Weekend Review: Andrew's 40th and Christmas Tree

I think this post will have more pictures than any other post I have ever done.  Seriously.

Friday was Andrew's Birthday. He was working away so I tried to take a picture to send him of Anika holding a sign for him. She just wanted to crinkle the paper up though...

So, I let her stand and just propped it on her in the end.

Last week I was busy working, taking care of Anika, gym stuff, and oh- getting stuff ready for the party!  We reached out to several of Andrew and his brother's NZ friends and family for photos, stories and birthday messages.  I received hundreds of photos!! They were AMAZING.  From baby  photos up until 7 years ago.  Some of the greetings and stories were great too. I learned that Andrew was always the quiet one between the two, but more deviant! ha.  Even at the party, his twin took the microphone to say a few words and when he asked Andrew if he wanted to, Andrew just shook his head no, shyly! He is not a public kind of person.  I told Andrew that our friends Donna and Jay were coming up from Boston Saturday night. I told this to Andrew a while ago, and it was the truth.  I also told him we were meeting 4 friends at the Chinese restaurant near my parents town on Saturday night to celebrate his Birthday....and then our friends from out of town would obviously be coming with us.  One of the friends even wrote on Andrew's FB wall that she couldn't wait to have scorpion bowls with him Saturday night! On Saturday morning, Andrew and I took Anika to swim. Andrew got in the water with her and I was texting and emailing on my phone...I just wanted it to hurry up and get over, so I could go start setting stuff up. I took half a day on Friday as well, and started to bring stuff to the function hall. Then Andrew got home early, so I went to my mom's to bake the cupcakes!   Andrew's brother wanted to have pizza at our house Friday night, so I had to rush home to have dinner with them. Luckily, both boys were tired on Friday (their real birthday) so it was an early night...well for them. I was up late doing stuff. 

So after swim on Saturday with Anika, I told Andrew I had to take my niece to her swim meet ...and I told him it was in a town over an hour away from us, past my mom's house.  I took Anika with me because I thought it would be easier. I snuck stuff in my car (Photos off the wall) and headed to the function hall. I had already brought a car load over the day before. I had to finish up some of the photo posters since I got some last minute pictures emailed to me.  My SIL came a little while later with the twins and set up a play yard for them. My mom also came to help. It was the same place my baby shower took place, so my mom had a good idea of how to set it up.  My mom and SIL had some differing opinions and I let them work it out. One wanted more tables set up, one wanted less, etc.   I just hate conflict. hahah. My SIL is my mom's niece remember ...(remember my cousin married a Kiwi and then I married his brother...so ya cousins married to brothers).  Anyway, we rushed around and set up, etc. I looked at my phone at 3 and our friends from Boston said they were not coming! Their flight back from Hawaii was delayed and they were JUST getting back to Boston. Ugh. They were supposed to meet Andrew at my house at 4 and they were going to ride over together and bring him to the party. I couldn't go all the way home and get Andrew because I needed to be there to welcome people! I also was still running around setting up.  I texted Andrew at 4:30 and told him I was running late from my niece's swim meet and told him to meet me at the Chinese restaurant. I told him my mom would drop me off there so we only had one car and he could drink and I would drive. I told him Anika would come to dinner with us but then sleep over at my mom's if we wanted to go out after for his bday.  Luckily, he didn't ask any questions.  I will say now too- that I thought For SURE Andrew knew something was going on! He has walked into the house while I have been on the phone with people talking about the party. I Have been in my basement for many hours telling him he cant come down. I even had all the photo posters on my treadmill in the basement covered with a blanket. He asked me what was under the blanket and I told him his xmas present. He just is not snoopy like me! If it was ME- I would have looked!  Anyway, so at 5:30 he texted that he was at the Chinese restaurant which is 2 minutes from the party location. He had drove past the party location.  He texted that no one else was there and I said "come to Mas*nic Lodge" he wrote back "You are kidding me" haha. THEN, 10 minutes went by and nothing!  He FINALLY showed up!  I guess he called his brother who was on his way from work. He had started  a new job and he wouldn't leave work and his boss had to tell him to get in his car and GO to the place, but didn't tell him why. SO, Andrew asked his brother "where are you?" and his brother said "driving" and that was all that was said! LOL! If Andrew wasn't a typical man and asked more questions like I would have asked, "Driving to where?" then they would have figured it out.  Andrew arrived 20 minutes before his brother. He wasn't thrilled at first...but after a few minutes he was ecstatic. Andrew doesn't like being the center of attention, but his brother does.

AND...I had posters of pictures...here are some of my faves

Ladies- Hands off my man and his rats tail!!!

Also, that mullet .....

Andrew on left. His little sister, mom and twin.

