LOOOOONG Weekend

This was a very loooooong weekend.

Stevie's birthday landed on a Monday this year. This in not a big deal unless that same Monday Natalie has a JDRF trunk-or-treat as well. Naturally, Stevie got bumped, making this past weekend really interesting.

The kid birthday party was on Saturday. 1.5 hours before it started, I went to the store for some last minute things and it was pouring rain. I was in a total panic. I had 15 kids coming and my living room is very small. Thankfully, the rain stopped 15 minutes before the party started and didn't start back up until 15 minutes after it ended.
Stevie got wrapped as a mummy for one of the games. It wasn't a complete disaster.

Once the first party was over, I had to switch gears and immediately get ready for the family party on Sunday.

Here is Emma showing off Stevie's presents.

This picture was taken the day I made Stevie's cake (Friday). It looked alright then. I made Mario out of gum paste. I don't think I'll use gum paste again.

Here's what it looked like on Sunday. Stevie says it looks like Mario is asleep at the wheel. He still liked it though.

As if 2 parties in 2 days wasn't stressful enough, in the middle of the family party, we had to have an intermission and go to Riley's first piano recital.

When Riley learned about her recital she was so nervous. She cried and yelled and refused to do it. But like most things, if you tell her it's ok and she doens't really need to do it, she will usually decide on her own that she does want to do it after all.

Riley was amazing. Her piano piece was all of 24 notes and super simple, but Riley has been playing piano for 8 weeks total and she played like a pro. She marched up there like she owned the place, played her piece perfectly, and left without crying. Whew. We got it on video...sort of. Really we only got the last 3 notes and the aftermath, but I'm posting it anyway.