Battle of the birthdays

Today was a big birthday party shindig up the hill for Andrew and Todd. Since their birthdays are so close together Susan just did one joint extravaganza for them. We specifically RSVP'd for when the party was scheduled to be over. Each of Susan's and Todd's families are so huge, that there's just too many people, especially little loud people, running around for our patience level. We arrived at 3:30, right when the last stragglers were packing it up. We found the party by following the sounds of stampeding herds overhead as we made our way through the downstairs of the Sunshine House. First thing out of Andrew's mouth when he saw us was 'Uncle Chris and Aunt Susan are here!' then ran over to tell Susan. He ripped into his present in about two seconds, after pushing aside that pesky birthday card, and was dazzled by the prospect of searching for bugs with his Backyard Explorer kit. Susan promptly loaded us up with plates of leftovers from the BBQ lunch of tri-tip (cooked to perfection by Todd), scalloped potatoes, salad, rolls and some sort of jello/mystery cream topping concoction while Andrew showed Uncle Chris the other gifts that he got.
After we finished our late lunch, Susan got us some of the birthday ice cream cake that Todd's sister, Polly, had made. I saw a photo of the fully assembled cake and it was a tower cake in shades of green (tinted cool whip) with a monster truck cake topper and the number 5 emblazoned on it. I'm sure that's exactly the cake Todd wanted!
By the end of cake time all the rugrats were getting their shoes on to go to Grandma Eileen's and run around in the sprinklers. But before he left, Connor wanted to show us his fancy light up kicks.
Once all the kids left there was heavenly silence and we could have a nice visit with Todd and Susan. Todd opened up his gift from us which was real black licorice from Joy Lyn's, and jalapeno brittle bits and habanero Sierra Nevada peanut brittle. He likes licorice, hot stuff and Joy Lyn's so it was a perfect combination since it was all from Joy Lyn's. He offered us a piece of the habanero brittle to try and I literally ate one peanut piece and thought I was going to die. That sh*t is HOT!! Hence why it says 'hot' on the bag...

When we got back into town we spent a little time over at Barnes & Noble reading and drinking and enjoying the quietness. We love being DINKs (dual income no kids) and being able to do that.

Other than that, I just spent a little time in my scrap room this morning and finished a page about my 5 year anniversary at the town.
Just imagine what it would look like rotated the right way. And then a close up so you can see the layers.
I used some Basic Grey paper from the combo pack I bought at Michael's this morning. None of my paper was calling my name and I had a 40% off coupon good for today so I went and picked a whole pack up so that I can get a couple of pages done in one sitting. Though I'm sure that's just wishing thinking.