Ladybug Party

In all of the sadness of the last few days, I've neglected to update everyone on the Ladybug turning 1. Can you believe it??!! She's ONE already! We had a....wait for it...a Ladybug themed party. Do you know how difficult it is to find red and black ladybug party supplies? They don't exist. There are party supplies with hot pink ladybugs but last time I checked, ladybugs were red and black, not hot pink. So a lot of our decorations were hand made by the one and only Chad Flora. You thought I was going to say Melissa, didn't you? I'll have to do a whole separate post on the decorations. Anyway, below is a picture of the Ladybug and the Doodlebug on the party day. She's sitting in her new red chair that she got from Granny and Granddaddy.
We got a bouncy house. Here she is with Maddie in the bouncy house - John in the background. Oh yes, even the adults get to jump. The Doodlebug got to invite a couple of friends over so he wouldn't be surrounded by girls and babies. I think he had more fun than anyone

My friend Lynn made the cake and the cupcakes. They were SOOOOOO good and the cake was so cute. Below is a picture of it. (And yes, the poster board it is sitting on was made by Chad). I highly recommend Lynn for all of your cake/cupcakes/cookie needs. She is fantastic! She even made the little ladybug candies that are sitting on top of the cupcakes. So yummy!
I could barely get the cake in front of the Ladybug before she started poking it.
The weather was great for the party. Everyone had a great time - kids and adults. The party lasted into the evening so we could celebrate Chuck's birthday too. He and the Ladybug share the same birthday. Me & Chad, John, Chuck & Melissa and the Nichols' all ordered fajitas and partied into the evening. Royce had to do a blindfolded taste test to prove he could tell the difference between a cupcake and a piece of cake. He's right - he can tell the difference.

We didn't get a separate cake for Chuck so I just took one of the Ladybug's cupcakes and put candles on it. I bought 40 candles and used all but one of them. You do the math.....

Heartbroken

I'm writing this post this morning with a broken heart. Last night while we were at dinner, Maxx got into the leftover goody bags from Carly's party. Those bags were filled with nothing but M&M's. He ingested anywhere from 1.5 to 2 cups of M&M's. I took him to the emergency clinic where they laid out a very detailed plan of what they were going to do to help him. Around step 3 he took a turn for the worse. He developed a severe case of pancreatitis. He's had this before but this case was so severe and came on so rapidly that his chances for survival were very low. He's also diabetic so that wasn't helping his case. Without going into all of the details, that I'm sure I'd get wrong anyway, we made the heartbreaking decision early this morning to let him go. It was the hardest decision I have ever had to make. I've had Maxx since he was 6 weeks old - he was my first born. As hard as the decision was, I know it was the right thing to do. I didn't want him to suffer anymore than he had to. It was a decision Chad and I made together and I'm so incredibly thankful to have a such an awesomely strong husband. Maxx will be missed by so many people, no more than me, but I know he's in a much better place now. And I know his last couple of days here were good ones and I know one of the last things he did was something he really enjoyed - eating people food.

Bernice ma me na

That's right. "Bernice ma me na." Those are the new words to "Feliz Navidad." New words by the Doodlebug. Bernice ma me na. Just thought you might like to know.

Everyone sing!!!!!!

6 people went to Las Vegas....

Oh my!!! What a trip! There is so much to recap from this trip...it's hard to pick a starting point. I'll just take it day by day. And a lot of this may not make sense to anyone other than the people who were on the trip. And it's probably best that way.

Thursday -

• Started drinking in the airport.
• Continued drinking on the plane.
• Went to dinner at BB King's Blues Club (or something like that).
• Chad drank a 40.
• Me - bed. Everyone else stayed up. (Don't judge me - I need my sleep).

