I slept thirteen of the last twenty-four hours, and I am still tired. I guess three weeks of crappy sleep and being very busy will do that to you. Of course, the Nyquil I took last night to ensure a long night of sleep that would be uninterrupted by the sounds of four kids probably had something to do with that. Anyway, I feel very rested now, even if I do feel a bit fuzzy around the edges.
Alyssa’s birthday party was great. While everyone wound up showing up at different times, everybody did come, and Alyssa was ecstatic at being the center of attention and having the “dirt-day” song sung to her, “dirt-day” cake to eat and “dirt-day” presents to open. We took a lot of photos, many of which were uploaded to Flickr. My favorites:
The birthday cake, made by the awesome bakery to match the shimmering butterfly theme.

Alyssa blowing out the candles.

Dan gives his birthday girl a kiss.

Alyssa parades around in her new nightgown.

Immediately after we wrapped up the party with gift opening, Dan, Alyssa and Ryan got into their Halloween costumes (sexy vampire for Dan, princess for Alyssa and a dragon for Ryan), and then we all (let’s see – about fifteen of us?) piled into three cars and made the half hour drive to one of Dan’s uncle’s houses, where there was a HUGE Halloween party, complete with a big bonfire, tons of decoration and food and over one hundred guests, going on. Alyssa was pretty much turned loose, with one or more of us at a time chasing after her. Ryan was passed between Dan, my mother and myself, as he is very people-shy and freaks out if he is with someone other than the three of us. We mingled, showed off the kids, enjoyed food and some alcohol. Dan and my mother indulged themselves liberally with a rather delicious alcoholic beverage called Nuclear Waste. Since I was driving, I refrained from a lot of the alcohol. Instead, I wound up having two or so ounces worth of whiskey. That stuff tastes incredibly nasty, but I love the warming sensation that quickly spreads throughout your body from it! ;)
Today I walked around in a bit of a fog, and Dan and I spent several hours cleaning up from yesterday’s party and putting our house back in order.
How was your weekend?








lol you hate Dora.
Looks like an awesome day! You captured some great shots of everyone.
Looks like you all had some fun! I hope she enjoys her gifts!
Looks like you had an exciting weekend..
Glad you could catch up on some much needed rest, too!
Sounds like you had a lot of fun. No wonder you’re still so tired after having 13 hours of sleep.