Andrew closest ...look at those car seats!!! hahah

Andrew upper left

Andrew right

Andrew left

Before guest arrived I took some photos. I'm glad I did because I didn't get many after people arrived :(

Idea from Pinterest! Kristen made the cards for me and I put the hot balls on! they say 40 and Still Hot!!

Cupcakes also from Pinterest since both boys love to fish.  I got skinny dowels from my dad's place. He cut them all to 4-5 inches. Then I tied the string on WEEKS ago. That was a LONG task. Then 2 weeks ago I tied the fish on..which also took some time because I had so many. I had them on tables as well. Then I made the "40" cupcake toppers at my friend's house a few weeks ago with her cricket machine. Actually she made them...I watched :)

I had to do all this crafty stuff a little bit at a time when I Had time!

I wrote on the posters what pictures were from who. The poster on left has pics from their Aunt. The poster on right is from a friend of theirs I stalked on FB and private messaged him :)

This is in the front room.  Those table cloths were from my wedding- my mom dyed them because they got stained. They have ferns embroidered on them...for NZ. Ferns are NZ's country symbol.  This is where all the appetizers went. Oh, and there was one outlet, so THANK God I had power strips and extension cords. There were SOOO many crock pots on there later. I kept having to crawl under there and plug them in as people came. So classy since I had a dress on :) I had little place cards (like what people use for place settings at a wedding) that I had stamped ferns onto and I had markers to write what each food was! Um ya- I only kept up with that for a while!! Too many people were coming too fast. I forgot to take pictures of them though. At one point my friend Kate asked if was medicated! :) because I was being so calm. the truth- I was A WRECK on the inside, but I have learned from the past. I don't want to be THAT hostess that is running around looking stressed and crazy. I have been that person too many times. I want everything to be perfect and then I end up looking crazy.  I just kept telling myself "It is what it is. I have done everything I can to prepare" etc. Remind you, I also had Anika with me, but by then people were helping with her. I definitely had to work hard to appear calm and collected and I guess It worked :)  I don't know if you remember my 4th of July party where I ended up in Anika's room crying? ha. Ya- I was NOT going to let something like that happen again.  When Andrew got there I started to let him know certain things I was stressed about but I stopped myself! ANd decided I would wait until the next day to give him the scoop :)  Since the party people have told me the party was well organized. That made me feel good. I felt disorganized at times but I tried my best. It is also hard to have friends that dont know anyone else there so you want to entertain them and make them feel included. One of my friends handed over her baby to me when she arrived early, and I was like...um, he is cute and all but I just got rid of my kid so I could get stuff done! haha

That board had tons of m*son stuff on it so I took it all down and put my posters up. The room to the left we set up for kids. We had the play yard thing and toys in there. There was another room past that where we put 3 pack n plays so the twins and Anika got naps in while we were setting up that day. Also later, some went to sleep in there. We kept it the "Family room" for people with young kids to put their crap and such. It is also where I nursed Anika when I had to.  Although I had a dress on that was high cut, so in order to nurse, I had to take off the belt, Lift up the dress and nurse in my panty hose. I dont wear undies with panty hose, so when someone walked in on me, she saw my panty hose ass :)

The 40 Blows and 40 Sucks (with gum balls and lolly pops) idea came from Pinterest too.

To the right and left of those cabinets is where all the MAIN dishes went. Then there was a table over to the left with plates, utensils and salads.  I didnt get a pic of that OR the drink table and dessert tables  that were out in the other room :(

Oh, that is the salad table, before there were salads there :)  And, ps Thanks Lauren For your amazing salads!!!  The photos on the poster on the left came from Andrew's uncle in NZ, but actually MAILED them over, so they were originals.

My mom went and got the balloons for us. My mom had made all the table cloths for my baby shower to FIT these tables so we already had them. She even made sure they were stain free and ironed them all for me last week! She is so good to us :)

SURPRISE!!

That drink up on the right in a green cup- I put that there For Andrew for when he walked in. It was a white russian. His favorite drink! haha. I had to run and get milk right when the party started so I could make him one.

I swear, I saw every baby put the cold bottles of beer on their gums. This cute one is Fi :)

THE ONLY Picture of Andrew and me! We didn't even get a family shot! I wanted to get so many pics of us and his twin and our kiddos, but no!  I was just too busy!
Um ya. I was like Andrew?? I cant believe you wore that nasty shirt! And he said he just thought we were going to Chinese so no big deal! Still- He knew that the Chinese dinner was still for his bday so I was pretty surprised he was so sloppy!

