dancing!!!   

Our group was so festive, that was my favorite part! All went into character and were awesome!  Made me so happy. 



Anthony was surprised and had a wonderful evening! Perfect <3 Now I can finally sleep....zzzz

Thank you to all who made this party possible, couldn't have done it without you and who also stayed to help clean up after!