Wheel Me Into Recovery!

Par-tay #2 was last night and can I just say that I'm glad Steven's b-day isn't until June? WHEW! That was like a marathon with a side of heartburn!

We had DH's family over for Matthew's b-day Sunday night. We had a fish fry for supper that included bluegill, crappie, shrimp, cole slaw, fries, hush puppies and hot sauce (rice and salsa). I took out about 200 pieces of fish in the morning to thaw. I skipped church so I could finish baking his cake and make cole slaw. After lunch (leftover coney dogs from the Saturday party), my MIL and SIL came over to help me bread the fish. Surprisingly, it only took us a little over an hour to bread.

DH was the real chef, though. He stood outside in 20 degree weather with his propane cooker and cooked the fries, fish and shrimp. It took about an hour to do it all. His Dad ran back and forth to bring the fried fish in and take another empty pan out. Each time, he had a new piece of fish in his hand. He was our official taste-tester and since they cooked 15 pieces at a time, I figure he ate about 13 pieces before we really sat down to eat. I may have to get him a hat just to wear for the fish fry's that says, "Quality Control" on it.

As I mentioned before, it was a calmer crowd. No looking at naughty pictures on any one's cell phones...

Nonetheless, we had a lot of fun. Matthew got a nice outfit, some money and a backyard football/baseball practice thingy- you can pitch baseballs to the side that has a batter printed on it or you can throw football passes at the other side which has a receiver printed on it. Now, he can't wait till spring to be able to use it. Poor kid, he had a headache the whole time. I think he was just worn out from the busy weekend and it all finally caught up with him. He did thank DH for cooking all those fish and fries outside in the 20 degree weather.

Matthew had 2 cakes, one chocolate with white frosting that I made and one white with chocolate frosting that MIL made. While I put 9 candles in each one, Steven was planning which ones he was going to lick when they were blown out. He made a plan of attack and stuck to it. The candles were still smoking when he made a bee-line for the white cake and licked each and every candle on it within about 5 seconds.

The party ended kinda early when DH's Grandma decided it was time to go. She is always the first one to arrive and the first one to leave. Since everyone else has to bundle up and move vehicles for her to get out, they just head home, too. DH's parents stuck around to help clean up and then headed home themselves.

After all that, you'd think I would have slept like a log. I got to sleep okay, but I woke up at about 2 AM with heart burn. It took about 2 hours for me to get back to sleep and even that sleep wasn't restful. I must not be the only one with a sour stomach because Steven had a blow-out a while ago. Luckily, he was still in his pull-up from last night and it was all contained.

I am ready for a nap, but I have to finish 4 of the baskets for the school's basket raffle and take them over there. The drawing for them is Wednesday, but with a big snow storm headed our way, the kids may not even have school on Wednesday.

I'll try to post some pics from the parties later on, but I have about half a million other things to take care of that take precedence over playing with the camera.