Busy Week

 1.  A week ago today, Jonathan turned 14!  He wanted powdered sugar donuts because apparently he loves them but never gets them.  Who knew?  So we remedied that, and on National Donut Day, at that!

 We took a chocolate cake to Bible study that Anna decorated really quickly but was still delicious.

 Saturday morning he got to open his presents, which included a new backpack, headphones, a selection of candy, some fidget spinners he picked out himself, and an amazon gift card from Grandma and Grandpa.

 2.  The reason we couldn't spend too much time decorating a cake on Friday was because we were frantically preparing for a very exciting event:  the arrival of the cousins!  The girls flew in Saturday, and everyone was so excited!

 The girls have been having a fun time all together.  One thing they've done pretty much every day is make breakfast for all of us!  This is a pretty big group, because on Sunday evening, my parents drove in, and on Tuesday evening my Aunt Claire and Uncle Jim also flew in.  SO much fun!!

 3.  Last Friday we also received word that our neighborhood was getting repaved--and we had to have all our cars off the street starting on Tuesday.  Ack!  I panicked there at first because I wasn't at all sure how that was going to work with all our company, plus Luke's graduation party coming up on Saturday.  In fact, it was a flashback to a few weeks before our wedding when all of a sudden (to us) the powers-that-be decided to replace a bunch of underground pipes, including one that ran right in front of the chapel front door.  So next thing we knew, there was a twelve foot moat such that no one could use the chapel front door.  We had to go in and out for our wedding through a tiny side door, which was not ideal.  Oh well.

Anyway, Nathan and I did a herculean amount of garage cleaning and organization so that we could move his CR-V in there.  We parked the big van in front of the L's house.  The street guys milled up our street on Wednesday, and who knows when they'll come back to repave it.  Hopefully not tomorrow during the party, lol.

 4.  We went out to Olive Garden to celebrate my mom's birthday!  We had a really nice dinner.  The L's came too.

 Then we came back home for dessert (I made a nutella cheesecake, chocolate cake, and lemon bars for those who don't like chocolate) and presents.

 Anna, Uncle Jim, and I had gone to Walmart earlier in the day, and I had restocked my wrapping paper selection.  I bought a "Happy Birthday" roll, a generic cupcake roll, and a"Baby" roll, thinking that should cover me for the whole year of present-giving opportunities.  But when I got home and wrapped my mom's present, I literally paid no attention to the roll I was grabbing (???), and I wrapped the present in the "Baby" wrapping paper.  AND I DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE IT UNTIL MOM WAS GETTING READY TO OPEN HER PRESENT!!  LOL!  Not sure what happened there, but we all got a good laugh at it!

5.  We've been dealing with a quick-moving stomach bug here, to add to the excitement.  Elia and a few of our kids have been sick, and it hit me early this morning.  It's not been fun, but at least it's been relatively quick.  Drew and Verity had the hardest time getting over it, but I think they both were a little dehydrated.

So that was our week.  Lots going on, and lots of fun with extended family!