Valentines and Birthdays (Surprise, that is)

Lots of things going on this week! Prep for Valentines Day and Chinese New Year's, and my mother's..uh...29th...yeah...uh...birthday. First, Valentines day for the niece and nephews. I made my HOMEMADE (Betty Cr ocker) cupcakes again this year:

The above "easy frost" can method made short work of frosting the 50 plus cupcakes. Thank you Pillsbury for this genius invention!

Finished product:

Detail shot to show the conversation heart messages!

Here's me passing out the Valentine's /Chinese New Year gift boxes to the kids. The smile on my face hides the very real fear that at any moment this gang of kids could turn on me:

To keep the kids busy while the adults set up the "surprise party", I gave them Chinese dragons to color:

some of the finished products:

The time for the "surprise" was getting near! The family gathered strength from the chips and dip table while awaiting the arrival of mom:
Now, trying to surprise a women who has raised five children already is like telling a woman in labor that she is pregnant. She was not fooled! She even showed up with a note in her pocket saying: "Everyone will be there, including Pat" (her friend), just to prove to us that she knew what was up!

After greetings and salutations, dinner was served:

After dinner was done, presents were expected:

After gifts had been opened and admired, cake was demanded:

Once cake had been served and gobbled, the drinking and general carousing began:

Tonight on Discovery Channel..."When Grandmas Attack! Terrifying True stories from the mouths of toddlers!":

Some tried to hide from such attacks:

some people can't hold their liquor well...I WON'T SAY WHO:
Some friendly family photos:

More drunken carousing:

one of those "awww, how cute" photos:

and then there is this:

yes, that's a pencil in his earring hole.

and this:

and of course this:
The night wound down with only one threat of violence:
All in all, a good time was had by all (except maybe the dog and the hermit crabs). I escaped early, carpooling with a number of children on the way out. I have no idea what became of the rest of the family.

Happy Birthday Mom, Happy Valentine's Day to all, and Good Luck to all in the Chinese New Year!

Girls Night with Auntie- The memory lingers on

As you can see, if took me a good seven days to recover from the "Girls Night with Auntie" last weekend. I can't blame it all on the wild bunch though, I was also deathly ill following the weekend and am just now recovering from the cold I had.

I thought I'd treat my older nieces to some four against one time with me. I started off with a nice lunch, complete with girly table and finger foods:
After the girls devoured the vittles, we headed out to the "Clay Creations" place, where you can entertain kids for hours...for about $75 worth of plaster:

The concentration!

When we got up to get more paint, I noticed someone had tagged along for the afternoon:

So DP was allowed to partake in the joys of painting pottery. Well, as much as he could:

Some serious concentration goes into painting these objects:

The final products:

Having expended so much energy fighting over pottery choices, color choices, and table sitting choices...the girls were ready for some fine dining! We cleaned up, dressed up and headed to out to their favorite restaurant. Aren't they cute?

Despite some cousin infighting in the car, they were all well behaved at the restaurant. Some coloring:

Some conversation CLEARLY not for Auntie's ears:

and a toast to Auntie for expending all this cash in one day:

As you can see, my drink was significantly larger and alcoholic as well. I had at least 20 more hours to get through, after all!

Yes, of course the girls wanted the blooming onion! I did find it amusing to hear them say..."You know, after you eat so much of it, it really doesn't taste good anymore":

This did not stop them from enjoying their next course, however:

While awaiting the bill, I thought a photo would be nice. Already safely fed and watered, they thought otherwise:

Some dessert after all that?My niece doing her best "Little Edie" impersonation. Google it if you must:

Then home again to Legos, dessert and bedtime. I was shooting for a 8pm bedtime (ha ha):

This is where they all slept:

YEAH, RIGHT! I put these sweet little persons on the FLOOR in the living room, where we watched vintage little rascals and their favorite Chaplin movie (Gold Rush) before they finally nodded off around 11:30. Much to Auntie's relief.

Next morning, I was awakened at 7am by 4 girls standing over my bed, holding a Barbie doll over my face until I was shocked into waking. OH, SO FUNNY!

To save my house from further destruction, I took the girls to the local park:

They are getting quite good at posing for Auntie:

Then we had the "check out this cool hat" moment, and everyone was encouraged to put in on for a photo. Not everyone complied:

Here I am, about 17 to 20 hours into the weekend with the girls:

The deal with the girls was...If Auntie takes you to the park, Auntie gets to take a nice photo of you. Almost everyone complied:

Someone wasn't feeling the photographic moment. I WON'T SAY WHO:More random photos while I struggled to stay on my feet after a weekend of refereeing

cousin infighting, answering 4 girls at once, begging to be allowed the privilege to pee for just ONE MINUTE, cleaning up Legos, Barbies,clothes and dishes, and threatening to never do this again if they didn't all shut up for 2 minutes:

Isn't she cute?

aren't they, uh, cute?

I don't know why this photo is on my camera:This niece was the most responsive to the camera this weekend:

And then, just when the weekend was winding down and I was packing up the girls to take them home, I INNOCENTLY WONDERED why one of the girl's backpacks was so heavy:

Yes, those are huge chunks of clay and rocks in the bottom of her bag. I cleaned and vacuumed the backpack all up while listening to cousin infighting in the background...despite the noise of the vacuum cleaner.

Finally, yesterday I was well enough to join the world again, so I picked up the girl's pottery:

Two awesome dogs, one chocolate ice cream cone, a very colorful snow white and a Chinese inspired bowl. Guess which one was mine?

T-minus two weeks to Boys Night with Auntie. God Help Me!