I think I've finally recovered...

...from last weekend. Or at least I hope so. I've been nothing but a lazy bum all week. Sending the girls off to school and crawling back in bed. Lounging around and catching up on Tivo. Rarely out of my pajamas before 1 and only then because I had to go pick the children up. It was a tiring weekend, I tell you. And why? Well, take a look...

This would be a photo of Abby and her "best friends" at the mall. Um, yeah. I love my daughter so much that I feel so terribly bad that I have forever doomed her birthday to be 2 days after Christmas and am always so guilty for giving her the shaft and she's the typical forgotten middle child, I love her so much that I decided to give her a wicked 13th birthday party and take 12 teenagers to the mall. Clearly, I hit my head.

Now, I will admit, it was pretty fun! I planned an awesome scavenger hunt with some super fun tasks and the girls really had a blast. And I roped in one of my sweetest friends to help, one that doesn't yet have a teenager, and now might want to freeze her daughter at 12. And Abby was just loving it and continually referring to me as "the most awesome mom ever". Duh.

And then we brought them all back to the house for pizza and cake and...a sleepover. Because like I said, I clearly hit my head. And I was fine with the giggling at 11pm. I was okay with it at midnight. At 1 when Emma crawled into my bed burning up with a sore throat, I politely asked them to keep it down a little since the playroom where they were camping out is located directly above my room. At 3, I asked the herd of elephants what exactly was going on and saw that half of those sleeping were wrapped in toilet paper. And the others were in the middle of giving blindfolded makeovers. And at 4:30, I pulled Abby aside and let her know that "the most awesome mom ever" was about to throw her and whichever of her friends were still awake in 5 minutes out of the 2nd floor window. And then I heard no more.

Of course at 8, I was on the way to the doctor's office with Emma since they just couldn't take my word that it was strep and call me in some amoxycillin. They'd rather I bring in her and contaminate their waiting room all for a 20 dollar copay to tell me what I already knew. And when I finally got home and had lunch and was ready to just fall into bed before that night's festivities...the new neighbors behind us were having a party. With a bouncy house. And shrieking toddlers.

And my second party of the weekend was another round of good old fashioned Bingo. Fortunately it wasn't as crazy as last year. Although this year there were two bottles of Boone's and some other rather inappropriate gifts that I won't talk about since this is a family site. There were a few less people since a lot of our class was gearing up for the big Houston Marathon and apparently fajitas, drinks and Bingo the night before doesn't really help. But those that did come were some of the closest friends we have made and they didn't care that I was a grumpy bitch.

And the upside to the smaller crowd was that I got to see what everyone won this year. So that when the crystal vases showed up around my house, I knew exactly who to return them too. And when the Obama plate with its certificate of authentication appeared on the nightstand, we knew exactly whose back seat it was being hidden in. Although, the Starbucks card placed in the coffee mug left behind was a welcome surprise. And the bottle of wine...bonus. And the food and the company and the fun lasted well into the night.

So that's why I had to sleep all week. And why I've been a bum. And why I'm done with parties til...at least June. Well hosting them anyway. I'm more than happy to recover from those that I don't have to clean up after.