A fresh start

I feel like today is the first day of the rest of my life. My husband went back to working the day shift this morning, and it just seems like everything has been righted. We went to bed at the same time last night, got up together (okay, he got up about 45 minutes before me, but we were both up before the kids), and just had a normal morning like a majority of the world. And you know how much I long for normal. We both exercised and I think WH is going to start getting the kids up to eat breakfast with him while I feed the baby and have some quiet time. I think it's sweet that he will miss having two meals with them, so he wants them up before he leaves. I'm not quite that sweet, but having them up earlier will probably mean earlier bedtimes. :)

The party weekend is over and with it all my party projects. My mother-in-law was a big help; it always seems easier to have someone else to help think through the little details and tie up loose ends.

These turned out wonderfully:
If you have a little girl (or a big one) I highly recommend making them. They took just a little more effort than your typical cake, but if you had a helper it would go pretty quickly. Sweet A wanted pink cake, so ours were strawberry cake with strawberry and chocolate "frosting." I'm guessing these little cupcake bites would be even better if they were chocolate with dark chocolate icing. But I'm a "more chocolate is always better" kind of person. I only wish I had some M&Ms on hand from Valentine's Day, because M&M is kind of stingy with the red ones in the everday packages. I had to resort to green ones on the top. The kids loved them, and even the adults were enticed to have a few...they were just too cute to resist. I couldn't resist eating half a cupcake (keep in mind these are about 1 1/2 inches tall) and Little T spit (spat?) up most of yesterday. So I guess he's still sensitive to dairy.

Sweet A has entered the world of Playmobil with her new take-along dollhouse. Coop is probably more enthralled with it than she is asking to play with the 45 or so tiny pieces I had to put away for now. She also got some new clothes, a tea set, and a great play-doh set with all kinds of fun extras.

So for the picture hungry, here are a few:

The adult party

Just to give you an idea of what 8 adults and 12 children under 10 feels like:
Party favors:

The morning after on the porch, with grandparents who spent the night:
It's raining here and I'm looking forward to a catch up day- hope yours is a joy!