overdue

10 days overdue. that's what she was when she was born. 10 long days of walking the mall in hopes of getting something started. even then, i still had to be induced. it's really just like em. she has a contented nature. she was just fine to stay in that womb.

so maybe it is fitting that my birthday post for her is overdue as well. her birthday was 11/25. thanksgiving day. on thanksgiving, on her birthday and everyday, we are so thankful for our divine miss em...

my sd card is corrupted so i have no pictures from her birthday/thanksgiving right now. but i have a heart full of love for this "baby" girl who wears my same shoe size, writes her own blog posts, and is growing up way too fast.

but growing up into a lovely and loving young lady.

today

today i asked lulu who we are going to see as my side of the family gathers for thanksgiving. she immediately shouted "gunga!!".

i cried as i said, "no baby, not gunga."

but they were not just sad tears. they were also happy tears. because though we don't get to see gunga today, we get to see gunga and granddaddy's legacy. we get to be with our big family.

and way more than turkey, stuffing, and pie, we get to to taste LOVE.

i was concerned how i would feel with thanksgiving approaching since it is our first holiday without gunga. the feeling of pulling up to my parents house for thanksgiving or christmas has always brought the warmest sense of anticipation. i feared the ache that i would feel without pulling up to that house. without her waiting in the house with all the love that made her who she was.

but do you know how i feel today?

thankful.

and that feels really good.

10, the party

To celebrate Em's 10th birthday with her friends, we found an invitation (after some searching on vistaprint) that served as the inspiration...

So, I'll just use the invite as a tour guide to walk through the party that I survived and even, at times, enjoyed.

The top ten reasons to come to Emmie's party

10. What else are you doing Friday, Nov. 19th? Only one girl actually had something else to do Friday night, so that meant the total number of girls was 10. I now know, that's kind of a lot of tweens. Be warned, should you try this at your home, they are cute and they are sweet but they will overtake every inch of your house in all their pre-pubescent glory.

9. Everybody loves a sleepover. Really? I'm not sure I practiced truth in advertising because I'm not sure I even love a sleepover. And Jack and Tate weren't too fond of this particular one. Thankfully they were able to slip out and spend the night at Grandma's where there's cable, an indoor pool, and not 10 girls. Before leaving, Jack had to pick up the poop in the back yard...

then made a shirtless appearance (and was quickly whisked away)...

And Tate played waiter by taking drink orders...

8. Free dinner. Just tacos. I was SO glad to have lovely assistants helping me out in the kitchen...
Allison and Meghan are two students that are both long-time family friends. They are the reason I survived the night. They did dishes, painted nails, made colored frosting, held Lulu, handled girl drama, and completely saved my sanity.

7. Late-night giggles. They had late night giggles, just not as late as some wanted. Allison and I laid on the floor with them and made them whisper and keep their heads on the pillow. This caused Em to tell me I "ruined the party" the next morning, but let's just say I was on the Mom's side. Even though I ruined the party, I thought I told a pretty kickin' bedtime story. Only I was a little punchy after having bronchitis all week, so one part of the story was about how there were girls who wouldn't go to bed at a slumber party, so the mom broke all of their arms. Twisted, but effective. Everyone was asleep by 12:30am which I considered a major victory. (Btw, they knew I was kidding about the broken arms. I hope their parents did too.)
6. Dancing 'til we drop. Or until Emmie has a meltdown saying she is totally overwhelmed and we have to turn off the music and move to a more low key activity like watching "Ramona and Beezus".

5. See Mr. Bill's mad dancing skillz. I'm not gonna lie, this was the highlight of the whole stinkin' party. The man was unconscious...
The demented look he gets in his eyes while trying to get into the groove cracks me up. The girls loved it and I love that he is mine.

4. A fun craft. Yeah, I ran out of time for the craft. We were going to make pom poms, which would have been pretty cool. So now I am left with a truck load of tissue paper. Oh well, crafts are overrated. But painted nails are not, which is what we did instead...
Lulu got her nails painted for the first time...
She was mesmerized...

