The annual Labor Day Weekend O'Connor Birthday Gathering

For the last several years, since we have so many August birthdays, we have met up on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend to have one big party for all of the birthdays.

We have the following birthdays that we celebrate:

Aunt Nancy- Aug 9th
Alex- Aug 23rd
Katie and Uncle Mike- Aug 25th
Dad- Aug 28th
Sue- Sept. 15th

So we have the cookout and all enjoy a day of usually good weather, good food, and lots of presents, and listen to the drag nationals going on not too far off in the distance.

Alex started with his presents:










Then Katie opened hers, which was many night gowns, since she's been whining for a good while that she didn't have night gowns. She better not complain now! I think everyone bought her nightgowns! LOL!











Alex playing with his Diego vehicle:




One of Dad and Sue's papillons:



Their other papillon:



Aunt Nancy looking at the scrapbook album I made for her:


Sue and Aunt Nancy looking at their albums:


Dad and Sue:


Dad modeling his apron from Grandmother:


Grandmother telling Katie a story:


Grandmother and Grandma Roberts:


We LIKE our Diego toy!


Katie with the bubble gun:


Meaghan and Aunt Nancy:


The kids and the end of the day:

Meaghan is enjoying her time at home- Doll tea party!

Meaghan has really enjoyed being home and I have to admit, I enjoy having her here. She's a lot easier to keep on top of than Alex was, but I'm certain that it's just with the age.

She did have an afternoon that she was bored and I suggested getting the American Girl dolls and Bitty Babies out and having a tea party, of which she went and got herself dressed up and then we dressed up all the dolls and sat them down for a party. Meaghan was feeding them waffles and a drink and it was about lunch time. I asked her what she wanted for lunch and she said waffles. We also had some strawberries in the fridge, so we had a lunch of waffles with strawberries on them and ate outside in the gorgeous weather.

Following lunch, Meaghan asked me to get out the Little Tykes Cozy Coupe car so she could take her babies for a drive. It was tooooo cute! :)

sitting her babies down for their party:




Meaghan was too cute, as I took a picture of this- our cubby storage unit, because she had pulled out the one bin that had all the play food in it. She asked me to pull out the second bin, because the one cubby was her microwave and the other was her refrigerator. LOL!





Party is over, "Time for the babies to go lay down and take their naps!"


Taking the babies for a drive:

Katie's Birthday Party

Katie wanted to have a princess party. She did so since we had several things already in Disney princesses and I'd told her if she did that, we wouldn't have to buy as much stuff and could get some of the other things we wouldn't normally get, such as a pull string pinata. Katie's learning quickly how to make the most of what she can have, so she was all over that!

She invited several friends from school, some new ones and some she's known for several years, and of course her best friend since she was little. The girls all had fun though, as Katie and I took white lunch bags and I'd printed some graphics off that I'd found of the princesses. I also found too, some word searches and games for the girls to play. I put one in each of the bags and that was a good way to start off the party, with some of the extra stickers as prizes. Mike baked some chocolate chip cookies as they did this and it worked out really well, as we started with games, then did Katie's cake, then after that we moved them back and forth from the dining room to the living room to open presents, do the pinata, open presents, eat cookies and so forth, and it allowed me to pick things up/clean up behind them while they were in the next room and still occupied. It was pretty funny though, Mike laughed about how much quieter it was this year, even with 8 girls in the house. LOL!













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Pinata time!




Chocolate chip cookies and milk!




Girls Playing the Wii until time to leave:


We then went to church and came home and had dinner and watched a movie together as a family :)

Where to start?

It has just been an insane few weeks, super busy, an emotional roller coaster and sickness all running together.

We had Alex's birthday party with friends from college, which he made out well and the kids all had fun. :)











Yummy Cake!!!!




The kids all investigating the Ant:




So that evening we had bible study, which we all went to, though I wasn't feeling good. By the time I got home, I was really not feeling well and on Monday- on Katie's birthday, I was pretty much out of commission. I was running a fever and just felt awful. Mike had to work 2nd shift on the next day- the 26th, so I went to the Dr after being sick for 2 wks and at that point I wasn't wheezing, but I wasn't exactly clear in the lungs either, as my Dr put it. So I wound up on some Amoxicillin and thankfully was feeling a lot better, but was still really having to rest a lot from being wiped out so quickly and the loss of energy. I think I took naps every day that week, and I definitely needed it!

We also took Alex to the Dr too, since he'd had the same thing for even longer than I had, and he had full blown ear infections in both ears. :( So he wound up on Omncef for that. We didn't really get to do much of anything on Katie's birthday since I was so sick, but she did get to have a birthday party with friends from school and church- coming up in the next post. :)

Happy Birthday Alex!!!!!

Gosh, my *Baby* is 3 today! Where have these three years gone??? I know they are whizzing by too fast and he is growing up on me! Some memories to share:

Home from the Hospital- Aug. 24th, 2005

About a week old...


First Halloween (2 mos):


3 mos:


6 months:


1 year and into everything!


18 months and the Colts won the superbowl!


2 and boy can we climb!!!!



Photograph done by Kim Berry of Captured Memories
www.actionphotosbykim.com

At a wedding in early march- 2 1/2:



And then my Big Man today playing his first official soccer game!!!









We came home from soccer and took some naps, Meaghan went to a birthday party and then Mike, Alex, Katie and I went to church. After church, we picked up Meaghan and went to Pizza King after some convincing of Daddy to do so, in celebration of Alex and Katie's birthdays (Katie's is Monday) So we enjoyed a good meal together, having fun as a family and will have Alex's party with close friends and family tomorrow afternoon. :)

Finally- InDBA obtains it's Non Profit Status!!!!

Alright, we finally did it!!!! Oh man, such a relief and such a good thing. :) I was soooooo happy to open that letter today saying that InDBA is a non profit organization!!! :D


HUGE thanks to Heidi, Suzi, and all the people that heard me out as I drilled them about going through the process in thier orgs as well, and most of all Thanks to Kim and Sheila, our pro bono attorneys at COLAP that made it all happen! We couldn't have done this without you!

So we now have our work cut out for us, but this is MAJOR accomplishment and hurdle overcome! :D