Its been the week of her birthday

So, Tuesday was her real birthday, but today we celebrated. So she might be really confused as to what day her real birthday is! She can say January 20, but I'm not sure she has a clue what that means. We had a little fun birthday party for Violet this morning from 10 am to noon. She invited all her friends to have a party with her at the Waterloo Trampoline and Tumbling Center. The place has 2 in-ground tramps, a double mini, tumble track, and another above ground trampoline. One of the coaches helped out by coralling the kids around the gym, but most of the time it was free for all, the kids just ran around and did what they wanted. It was so fun. I enjoyed seeing Violet interact with the kids. She was so shy at first and didn't want to stretch with Alex the coach that was there, but eventually warmed up. Poor Calvin was a mess, though. He was tired from the time we got there until the time we got home, but as soon as we got home, he was running all over the place. The party was nice. The kids jumped on the trampolines for about an hour and a half, then we ate pizza, sang her happy birthday, and had cake. Time was up and we just packed up the gifts and opened them at home later on. All who came were: my parents, Scott and Jeanne Hansen with AnneMarie and Bennett, Selena and Ivy and Sylvie Hemmer, Randy, Kim and Katie Costello, Nathan & Marisa Anderson and Devin and Sienna, Trisha Cashman with Bryer and Payce, and Kris Klunder with Vada. Jay and Molly came for a little bit and left early. She had to get to CR for her bridal shower that afternoon. She protested taking a nap with as big of a fit as she could muster, but we eventually got her down to sleep for a couple hours. I wish 3 yr olds knew what was good for them. haha!!! I can't even picture a kid that age saying "I'm so tired, I know I should sleep now so I make it through the rest of the day. Mom, I'm going upstairs to take a nap now, OK?" In my dreams!!! We ended up with way too much pizza so we are enlisting the help of our friends to demolish the rest of it (and some dessert pizza and some birthday cake!) tomorrow for lunch. Dave is leaving tomorrow for California. His flight takes off around 2 pm and he doesn't get home until Friday. He is attending Calix's quarterly sales meetings, or something like that. I know he enjoys going because he doesn't get to actually talk face to face with any of his co-workers and he enjoys the relational aspect of it, getting to re-connect with his team and be in an office setting with other people for once. I'm sure that working by himself all day alone has to get a little dry. Especially for my socialite of a husband. :) So I'm happy for him that this will be a nice week for him. Monday and Tuesday I'm going to stick around and go to MOPS on Tuesday morning, and Wednesday I'll go to Mason City and spend a couple days with my parents. Violet and I have appointments with dad to get our teeth cleaned on Thursday. I hope she does better than last time. She screamed and freaked out last time. I think if I don't go with her, she'll do better. If you think of it, pray for me that I don't go crazy taking care of the kids by myself for a week. I don't know how military moms do it with husbands who get deployed for months or years.