Lincoln's Birthday Party

Let's recap, shall we? Lincoln's party was a HUGE success! I'm serious, here. It went way better than I ever could've imagined... Everything went off as planned or better- aside from a couple little boys getting extremely messy- one in water- one in mud... They were good sports about it, though.

So, my day started off early- going to Card & Party factory to get balloons blown up... $8.00 will get you a LOOOT of helium! Then off to my parents' house to start helping dust, vacuum, Scott helped my dad do a lot of things outside... And then, about 2 o'clock, BRING ON THE THUNDERSTORM. serious. 3 hours of nonstop rain. I really thought the party was going to get rained out, I was freaking. I was thinking, "I spent WAY too much time and money on this for it to crap up now!" But luckily (no lucky actually included, i'm giving God all the credit on this one) it stopped raining long enough for us to set up the party, H AVE the party, and clean up afterwards... (I asked God for a couple dry hours and He provided, which was excellent)
So people get to the party, we eat hot dogs and hamburgers, etc... Walk around and try to be social with everyone (which is hard to do when there are 20 adults and 7 children there), try to sit down long enough to actually be able to have a hamburger for myself, and then start moving again. Present opening time. AH it was hectic! I had 3 or 4 toddlers on my trying to all open Lincoln's presents and play with them at the same time and it was really hard just working around them. Pretty darn cute though. Now, it's hay ride time. Oh, that's right. We had a freakin hay ride. My dad put some hay on his trailer and hooked it up to his tractor, drove us out to the TANK (yes, the tank), where we let the boys throw rocks into the water... Who would've known that a big hole in the ground + water + some rocks could be quite possibly the most fun combination ever thought of? The boys LOVED IT. We did that for about 5 or 10 minutes, then Beau kind of fell into the tank (mostly just mud, but ya know, a little in the water) and Amy's flip-flop got stuck in the mud (WHICH WAS HILARIOUS by the way) so we decided to call it a day at the tank and make our way back to the party area... Amy and Beau were good sports about the whole thing, so it was all good... Went back to the party, sang Happy Birthday to Lincoln, had to let him blow out his number 2 candle twice because he enjoyed it so, everyone ooohed and aaahed over my cake (which was delicious and quite cute, i will post pictures) and then we ate cake and everyone went home. It was AWESOME.
Ah, by the way, I forgot to mention the little bouncy spring horse (that was mine and my siblings' when we were little) that was at the party, I think just about all the boys took a turn on it- SO cute. AND my mom bought this little bounce house thing, and the boys were crazy about it.

It was the best party ever. Now I'm worried about next year. I've got a lot to live up to!!!

Thanks to all of you who came for my sweet little boy! Ah, one last thing- my sister-in-law, Candace, gave Lincoln soem Dr. Pepper (NOT diet or caffiene free) right before we left... We got home, gave Lincoln a bath, and he was WIRED. fun. We had to put him in bed while he was still wide awake. He was a freaking madman.

I think i'm still tired from yesterday...