Getting party reeeeadddddddy!!

Do you know what it took for me to get a picture of Ellie Sue looking my way?! 

 Welllll, I had to ask her to come show me all of her jewelry!  
She shot straight my way, with her arm extended to show off her bracelets!  Then, 
her necklace.  Front...
AND back!  
But, you know... whatever it takes!  

Gabbi, on the other hand, requires no prompting to get big ol' smiles like this!  
She is still not a full out crawler on all 4's, but she is getting the hang of a few cycles on her knees, then plop... down onto her belly! 

Ok, so while the prep crew was outside getting the deck ready, Mary Allison was inside helping get the party favors ready!  
I bought my favorite flowers, ZINNIAS, for the front entrance.
and I laid out our party outfit, this CUTE shirt that Lindsay made Ellie for her BIG #2! 
Jessi printed off these owls and #2's that I painstakingly cut around to put back to back on a toothpick to stick into the mini burgers that Daddy-O is making for the kids tomorrow.  He thinks I am insane, but Jessi, Breanna, and I KNOW it is all about the details!! 
Speaking of Daddy-O!  This is NOT one of his better moments!  We ran out to Sam's to get some new patio furniture.  Paid too much, then as they brought it out to us from the warehouse, we looked at each other in amazement!! I will show you why in a minute! 
First, let's look at other beauties ready for their center stage moment... 
coleus! 
and more coleus with Margarita vine!   Oh, and I bought a couple of new birdhouses! 
I don't know for what yet, but I KNOW they are cute, and I will use them in the new house, so surely we can come up with something to do with them.  The theme of this party is "naturey".  Owls, leaves, birds, and the colors are teal, lime green, orange, and brown! 
Ok, so this is the STRESSOR!! ! The too-expensive patio furniture ALSO has to be assembled!!  
It came in about 50 parts!  
Putting things like this together is NOT mine, nor Todd's, forte'!  There were some pretty ugly words flying!  Especially, when he INSISTED that I do one of the chairs by myself, and THEN...
he had to disassemble the whole thing because I put the seat on backwards.  Good Times!! Good Times!! 

What he DID do and seem to kinda ENJOY was power washing! 
After doing the whole deck, he started tacking things like this (used to be red) chair!  
and that only meant one thing... we had to go buy a paint sprayer to fix that!  Now, my bench is black!  

And here are the toothpick toppers for the sliders! 
Oh, and little teal owl necklaces!  
and a giant #2 which is now covered in brown fabric with turquoise polka dots.  
Breanna was in charge of the birthday banner and making little fabric birds which we will clip all over a big branch that Mary Allison dragged out of the cutover next door.  We put it in a big urn, and I am presently waiting on my buddy, Bre, to show up with her stash!  Today is a WORK DAY!!  

If you are local, consider yourself invited!  4:00 tomorrow, at the Groves' NEST!  OH, I need to share the invitations.  I will post that later today!!  

Got lots to do.  Bye now!  

Mo

P.S.  Dee, I never told you how much I loved the poem!   Thank you.  I want to print that off and put it in the girls' scrapbooks!  AND, I would like to welcome our newest follower, Kellye Hoogland.  So glad you figured out how to sign on.  We like to see our homefolk reading about our shenanigans! Come by tomorrow, if you'd like!  Melanie