It's the day after Sarah's birthday.  The house literally looks like Toy R Us exploded in it.  It's taken Sarah 2 days to open all of her presents.  Capitalism is alive and well in our household.   I should really buy stock in the Disney Princess line of merchandise.  I think she had a fantastic weekend and a very good birthday.  She's tired, I'm tired, Garrett's tired and Grandma Bebe's tired.  Grandma is so tired in fact she fell asleep this afternoon with her legs hanging over the side of the bed and when I woke her up she had a pool of drool on her shoulder.  It sounds gross but I found it kinda funny.  I'm sick that way. 

Let's recap Sarah's Superfantastic Birthday weekend.  Friday night, after she went to bed, I snuck out of the house and went to the store and bought lots of balloons.  Apparently, after 8:00 p.m. there are no "official balloon filler-upper people" on staff at our local Fry's grocery store.  This poor girl, who is a bagger, was drafted to fill the balloons up.  She was lousy at it, but she had heart.  I got the dozen or so half-filled balloons home and started to get some of Sarah's presents out.  I placed them around her place at the kitchen table and put the balloons around it all to create a celebratory ambiance.  I even put up her castle-tent. (You could camp in this thing.  Trust me it looked alot smaller in the store.)  Anyway, the stage was set for the morning.  She woke up at 6 a.m. and Garrett and I managed to wake ourselves up to take her downstairs.  She was amazed.  She ran from tent, to sandbox, to balloons, to us and back again.  She opened a few presents, while I made her pancakes, and then we got ready for the day.

First thing on the list was Herbie Fully Loaded.  Sarah was beside herself.  The movie started and Sarah was so disappointed when she realized that Lindsey Lohan was not Herbie.  She got into the movie none-the-less, and although she did lose interest in a few parts, she enjoyed the movie overall.  After the movie it was back home to continue the festivities.

We had lunch and then we all got ready for Chuck E Cheese.  Let me say I was expecting the worse, but it went very well.  All of the kids had fun and most of the parents didn't have that "shoot me now" look.  It was clean, well organized and our helper was very nice and patient.  Sarah did have one moment of terror.  I forgot that a life size Chuckie comes out to entertain and Sarah HATES life size animated creatures.  It doesn't matter if it's Elmo, Minnie Mouse, Dorothy The Dinosaur or Barney, she is terrified of them.  So, with my luck the one memory she will recall from this birthday is that she was terrorized by Chuckie the Mouse.  Live and learn.

We got home and Sarah was still ready to PARTY!  Jim, Jaime and Jennie invited Sarah over for a swim and she desperately wanted to go.  Off she went!  I went to pick her up at 8 p.m. and she refused to come home.  She begged and pleaded to stay but it was late and we all were sooooo tired.  I reminded her that she still had quite a few presents to unwrap and that barely persuaded her to come home.  Ah, you gotta love bribery.

Once we got her home and, calmed her down, we talked her into eating some scrambled egg.  The one thing you have to know about Sarah is that when she is in party mode she doesn't eat.  She may snack and munch a little but, really, little to no food enters her body when in party mode.  She scarfed up the eggs and turned to us with heavily lidded eyes and said, "I want to go upstairs and go to bed."  We all went to bed.

Sunday morning, bright and early, and Mom and I go off to church, and Sarah and Garrett go off to the gym.  We convene an hour later and...open more presents.  Surprise!  These were the gifts from the party and let me say she got some wonderful things.  She took her time with each gift and tried to read every card and played a little with each toy.  It took so long that she started to get slap happy and we had to stop.  We had lunch and then I tried, in vain, to get her down for a nap.  She wouldn't take a nap.  The day passed without further incident but, she just now finished opening her last gift and it is 8 p.m. Did I mention I was tired?  I'm so glad birthdays only happen once a year.  Mostly, because they just wipe me out but, there's just a little part of me that hates to see her grow up so fast.  I love you Sarah Beth!  Happy 3rd Birthday baby girl, Momma and Daddy love you!