The Big 3!!!

Well, Allegiance's 3rd birthday party was officially a HUGE success!!! The day turned out just great for it. The party started with the girls making wands and princess hats and the boys decorating shields and choosing balloon swords. Then they took turns finding their "treasure" (goodie bags) in the castle. Then back inside for cake and ice cream and presents. And lastly, free playtime in the CASTLE!!! The kids all loved it. Rich did such a great job. Who would have thought cardboard could be so much fun? Here are a few pics we took trying to capture the fun of the day...

There were 16 princes and princesses in attendance! WOW!!! Rich and I both agreed that we had never had that many kids at any birthday parties we had when we were kids. Allegiance got lots of great gifts and had a great time. And Rich and I got to see what GREAT friends we have. Extra special thanks go out to Mark (for helping so much on the castle), Jenni and Tasha(for helping out IN the castle), Lowe's and Conns (for donating boxes and wood), Danielle (for helping out with my little girl's party when she doesn't even have any kids of her own!), Russ (for coming to the party even when his daughter came down sick and for taking most of the pics that you see), and all our other friends that helped make this happen with as little stress as possible. It was a great party and it is such a blessing to have GREAT friends!!!

In Too Deep!!!

Help!

Have you ever started a project that you thought would be easy and take a few hours that turned into much more than you bargained for???

I have had that happen to me more often than I would like to admit and here we are (Rich and I together) with a MUCH bigger project than I think he or I ever imagined!

It all started with this website: http://www.mrmcgroovys.com/ Check it out...it is really cool! Look at the links with the pics. Cute cardboard castles, right? Looks simple, right?

So if those small castles are so easy, surely one large enough to fill our garage with a slide and drawbridge won't be that much harder, right? OOPS! Turns out we thought wrong!!!

The only thing that is keeping us going is know that this will be a very special birthday party for Allegiance. That, and now we want it to be the BEST castle on McGroovy's site!

Actually, even though it has been a little overwhelming, it has been a great opportunity for Rich and me to work together. Although Rich has done most the work, I have helped some, and I have to say that I am so glad we are partners together for life. We really work so well together. We make a great team. Looks like God knew what He was doing once again. It has also been really awesome watching Rich work so hard on something for Allegiance. Daddy's aren't usually so involved in their little girl's birthday parties, but Rich has always enjoyed planning and participating in both of our princesses' parties!!!

So, if you want to see the best cardboard castle ever...check back after Allegiance's party this weekend. I will wait and post the finished pics after all this craziness of building and painting is over!!!