The Big 2-9

(I promise another tutorial tomorrow, I have all the pics uploaded and ready to go I swear but since it is my birthday I thought a brief aside would be forgiven) So, do you know why today was an AWSOME birthday? Because I have incredible people in my life thats why. This morning the boys woke me up, at 7:30!! I know some of you may have just spit soda on your computer screen but that is sooo nice and late for me! They wished me happy birthday and asked if I wanted eggs and toast, thank you very much. I got all dressed and Sammy came in and asked where my birthday presents are. (We are definitely going to have to do the presents at breakfast thing I talked about HERE). I told him I was wearing them. He cocked his head and said "I'll go make you some presents mom". Apparently my clothes are not appealing to a four year old :) Lunch out with the hubby completely uninterrupted (fabulous) Then Happy Birthday to me, I received an awesome package from Elizabeth! Talk about stellar timing, only you could pull that off Elizabeth! The boys were THRILLED with the contents of the package, lots of festive fourth of July items and some YUMMY lotion (thank you thank you thank you!)

The boys had so much fun with the hilarious patriotic glasses

Sam kept asking me to take pictures of him. Then he asked if we could go to Atticus's house to show him. I wish bud, I wish.

Getting this package is fantastic on many levels. First of all it is impossible to get ANYTHING Americana here, and secondly I LOVE that my birthday coincides with this wonderful holiday. There are always lots of fun festive activities and it means summer break is in high gear, the beach, watermelon, ice cream, usually fireworks (they are illegal here, the Vice Prime minister apologized for that last night ha!)
The other mail I got was a hand written Thank you card from Lands End Canvas, what the what? I mean how much money do you spend at a store for them to send you a handwritten note? Chris was more than a little concerned haaa!

My friend joked that I should see how long I can keep the correspondence going and keep thanking them for their notes, attention etc. sounds hilarious, but a lot of effort :) Anywho, to celebrate we kept it low key and had friends over for a backyard BBQ. We got the bounce house set up and the kids went wild. Which was great because that meant we got lots of Adult undisturbed conversation, ahhhh sooo rare and so nice! Abby was all gussied up in the pettiskirt that I made Ava. Isn't it so nice when you get hand me downs of things you made? I love it because it means it actually is good quality!

Although I can't say as much for the head bow I made, she ripped that off in the first 2 seconds.

Apparently in a match of hot glue vs. 11 month old, the baby wins easily. She did have fun bossing around the other babies, although honestly I think Owan could take her if he really wanted to.

I tried to get a family picture but could not tear the boys out of the bounce house. Oh except for when Liam decided to pee off the slide, yeah that was a proud moment. I only got Abby and Daddy and I

My friend Dominque suggested we have everyone wear funny hats, well I am lacking in the funny hat department but woo hoo I had the cool sunglasses Elizabeth just sent! Don't worry though she brought enough for most of us!

I felt very Kate Middleton esq.

She said what was so funny is she bought it for a wedding in London, went to the church and sat down and noticed the women directly in front of her was wearing the exact sam thing HAAAAAA! I love it! I can't wait to go somewhere that outrageous hats are a norm. We had yummy burgers from Australia (ooops sorry let me wipe the drool off the screen) and Carrot Cake cupcakes and Too Much Chocolate Cake. I think I gained ten pounds. Then last night the Embassy had their Official July 4th celebration. Chris was workin the room making sure all the dignitaries were being looked after and I was working as the photographer but that didn't mean we didn't get to enjoy the rows upon rows of food... we just had to wait until all the VIP's ate. They died the water in the tea light holders the most vibrant red and blue. I asked Jodi how she did it and all they did was stick a little square of crepe paper in them and the color leaked out! How cool is that!

This morning we wanted to spend some time as a family so we headed down to Caz Bar for pancakes or eggies on the beach. I built another Sand Castle for the boys and this time topped it with a flag from the party last night! Woo hoo America!

Abby was of course scarfing down everyone ESLES food. She literally screams at the boys when they try and touch her food.... I think we may have a bad combination of spoiled and drama queen on our hands, yikes! But she is just so cute!

(That is her shoving a nutella pancake into her mouth while I was distracted.) Okay so now that I have caught up on the wonderful birthday I had I thought this afternoon I could post the Fourth of july tunic I made Abby so if you are like me and find yourself with nothing patriotic for the darling to wear you can whip it up. I literally made it in the half hour I have that Liam and Abby over lap taking naps. Here is a sneak peak