Hayden's Birthday/Mother's Day Weekend

{#LongPostAlert!} As I predicted, it was a busy weekend for us!  We had a fantastic couple of days with only a few hiccups. 

Saturday was spent grocery shopping, meal planning/prepping, cake baking, house cleaning and present wrapping.  Hayden & Kevin also took a morning fishing trip to their favorite spot, but were back by lunch time.  We went to church as usual that evening and got to watch the girls (along with the other preschool aged kids) sing a song in big church.  When Kevin was taking Austin to his nursery class, he fell and busted his lip back open {Side story:  Yes, back open.... he took a fall outside on Friday.  I was inside taking a speedy shower, but I locked all the kids inside and turned on the tv.  When I got out, Austin was coming inside crying; so no one knows what happened, but he took a bad tumble!  He had a scraped chin, a busted lip, a hole in his tongue from where he bit it [that was bleeding a ton], a goose egg on his head, and a bloody knee.  The poor kid is the most accident prone child I've ever known}.  He was shaken up about the blood, which quickly stopped, and when we left him, he was crying.  I told Kevin it was no biggy and he'd be fine once we left.  But he wasn't :(  So, Austin came to big church with us.  Hayden had asked before church if he could come too, so we had the whole family (talking parents, siblings, grandparents and family friends) in the front row!  

Can you spot the girls?  Allie was totally in to it, but Krissy was accidentally knocked down on the way up the stairs and she didn't ever quite recover.  It was pitiful watching her try not to cry.

We went to dinner at Chick Fil A with our big group of people.  The kids ate well, and we had cookies and icedream for dessert.  I was anxious to get home and get the kids to bed so I could start working on food.  When I was tucking Hayden in, he asked who all was coming to his party. I told him his grandparents would be there.  And then he said with big watery eyes, trying not to blink, "So no kids are coming?"  I explained that since it was Mother's Day tomorrow a lot of people made plans and wouldn't be able to come; but assured him we'd have the best day ever. 

Sunday morning I was awaken at 5:29 by a very anxious little birthday boy.  This was the first year he's actually woken up early in anticipation for his birthday.  I asked him if he could lay back down until 6:30, and he said yes.  He came back in my room at 6am and told me it was 12 o'clock - and said it with a tone of "what am I waiting for? It's time to get out of bed!".  So Kevin went to get breakfast and run a couple errands for me while I was slowly making my way out of bed.  5 hours of sleep wasn't enough for this momma!  Kevin hung a mother's day gift for me on our mantle before he left (a pretty, cozy pink robe embroidered with "Mom" on the chest of it and he left a small jewelry box in the pocked of the robe).  I opened the little jewelry box and found a pretty heart locket with all the kids names engraved on it.  It also held 4 pictures!  Such a perfect gift for me.

I told Hayden he'd need to wait for everyone to wake up before he tore into his gifts (that's just what we always do).  I was in the kitchen working on food for his party, and out comes 2 grumpy little girls that weren't thrilled to be woken up at 6:30am.  Then came Austin.  Hayden said, "Now can I?".   I said he could open one, but had to wait for Dad to get home before he opened the other 2 that were from us.

He loved his mini red locker that locks!

Kevin offered to get breakfast anywhere Hayden wanted, and he picked Donut Bank.

 A new spin-cast fishing pole.

He also got a telescope.

We all spent some time Sunday morning getting the house cleaned up and ready for our early party.  When the grandma's arrived at our house, we gave them their Mother's Day gifts from us (chocolates for both, a giftcard for one and deer antlers for the other), and they both were sweet and got a little something for me too (my favorite chocolate covered strawberries and a giftcard to TJ Maxx!) 

They were all gone by dinner time!

I had decided to make a brunch and have everyone come at 10:30.  I made hash brown casserole, ham/egg/cheese casserole, sourdough cinnamon rolls, mini breakfast sandwiches, and fruit salad.

Hash brown casserole + ham/egg/cheese casserole

My rolls got huge and they were delicious!  The favorite dish though was breakfast sandwiches!

We had leftover donuts from breakfast that everyone bypassed and fruit salad.

Hayden is into Minecraft, so we bought some figurines and used some he already had to decorate his cake.

Hayden snacked a lot that morning and didn't eat much of his brunch.

  On to gifts and cake....

Walkie-Talkies

Minecraft figures

Personalized fishing tackle

He wanted to put all his birthday candles in his cake.

Little brother wanted to help blow them out :)

After brunch, presents, and cake, we spent some time sitting out in the back yard, watching the kids play and the chickens run.  By 2 o'clock it was just our family, we laid Austin down for his nap, and Kevin decided to work on the kids play house.

I don't think climbing a tree with a little saw to cut off limbs is the safest thing! :-X

When it was closer to dinner time, Kevin told me to pick what I wanted for dinner, and I picked Cheddars.  I told him I knew my mom was home alone and I was going to ask her to come with us.  It didn't take much convincing that she didn't need to sit home alone on Mother's Day, and we ended up having a great dinner (but Krissy slept through the whole thing). 

We wrapped up Hayden's birthday celebration with making little snack bags for his class!  We scooped vanilla and chocolate icing into little cups, added sprinkles on top, and added animal crackers in for dipping!  They were loved by the class according to Hayden :)