Steven's Birthday

After a weekend I was dreading, I am happy to write and say, we had a wonderful birthday weekend for Steven. :)

He was really wanting a party, and I just did NOT feel like giving one. Partially because I was being lazy and partially because he wanted to invite all of his german-speaking neighbor friends who I have have a hard enough time talking to at my house, let alone at a birthday party where I am in charge of their well being. But after some discussion with Steve we decided we would invite families to a BBQ party, and since the parents all speak English I wouldn't have to worry about it. That sounded great so we passed out invitations. Well 3 days before the party, I got sick and figured out I have a sinus infection. I went to my OB on Friday hoping that he could heal me with something, and he was NO help whatsoever. Germans are just too in to natural medicine, and the things he told me to do were not going to solve my problem in a matter of a day. So, I was dreading having to get everything ready for the party when I felt horrible. Sinus infections are awful and have the strangest symptoms. Behind my eye hurt and my cheek, but most of all my teeth were killing me. I was taking Tylenol every six hours just to function, but I worry about taking that much medicine when I am prego.

Anyway, so Steve gave me this miracle nasal drip spray that I used Friday night, and I felt so much better Saturday morning, and am continuing to feel better. THANKS HONEY!

So... the party was Saturday night, and we invited all of our close neighbors. We decided just to use our little parking place out front since we have no backyard to speak of, and it would make things so much easier on everyone. The neighbors were wonderful at helping set up the front with this little canopy and all the toys from our backyards. Unfortunately there was one van we couldn't get moved because it is broken, and you can't put it in neutral unless you can start it, and the battery is totally shot. So, we just used that as a barrier in between the food area, and the toy area. Everything worked out just beautiful! Steve BBQ'd Bratwurst and "chicken on a bone" which is Steven's favorite food. Then I made funeral potatoes, we had watermelon, and chips, and rolls, and soda. There were about 25 people there including children and we just let the kids play while the adults sat around and talked, jumping from German to English depending on who was part of the conversation. :)

[Food area]

[Toy area][Chalk is such an easy entertainer, and our street is not busy at all. You can tell we invited some English speaking friends from church also]

[This bow and arrow is by far Steven's favorite present. It is really cool.]

So, that was Saturday. Steven's real birthday was Sunday, and it was less exciting because we had just done everything the night before. We did save the presents from Grandma and Grandpa Allred for him to open on Sunday, and he got sung to at church.

And then today he had his school Geburtstag (birthday) where he brought brownies to share with his class and they sang songs to him, and he blew out some candles on a pretend little cake. Wow! Birthdays that last 3 days can be exhausting. I am glad the celebrations are done tomorrow. :)
[In Steven's class they put the Geburtstag Kind on a chair in the middle and then raise him up in the air three times. As you can imagine, they hardly get him off the ground, but it looks like great fun.]