Woo Hoo!!!

This past weekend was a blast! The weather was perfect and I would not have changed a thing. It was really kind of hot, so hot that Nolan did not even wear his boots or cowboy hat to his own rodeo party. I cannot believe I did not even stress over anything. Woo Hoo! I just went with the flow and enjoyed Nolan's excitement and Cheri's company. Okay, this is how it all started. On Saturday morning we had Nolan's T-Ball pictures at the ball field, so we loaded up and got there in plenty of time. In fact we were early enough for Les to go get Nolan a Gatorade to drink while we waited. Once it was Nolan's turn to strike a pose in front of the background, the photographer mentioned Nolan having a mustache. I paid no attention because I was too worried about his shirt looking good and how he was holding the bat. But once I stepped back to tell him to smile big, I saw it... A BIG RED GATORADE MUSTACHE on his upper lip! I yelled, "Les Davis!" Of all times why did he have to get a RED Gatorade at that moment? So, we will more than likely have a cute baseball picture with a shining red lip! Afterwards we had time to kill, so we met the coach and his family at the pizza place before our game. Cheri and her family showed up and I hardly recognized her! She looks so incredibly cute and pregnant. You know the cute belly and a pretty glow on the face. The kids were so excited as well. After lunch we all loaded up to go back to the ball field for our game. I saw a good improvement from last week's game. However we still got slaughtered. Oh well. Later we had to get ready for the big party. Thanks to one of Nolan's friend's mom we had lots of hay for decoration and sectioning of the stick horse rodeo we had planned. While guests arrived they decorated paper sack vests to wear. That was a great time killer even though no one wore theirs. Oh well. Once it was about 15 minutes into the party time we started the rodeo with a stick horse barrel race. They loved it and it was super-d-duper cute!

Then it was onto the tin can shooting. This is where it got really tricky with water guns. I had pre-filled 12 guns to be prepared, yet there were more than 12 kids that attended. You can imagine how impatient those few kids that did not have a gun were while waiting for me to fill. That was the most stressful part of the day. They did love shooting at the tin cans though. Surprisingly no one shot at another that I am aware of. Woo hoo!

Okay, after the shooting we lined up for calf roping. Each guest got to try to rope a hay bale calf head three times in order to earn a bandanna. I forgot to mention that the kids earned a cowboy hat for the races and got to keep their gun.

Now for the favorite part. I blew up 30 pink balloons, gave each kid a fly swatter, and let the balloons loose. I called this the pig herding. They were to hold onto their stick horse and fly swatter and herd the "pigs" into the allotted area. It was a hoot! Most balloons popped of course, but some actually made it into the area!

Once that was finished the kids loaded up on a hay lined trailer for a hay ride behind Les' tractor. Actually, I think that was the best part. While they rode for about 15 minutes Cheri prepared the hot dogs. Man it was a blast! When the guests came back from the ride they panned for gold in the sandbox. I dumped 50 pennies in it and gave them little drawstring bags to collect in.

Sutton, Nolan's girl friend sat beside him and read the cards.

Then we ate, had cake, and opened presents. You know, the basic stuff. Oh the cake. Let me tell ya, this was the first birthday cake I made for one of my children and it was a challenge. Nolan wanted a boot cake, in which I could not find anywhere. So I decided to search the net for a picture of on and make it. It was a back breaking challenge, but well worth it. I did the very best I could do and the one thing that kept me going was the taste! I knew a "box" would not let me down. Hee hee. Nolan approved it and ended up loving it. Woo hoo!

After that party we were utterly exhausted. However, I loved every minute of it. People kept commenting on how I had the time and effort. I love doing stuff like this, it is what keeps me going. Thanks to my mom, I have learned from the best. She used to throw me the best birthdays and I remember every one of them. I want my kids to be the same way. Thanks Momma for all the wonderful parties and thanks Cheri for all of your help. Oh, while I am thanking people I should thank Les as well. Thanks Les, I could not have done it without you. We did this without one single argument. Woo hoo! Gosh, I feel like I just won an Oscar. And you know I kind of did. It was a great accomplishment.