Friday -

• Breakfast at the Paris buffet - YUM!
• A little shopping at the shops at Planet Hollywood.
• Headed to the shops at Ceasar's Palace. Stopped off at Margaritaville first for 2 margs.
• Hit the Coach store - cleaned them out. (Not really but we all did make a purchase).
• Headed over to the IP for some blackjack with the Dealertainers. We were dealertained by Joan Jett, Jake (Blues Brothers), John Fogarty, and Bette Midler and her boobs. Mucho drinking whilest gambling. When we went in to the IP it was daylight. When we came out it was dark. And we were hammered. Good times.
• We went to Japonaise (in the Mirage) for happy hour. $7 drinks and appetizers - so good!!
• Before dinner we went to Carrie and John's room. They lied their way to a room on the 24th floor. You could see the dolphins from their room.
• Royce, "I love you dolphins."
• More drinks.
• Headed down the hall to the elevator, Chad decided to play kickball with an ice bucket with champagne glasses in it. Broken glass everywhere. Me, "Run!" Royce, "Lock it up."
• Burger place for dinner. More drinks.
• Chad was convinced there was a bathroom in the restaurant. There wasn't. Don't think he didn't check the kitchen for a bathroom though.
• On to the next bar.
• Royce, "I need a cigar." Michelle, "Go get one." He came back empty handed.
• Contest between the 4 sides on the bar - the loudest side got free shots. When they called on our side, Chad felt the need to throw a stack of napkins in the air. Nice effect.
• Royce, "I need a cigar." Michelle, "Go get one." He came back empty handed. Again.
• John does the Cha-Cha Slide.
• Royce, "I need a cigar." Michelle, "Go get one." He came back empty handed. Again. Claims he can't find them.
• We all leave and find cigars within 2 minutes. Don't know why that task was so difficult for Royce. Oh wait.....
• Back to the hotel to the Rhumbar. Boys smoke cigars.
• Corrie goes to bed. Don't judge.

Saturday -

• Royce doesn't feel good. He remains in bed.
• The rest of us head over to the Venetian for lunch.
• We get a call from Chad's mom, who has the bugs, with a bit of unsettling news. But I'm not going to go into that. I'm not going to go into the story about the idiot neighbor of mine that was doing something with a loaded gun in his house and how it went off and went through his kitchen window, through my fence, and hit the narrow column of bricks in between the 2 kitchen windows by the table that my mother-in-law and my 4 year old were sitting at working on a puzzle. No. I'm not going to go into that.
• Then we went to the wax museum - very touristy of us.
• Back to the room for a bit.
• Over to TI for some drinks - Royce attempted to make an appearance. But it didn't last long.
• Back to the hotel for some drinks.
• Saw "Love" at the Mirage that night - Royce did join us for that.
• Nice Italian dinner.
• Early to bed.

Sunday -

• Headed over to the Hard Rock Hotel for lunch at Pink Taco. Yum. Pitcher of margs with lunch. Royce had a diet coke.
• Then to New York New York - walked around there a little.
• Royce and Michelle went and did some touristy things.
• The Floras and the Havertys went to Diablo's and had 2 more pitchers of margs.
• We all met up at the Bellagio and went to a chocolate shop that had a 30 foot high chocolate fountain.
• Back to Margaritaville.
• We attempted to go back to the IP but there weren't any good tables open.
• Dinner that night at Red 8 at the Wynn. So good.

Monday -

• Home

Celebrity sightings:

• Lewis Black (I think that's right) at the Mirage.
• Jenna Jameson and her fighter boyfriend at the Wynn.

To sum up: lots of drinks, lots of laughs, lots of memories. 6 people went to Las Vegas....and had a blast.

10 + 1 = 11.....

.....months that is. Yes, the Ladybug is 11 months old today. Here she is doing one of her favorite things - playing in Maxx's water bowl. There he is back there keeping a close eye on her. She's still lightening fast when she crawls. She's up to taking about 5 steps all by herself. She loves ripping the magnets off of the refrigerator, emptying her toys out onto the floor, pulling books off of shelves, closing doors (can't open them back up which makes her mad), gives "noggin," gives kisses and blows kisses, waves, smiles and giggles at everything....I could go on and on. She is a very active and curious little girl. And she's loud!!!! And I swear she just said Elmo - she's a fan.

