A Double Birthday Party

My sweet girls, Abby Grace and Reese had a double birthday party on Saturday. It was a lot of fun, and we did it as frugally as possible (feel free to giggle at me and my crazy ideas!).

Reese turned 3 in March, and we had a family party then. Abby Grace will be 5 on May 14. It is soooo sad that my baby is going to be 5! It does not seem like I was preggers with her 5 years ago. Ah....

Anywho, Shane-O and I decided to make it easy on ourselves our family and have two parties in one. Summer gets so busy, and a lot of family and friends are unable to attend both parties.

So, the plan was to have a nice little get-together and hang out in our backyard. Ha! It rained the entire week before... this is what our backyard looked like - minus the cars.

But, not to worry. Luckily, I had cleaned out our garage, and it was nice and neat. Seriously. I don't like it when our garage is messy.

So, while it sprinkled, everyone chilled (and, it was chilly!) in lawn chairs in the garage, while the kiddos rode bikes, dodged the bad drivers played in the Barbie car (that belongs to my MIL), played basketball, and chit-chatted.

Would ya like to know what we ate? I know you're just waiting to hear about my gourmet budgeted birthday meal. Well, here it is... and if you are wondering, yes I really served beans, and no I didn't pay for them!

• Beans (cooked in the crockpot for 8 hours) - all TWO pounds of them were gone. I received a ton of compliments for 'em. Who says cheap isn't gourmet? Thank you, WIC!
• BBQ shredded chicken on rolls. I cooked the chicken the night before in the crockpot. Thank you, Proverbs Wife!
• Cake... what cake? Not me! I used two brownie mixes from my stockpile, and topped 'em with cream cheese icing.

I didn't go to the store for a thing (well, you know what I mean). Does it count that my MIL picked up rolls for me before she came since mine NEVER rose??? {stupid weather} BUT, the unrisen rolls did not go to waste, as my family ate 'em anyway.

The day was great. Shane picked out a swimming pool for the girls, and they got lots of great things from our wonderful family and friends. More importantly than gifts was getting to spend TIME with those family and friends. It was a wonderful, fun, happy day.

And boy was I worn out after it was over.

Photo by U.S. Geological Survey and Lotsa pix by ME

Also posted on AmyLovesIt!