Mania

These past 2 weeks were a little wild, but so much fun! 


Nephew Mania 
To kick off the goodness my nephew flew in to spend 2 weeks with us. He is such a good kid, but he's 100% teenager. I didn't realize how much I disliked teenagers until I was fighting with him to leave girls alone, stop wrestling in the pool and to actually go to sleep before 3 am. My sister and I chipped in and bought him an iPod Touch and he pretty much lived on that thing the entire two weeks. We also found out he's a very picky eater and that he loves to swim. It was amazing to see him in action with our daughter and pups. I'm not sure what his calling will be, but I know one day he'll be an amazing father and hopefully he'll also adopt a few pets because he's great with both!

While visiting, Rich ran his very first race and killed it! Seriously, he placed 10th in his age group. I was crying when he crossed the finish line.  Yes, I'm the emotional aunt. 

Then of course we did have to do the essentials, Krispy Kreme visit and Graceland writing on the wall stop.

Of course, we slept at the neighbor's pools and he also put 1,000 hours on the ATV. Aside from crying about mosquito bites and losing some sleep, I think he really enjoyed his visit.

Graceland, Race & Krispy Kreme 

Yard Mania 
Next on this list. . . C and his crazy ideas. I have a hard time seeing the end results to one of C's magical ideas, but I trusted him. He has literally begged since November to remove the bushes from the front and side of our home. He said bushes attract bugs and look hideous. He had me at attracts bugs. . . 

Yard Demo Begins

So of course the rain won't stop, so that makes the work both easy and difficult. It's difficult because we can't use the ATV to pull the bushes, instead we have to dig them out. It's easy because the ground is soft from the rain. My nephew, MIL, C and I worked really hard on this for almost a week. We worked some hours here and there.

The end result is beautiful. I didn't snap a pic of the other side of the house. This is the front and one side.
I love our front porch so much more than I did. I'm glad I listened to C and I hate how much pretty stuff costs. . .

After the Demo 

Birthday Mania 

Lastly, we made sure to celebrate some birthdays! 

Baby M celebrates on the 18th and C on the 26th, so we had cake and pie for both of the birthday peeps. 

My family arrived in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday and we had the party late Saturday afternoon. We invited our close friends and family to help us celebrate. We had cupcakes, smash cake, pies, pinata, BBQ and the most amazing lemonade drink ever. 

We still have some celebrating to do as C's birthday is just 2 days away! 

We are truly humbled by the generosity shown to us these last couple of weeks. The time, gifts and help given was very much appreciated. 

Recipe Alert: 

Oh and before we part. . . Here is the lemonade recipe. I pretty much winged it and am OH SO GLAD I did. Take it from me, we had over 50 people attend the party and only a sip was left. This is the bizniz.

What you'll need: 

Simply Lemonade - Not sure the size, they're not the full blown jugs, but the middle size, usually $2/piece. 

Buy 4 containers. 

1 - regular lemonade

2 - raspberry lemonades 

1 - blueberry lemonade 

Orange Juice - the cheapo kind 

3 cups is what you'll need. 

Sprite 

you'll need an entire 2 liter 

put your juices in the fridge hours before the party, let them get nice and cold. 

Pour these bad boys in said container and stir. It was divine! 

Adios Amigos