3. Being with friends...

the silly string war was a big hit...

the presents were a big hit too...

especially the overhead projector she has wanted for almost a year...

and the Justin Bieber calendar...

2. Cake and ice cream. Need I say more? The pint-sized cake was super duper cute...
So cute that I didn't even cut into it. I just realized that it is two days later and we still haven't eaten it. Better get on that. It really more a decoration than anything since we had girls decorate their own cupcakes...

Hey, that could be considered a fun craft right? Oh and guess what? I forgot to serve the ice cream. False advertising, once again. But I dished up a darling dose of number one...

1. One word: Lulu!
The party didn't have much of a theme beyond "10", but that was okay because the girls came up with their own theme: DRAMA. We had squeals, we had tears, we had pouting, we had attention-getting antics and we even had a wee bit of vomit in the morning. Drama or no drama, we were making memories. And celebrating God's goodness to us in the form of this almost 10 year old...
Just like the back of the invitation said...

P.S. It comforts me to have little reminders of Gunga on special days. For this party, I used her "foofer" as a decoration...

Only my sisters will appreciate the significance of this, but it brought a smile to face to have my Mommy represented at the party.

my boys

today i am participating for the first time ever in...
you can learn about it here. emily's blog is way cool. she's creative and a great photographer. and they work for the same organization we do. and they are adopting from ethiopia.

so today i am embracing the camera with my boys...
i love em.

Birthday Festivities

With Bill and Tate's birthdays just a day apart, we have had a whole lotta happy going on.

For Billy's birthday there really can be only one destination: Red Robin. We discovered Red Robin in 1994 and have been hooked on the Lone Star Burger (not even on the menu anymore) ever since. My man loves him some cheeseburgers. And endless fries. Dipped in a vat of mayo. Given his propensity for the condiment, I am a little surprised he never pulled that name out for one of our children, Mayo Naise Kollar. Has a ring to it, doesn't it?

Another thing you should know about Bill is that he is really a ladies man...

But only with the ladies who share his last name: his mom, his wife, and his daughters. We are all crazy about you, babe. And with good reason. This is the adoring way his Luci May looks at her Daddy...
Yay for Daddy...

(and yay that it's not Mommy's turn to be 44 for a few years)

When we arrived at Red Robin, it was raining. But when we left it was doing this...
Our first snow. Though it hardly counts since it was gone by morning.

Next up: Tate's big number 13. Knowing it was going to be a bittersweet day, I had several conversations with Tate about how he wanted to spend his birthday. He didn't want a big party with friends instead he wanted to have as many cousins here as possible. He didn't want all the attention focused on him. He just wanted to be together and have fun. And he wanted little reminders of Gunga and the special birthday bond they shared. I think all were accomplished in a fun, low key day spent not with Gunga, but with the family Gunga built...

I went to buy 13 balloons to decorate with. She had me pick out my own balloons and somehow I only ended up with 10. I knew I was bad at math, but I kinda thought I had mastered the whole counting thing. It's always gotta be something with me.

I had a bunch of activities planned for "Tater Tot's Challenge", but the kids were having so much doing crazy games on the tramp that I scrapped them all, save one...

Chubby Bunny. Jack rocked it.

He didn't mention it specifically, but it went without saying that he would want massive amounts of chocolate involved...

(notice lulu's eye on the cake not the camera)

The brownie overload custard cake, though delicious, led to a very entertaining brain freeze episode...

Tate and Lulu share a special moment. It's hard to say which one is more crazy about the other...
We all love celebrating our birthday boys!

And just when you thought the celebrating was over, we are only gearing up for more. I have to get ready for Emmie's party this weekend. How she talked me into a sleepover for 10 girls beginning at 5pm, I will never know. I just hope I live to blog about it.