This will be a short post because I have to go pack for Las Vegas. We leave tomorrow and I cant wait! We've had this planned since January. Below is one of the pictures from the bugs recent photo session.

The Black Swan ain't what it used to be

A few weeks ago, Chad & I and Sarah & Jason decided we needed a night to go out and boogie. Don't know why - we just did. We started out at one of our favorite restaurants - Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen. They have a new location on Woodway, which is right down the street from The Black Swan - a great place to get your boogie on. Sylvia's food was fantastic but I will admit I was defeated by the margaritas. I have actually never met a margarita that I couldn't conquer but those bitches were strong. I don't think I finished either one of mine. So strong. Then we went to a wine bar on Washington - met Chuck and Melissa there - and we killed some wine before moving on to the Black Swan.

Let me give you a little background on the Black Swan. It's in the basement of a hotel and they play old school music that everyone likes to dance to regardless of their age. We used to go there A LOT in my single days when I was working at VKAC. Our Friday night ritual was to go to Birra Poretti's and then go dance the night away. I can remember times when me and my friends were the only ones on the dance floor. Kathryn and I made up our Dancing Queen dance at that very place. Friday nights were not very crowded. Saturday nights were usually a little more crowded because it is a great place for wedding parties to go after receptions still in their wedding attire. Anyway, I haven't been there in a LONG time. We got there last night pretty close to midnight. Oh. My. Goodness. Wall to wall people!! There are now couches and secluded booths all over the place. The dance floor was unbelievably packed. It took us forever to get a drink. Some drunk chic hit on my husband. We came across one of the secluded booths right next to the dance floor and took a seat. Let the people watching commence... We lost count of the different wedding parties that were there. There were 2 brides there. (Aren't the bride and groom supposed to be in the honeymoon suite, I don't know, sleeping?) There were a lot of girls wearing things that they really shouldn't be wearing - I guess they thought they looked cute. Guys thought it was a good idea to take their tie off and tie it around their head like Rambo. Some guy walked by our table, wearing a jacket that looked like it was made for a toddler, and almost fell on Sarah. Thankfully there was a curtain by our table that he was able to grab onto to keep from falling.

Now, I know I'm 35 and the age of most people in there (with the exception of the sugar daddy we saw) was much younger than that, but I'm pretty sure my friends and I never acted the way most of these people were acting last night and I'm pretty sure we looked a lot cuter than the people we saw last night. We were good for one drink and then we headed home. Next time we will have to go on a Friday night....at 6:00 in the evening.

Oh, and on the way out, we walked by the pool and there are some fountains and ponds out there and what did we see??? A black swan.

The Mighty Papercuts

The Doodlebug got bored with gymnastics and decided to try something new. Ok, that's not 100% true. I got bored with gymnastics and encouraged him to try something new. Or I made him try something new. Details, details. Anyway, he decided to try soccer. He played on a team through the YMCA. His team name was the Papercuts. Here is a picture of him before his first game.


Now, he missed his first practice because he had to go to the doctor because he was sick. Then his second practice was rained out. So for the first game, where do they put the kid that has never played soccer EVER and who has never attended a practice? They made him the goalie......

He did so good the first game that they made him the goalie at the second game.

And he was goalie at every game this season. (Not the only goalie. They did switch out. But he was the best goalie.) Seriously, he rarely let anything past him. You know why he is such a good goalie? Because the goalie doesn't have to run!!!! That's right. My kid who runs like the wind through the house and through Target and through anywhere else doesn't like to run on the soccer field. Doesn't care for it at all. He even invented his "super fast runner" button and would push it mid-way through the game and that didn't help so much.

But he had a great time playing. He had a cheering section every week. Here is daddy, granny and granddaddy, along with the Ladybug cheering him on. Nonnie made it out to a lot of games too.

The soccer season has come to an end and now he's ready to play baseball. I was pushing for basketball because it is played inside rather than out - during the winter - but he wanted baseball. I'm sad that we will miss his first baseball game - we'll be in Las Vegas - but I know he'll do great. We'll see how this sporting adventure pans out......