Make-up Party

We had Alison's make-up birthday party yesterday.  Alison was very excited to set up a party table at the pool...unfortunately the wind did not cooperate, so it wasn't very pretty, but there was cake and pizza, so all was good.  Charissa and her family joined us and Ms. Julia and Matthew stopped by.

Tangent story: the night before, our smoke detectors started going off and I couldn't get the faulty one down/fixed (it is an issue on the list of repairs the rental company has not taken care of).  I called Ms. Julia, who lives down our street and goes to Hope.  She came sprinting down the street when I called!  Another neighbor came over (all this happening at 10pm) and between the 3 of us, we eventually got it fixed.  Julia stayed until 11:30 that night, helping me finish Alison's cake and regroup after a very crazy day.  She's also been taking the kids once a week while I grocery shop and then we stay for dinner at their house.  She has been a HUGE blessing to us and stopping by Alison's party was just another sign of how she's poured into our family.

So, the cake.  Me and cakes...we really want to get along, but our relationship is always a little rocky.  Alison requested an Oreo cake.  You may remember, Ben made her an ice cream Oreo cake last year and there was no way I could live up to that.  I just mixed crushed Oreos into a white cake mix, topped it with vanilla frosting and more crushed Oreos.  It tasted amazing and everyone loved it.  However, it took Alison a good 10 minutes to figure out it was an '8'.

We played a round of Putt Putt, which was slightly a disaster, but the kids thought it was fun.  Just picture a tornado with a putting stick and you get the picture.

I am so thankful that we were able to properly celebrate Alison.  Hopefully she has really great memories of turning 8!