40 and Fabulous!

I'm finally getting around to showing you some of our party pics from last weekend! I feel like I'm still recovering to be honest. Whew, what a whirlwind of weeks it took planning and preparing for this event that I'm still waiting for my much needed massage.

We had a fabulous time and I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat. I'd say it was a huge success minus a few words with a couple of grown men who drank a little too much and wanted to relive their fraternity days.

I didn't start off wanting a Luau theme, it just kind of migrated towards that so it seemed very fitting to put myself as the dancing hula gal on the cake!



You can't have a cake without cupcakes, can you? HyVee did a great job!



Last minute preparations to the buffet table!



My brother in-law Neil putting his seal of approval and a few buns on the table!



We hired the gals from the Iowa State Rugby Team to help us out that afternoon. They were truly amazing!



Lots of lights and colorful decorations to add to the festivities!







Pineapple Bowling anyone?



This was our Margarita Bar! As you can see by the many pictures, It was a very popular place!

























Thank you Mindy and Adam for taking all these pictures throughout the night. The night seemed to go by so fast that it's nice to be able to look back and see people enjoying themselves!







Here is my sister Julie talking a few guys ears off! Gotta love her!



These are more of the ISU Rugby gals! They had a blast being in charge of the Margarita Bar!

And they even enjoyed a couple rounds of Pineapple bowling!

Thank you gals for all your help!



I really had no idea people would be so sweet and bring gifts. So not expected!



Here is my Dad on the left with his friend Ginny and my in-laws chatting away! So nice that they all drove in from Nebraska!





The tents were so pretty at night with all the lights!



And our night would not have been complete without our picture taken in our Hula cutouts!

Thank you to everyone who helped make my 40th birthday a night to remember!

Well I'm officially Old.....I'm 40 today!

Ha, actually I've never felt better! I had a personal goal to lose 50 by the time I turned 40 and I did it!

Yes, as of Wednesday I have lost 51.6 pounds and I feel great!

And isn't this collage amazing. A friend made it for my birthday! We were at school the other day for an ice cream social and she started snapping pictures. I thought I'd get in on the action with my best model poses and this is what she came up with!

We are all like busy working bees, hammering out the last minute details for our soiree this afternoon. My last count was 125 people coming! I think I've gone a little mad this week with getting everything done and have already booked my massage for Monday.

If it weren't 7:00 a.m. I'd say it was time for a cocktail at my ......



Well I better get busy, I just wanted to say hello out there and hope everyone's first day of school went off without a hitch!

Yea school started!

New updates to my Mirror Wall!

Remember when I showed you Gus's mirror wall? Well I couldn't help myself and I've added more to fill up some of the spaces and even gave them all a face lift!

Here is the before wall......



I'd say a little sparse and not the "Wow" I thought it could be!



And here is the wall after.......





I found a few more mirrors at the Goodwill and discovered a few I had stashed away and forgotten all about. I decided I wanted something a little more cohesive on the wall. So I got some Valspar Churchhill Hotel Vanilla spray paint and went to town!

I decided to keep the center one black as a contrast and because it was my most expensive mirror, I wanted the option to move it somewhere else if I so desired.

Can you see the chalkboard on the lower left. It says smile Gus! Hey birds do smile!

It has been a little crazy around here lately trying to get last minute school shopping finished and getting my house ready for my big 40th birthday party on the 20th. Let me just say it wasn't my idea to have this big bash. I think it's payback that I never had one for my husband's 40th. Funny thing is, I'm doing all the planning.

Hmmmm somethings up with this picture!

It's all good though. We have 75 people so far and quite possibly 100 coming! It'll be a fun evening but for now I'm scrambling to get my living room painted (not the smartest time to choose a new paint color) and any other projects checked off my to do list! School starts next Thursday and that's when some out of town company arrives!

Whew, I'm exhausted just writing all that!

Starting the 22nd I should be back to blogging in full force. I've missed you all and appreciate your patience while I've been MIA!

Out for a Morning Stroll!

My Claire-Bear, she sure is a funny one. She has such energy and spunk that I sometimes want to bottle it. Hmmm, maybe that's just piss and vinegar so on second thought, I'll skip the bottling!

I would say that on most days her goal is to drive me crazy but boy does she make me smile!

She got up the other morning, got dressed and yelled that she was taking Jasmine for a walk. I happened to catch a glimpse of Jasmine out of the corner of my eye and here is what I saw........



Poor Jasmine, she was dressed up in one of Claire's doll dresses. She wasn't even moving. It was as if the dress made her frozen! I told Claire that I didn't think Jazzy was feeling it! In fact, I'm pretty sure she was hating it!
But, oh no Claire didn't care. She wasn't going to take no for an answer!



She swooped her up and said, "see, we match!"



She then rather loudly said, "And Mom, you can't stop me, I'm taking her for a walk!"



I didn't argue with her. I know which battles to pick and this one I didn't mind her winning! So I grabbed my crap-tastic camera (boy do I need a new one) and followed them outside!



I wish I could have gotten her voice on here. She was so cute trying to coax Jasmine to move her feet. I even heard her say, "Jasmine, you are so pretty baby, come on this will be fun!"



Jasmine is looking at me with that, "Help, get me outta here look!"





Claire gave up on trying to get Jasmine to walk. So she picked her up, and away they went!



Claire came home and said she was exhausted from carrying Jasmine the whole way. Yup all 4 pounds of her can exhaust a 7 year old. I think they were both pooped and well, maybe Jasmine was even a tad bit embarrassed!