Twin, SIL and Andrew. i was up there too but stepped away to take a pic. My mom video taped it. We were reading some of the messages. The last one was from his Dad. The big surprise is that his dad, his wife, their sister, her husband and their 2 year old are ALL coming over in the spring!! His dad is even coming for 7 weeks! Andrew and his twin have NOT even met their nephew yet! So, it will be a big reunion and the kids can all meet! We didn't read all the messages because people were bored. But, we went into a back room and showed the boys a few videos on my laptop that got sent over. Two of their 95 year old Gran wishing a happy birthday and singing them a song. Both boys teared up. It was VERY special.

All the babies that were there. Well minus Ryan and her baby Trinity.They left early because Trinity was getting sick. Anika had a tutu on earlier, but I guess she spit up on it so someone took it off of her.

haha. my dad and Grampa (mom's dad). My dad's dad didnt come. I guess they were away or something.  This is funny because both of their eyes are closed...obviously they were not sleeping but the picture makes it look like a boring party! lol. My Grampa who is the first to tell me or anyone they are fat called me over to tell me it looked like I lost weight. haha.

Ani and my Gram. My gram is awesome.

Sleepy baby!

The party was a success. I think there were 85 people there. There was PLENTY of food and drink. I totally freaked out about nothing. I don't want to tell my SIL she was right about that, but she totally was. haha. I had bought 10 big bottles of wine and made a HUGE thing of sangria. The sangria was the biggest hit. That was almost all gone. There was a dent in the beer but I think a lot of people brought their own.  I also had ordered a mac& Cheese and chicken pot pie from a local caterer. I made buffalo chicken dip too. My mom made veggie lasagna, white chicken chili, broccoli salad and something else. There was a ham. People brought meatballs, pulled pork, hot pasta dishes, chili with the fixings, salads, scalloped potatoes, LOTS of desserts, etc. Plenty of food!  I was down FIVE pounds at WW last week. Making my grand total 56 pounds. BUT, Monday morning I was up 5 pounds from all the food! no joke. Today I am still up those 5 and I was soo good yesterday. I Hope they go away soon.  There is so much junk food in our house right now. I need it gone.  I felt so sick Sunday from eating all that food. Its hard on my stomach after eating so well for so long.

Andrew was happy. And, he is not even mad about all the money I spent :)

Some people stayed at our house. The ride home with Andrew Saturday night was less than fun. He was annoying me. He passed out the second we got home :)  I stayed up with some friends and then went to bed. I woke up early and my boobs were busting. ..and SHIT my pump was IN My car which I left at my parents house.  My mom had Anika, so I had to squirt milk into the bathroom sink to relieve myself.  We went to the hall to meet my mom at 8:30 and we were there cleaning up the place until noon! Andrew said he was hung over but he didn't act it. We then went to my parent's house to get our xmas tree! Andrew's truck and MY car were already FULL To the brim with stuff from the party...but we added a tree on top :)

Anika looking at daddy. It was chilly!

US in front of the tree we picked.

Anika watching Grampa Carry the tree over.

THEN, Anika and I went to bring some stuff back to people (chaffing dishes and a purse that was forgotten) and Andrew went with my dad to go shoot guns and get rid of all the trash from the party. And my dad gave Andrew a gun for his birthday. Anika and I were STILL unloading my car when Andrew got home with his truck full of more stuff.  There was a package in the mail from my FIL and MIL ...some presents for me, Andrew and Anika. Andrew said we had to wait until Xmas, but then we decided Anika could open one.

YOu can see her hand moving...ya- she wanted to just hit it at first, but then she did do a decent job opening it.

A Giraffe!

I went down and pulled out xms lights and ornaments....

Anika helped

Andrew being awesome taking pics of me putting on the skirt thing

Anika's ornament from last year....SEE WHAT IT SAYS???

GUZZI!!!!!!!!

OUr little Guzzi :) Makes me almost cry thinking of this time last year. I should get a photo of me in front of the tree last year with Guzzi in my belly. But, I'm too lazy right now. It is taking me until midnight to write this post as it is!

I didn't get a pic of Anika in her shirt I made her for the party...

OUt of order of daddy and Anika

Xmas wreath we made last week.

tree all done

Stockings hung with care

And I need to get a few more xmas decorations out, but I also still need to put BINS and Bins of stuff away from party, guest bed to strip, laundry to do, more things to make for upcoming parties, workouts to be had, ...

I dont see myself getting to bed before midnight all week! But, 110 Christmas cards have been maile! ya- I even found time to do all those!
Oh and if you care- I did take this annoying video of the party for the NZ people. I took it on my regular camera so people thought I was just taking photos, but I was video taping and found it necessary to say that OVER and OVER and OVER. Also, on that camera, I cant pause it or it will start a new video and I dont have the software to put video together to make one so I had to just keep recording..ya.