bargains and birthdays

last thursday and friday i participated in an annual garage sale shopping extravaganza with my mom and sisters in st. cloud.  they have done it for years, but this was my first year tagging along.  in case you don't know this about the women in my family, we like to shop...i mean, seriously, we like to shop.  a few years ago my sisters kim, rhonda, and i spent twelve hours shopping at the mall of america, and we never made it off the first floor!

i have not historically been a big fan of garage sales, but now that i have william and am living back in the area i thought it would be fun to participate.  it was two solid days of scouring for bargains -- it was cold and rainy the second day, but that wasn't enough to keep us away!  all-in-all it was a fun trip, and we found some nice things.

mom, rhonda, nikki, kim and me

(sorry about the low quality -- it was taken on a cell phone)

and sunday was william's birthday!  all day i was thinking to myself "exactly one year ago we were at the farmer's market" and then "exactly one year ago i was starting to get intense contractions" (thankfully i was asleep at 11:31pm, which is when i could have said "exactly one year ago william was born!"). 

at noon that day our family and friends joined us at davanni's to celebrate at his fireman themed party.  we ate pizza and cake, played a game, opened lots of wonderful gifts, and william rounded out his birthday party experience by getting a huge bump/bruise in his forehead!  poor guy!  but he doesn't seem too phased by it.

aaron's co-worker made the most amazing fireman cake and

coordinating cupcakes.  not only did it look great, it was delicious too!

my family sent us flowers in this firetruck after william was born.

we had a local florist create a new arrangement for william's big day.

proud parents!

and proud grandparents!

 

alex, olivia, and emma playing "pin the badge on the fire dog"

sunday was william's cousin maya's 7th birthday.

they enjoyed eating their cupcakes together!

william's birthday battle wound

sunday was, of course, mother's day as well.  aaron and william got me a beautiful mother's necklace.  pictures to follow when it arrives in the mail!  happy mother's day to all the mamas out there!