That is what Nana is for...

Our kids are spoiled.  By our friends, by family, by the congregation, but most especially by Nana and Papa. The ole' grandparents showed up this weekend to celebrate June's birthday and what we thought was already an over-celebrated third birthday ended up getting more exaggerated. But let's start at the beginning...

Last Monday we celebrated June's birthday as a family. We went out to Riefe's for breakfast and Julie, our waitress, gave June a choice of free pie or free chocolate cake the size of your head.  Hm...guess which one she picked. I was going to make a cake that afternoon so we could blow out candles, but I just made frosting and Karl drew a princess on the top of our "piece of cake" (that took up an entire plate so I'm pretty sure that means it was just a small cake). Jan stopped by with her presents - a beautiful afghan for her bed, princess pajamas, earmuffs with a built in ponytail, and balloons for both kids. During Ruben's nap we opened presents from Mom and Dad - harmonica, CD, baby, and Melissa and Doug birthday cake.

Tuesday was June's actual birthday and we celebrated by inviting all her little friends out to Fun Town to bounce the night away. It was super fun, but we really didn't take any picture because we played the whole time. Even though a bunch of our friends had to bow out because of a nasty flu bug we still ended up with 18 little friends to bounce around with!


We took a short break, although on Friday we did go get a free cupcake (again the size of her head but this time vanilla) at Barnes and Noble. Oh, and then June got a package in the mail from her godmother Katie. June still carries around her "princess suitcase" (jewelry box) with a necklace for each day of the week.  Then the fun really began. Oh Nana and Papa.

Papa's gift really arrived Wednesday as it was delivered via special post to our house. Garrett's Popcorn. Yum. The adults ate the popcorn but June will enjoy the beautiful pink tin it came in. Nana's gifts started out tame enough. Two outfits from a eco-friendly store in Dallas. Super Cute! Then, a Yoga video that works on phonics - we're hoping to try it out during Ruben's nap tomorrow. A read with me book. Oh, and a teeter totter.  That's right. You heard me. A teeter totter.  At first I thought perhaps it was a box she had repurposed because where would we put a teeter totter in January? Oh right.  Our living room. I had serious reservations about this toy being 1) used or 2) safe. However, as Papa and I sat on the living room floor assembling the pieces I began to get a nagging feeling that this was going to be the coolest toy ever. It's true.  Everyone should have a teeter totter in their living room.

Today we had the Henderson clan plus two over for lunch. It was also a Madeline morning and a Hallie afternoon which intersect for two hours. That meant we had nine kids under the age of six. And they had fun. I've never seen so many kids get so involved with a toy in such a small space without a single batch of genuine tears.  We had some miscommunications about whose turn it was but overall, it was a blast. We even managed to tear them away from the fun to eat some lunch.

So Thank You, Nana for doing what only you can do best. Thank you for making June that cool kid with the awesome toys. Thank you for giving our living room a new sense of space. And please remember that we are living in a 1200 square foot home and cannot house the rest of the playground as well.