Hudson's 4th Birthday Fiesta

        Well, it is always a daunting task to invite people you don't know very well to your house, but especially when your entire house is under construction.  This was the case for Hudson's 4th birthday party that we celebrated this weekend.  It definitely took a village to get things ready and I have many people to thank!  Firstly, John Wilmes came over the Tuesday before the party and sanded, mudded, resanded, primed and put the first coat of paint on our new downstairs bathroom.  My friend, Katie followed us around with a shop vac to get as much dust out of here as is humanly possible.  She also, organized an extremely disorganized playroom.   My friend Laura came over and made cake, brownies, black beans, hummus, chopped veggies, did dishes etc., and brought my family dinner to eat for the night before the party (which was amazing morroccan beef stew!)  Also, Laura brought over a crate full of craft project supplies for the kids to do.  My amazing husband drywalled the kitchen and the living room, grouted the bathroom floor, finished our electric so that we would have over head lighting and plugs, installed a toilet, and sink, spread gravel in the backyard and did amazing construction clean-up.

Katie on shop vac duty

Keith and John drywalling the kitchen

Let there be light!

Freshly painted bathroom

John keeps even the most laborious jobs (sanding drywall) fun.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to our friends for making it all come together...
It is truly amazing to get to this point because it really makes our home feel a lot homier than its ever felt and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  We were ready for a relaxing evening with old friends, new friends and all the kids running around.  
 I was a little worried about making food for all the different diets that are out there now: Gluten-free, eggless, vegetarian... So we made a taco bar with lots of vegetarian and carnivorous options,  gluten-free cake and brownies.  The icing on huddy's cake was raspberry preserves and was sooo good.  I used Pamela's cake and brownie mix from Kroger's which was great it told you how to do different recipes for eggless, dairyless etc.     It took a little extra thought, but it was worth every smiling kids face when they were allowed to eat everything I made.  The only downer was that my pinata was didn't have much candy  a.) because it didn't hold that much and b.) i didn't want to give them a bunch. The pinata had silly bandz, star war rings, a few chocolate balls, bracelets and I supplemented there bags (which they decorated) with dinosaur tattoos, fruit leather, and party horns. 

Also, we decided not to make presents a big deal.  So Hudson just opened presents as each kid gave it to him without calling attention to it.  That idea came when we gave Hudson one of his b-day presents early and it traumatized Eli. Eli, hardly noticed all of Hudson's gifts and just played the night of the party.  Crisis averted.

All in all there were lots of people and it was lots of fun.  Truly the kids running around quite literally trashing the house was worth it.  Enjoy the pics below...



Hudson wearing his b-day presents wig and latex gloves...very popular.





Eli, baby juniper and hannah watching the pinata festivities.







Leslie is not going to give up!

Sweet Laslow giving it a little tap.




John and Lillah  Chris and Monie

 

Stella, so sure she was going to break it on the first try!

Hudson:  Are you sure I'm allowed to beat this thing?

Stella #2 knocking it out of the park~!

Eli comes charging in!

Lucas knocks it out of the park!

Tenative Eleanor

Katie and Stella

Maya giving it all she's got!

Jonah's almost got it.



Hudson and his preschool buddies, Maya and Ojal




Jonah, Hudson and Stella



Laura, Davey and Hannah.  Many thanks to Laura for the arts and crafts and all the cooking!

The Motley Crew: Megan, Fernanda, John, Lillah, Chris and Megan and Juniper

Singing Happy Birthday!



No pictures please... We appreciated Sara, Chris, and Jonah's for ignoring bedtime routine and  staying with us until 9pm.



Eli: My new hair!

Here's a pic with my roomate before I got married. Times sure have changed!





The end of a long day!