Great weekend. We celebrated Lauren's 6th birthday. I asked Lauren if she felt different, older? She said, "I feel the same, but maybe a little older." Not that we don't want Marissa's birthdays to be special, even though we threw her's a month late and went bowling (her idea). Unfairly or not, when it comes to Lauren's birthdays we always want it to be very special. However...since Hilary is a notoriouslu huge procrastinator (not to mentioned busy with an infant and two other young kids and multiple weekly trips to the hospital) and I am cheap, we didn't have anything planned leading up to her birthday. We had a couple of ideas, like going to Olivia's Dollhouse Tea Room or maybe Adventure City but both places require a non-refundable deposit (and it's hard to make a commitment since we never know how Lauren will be doing or how many kids will be there, since any kid with even a hint of a cold is a danger), they need advanced reservations, and Lauren doesn't always do well on rides. So we settled on a movie, specifically the new Disney movie, the Princess and the Frog which opened this past weekend. To try and make it a little more special, we invited her cousin Kiera (5-yrs. old) over for a sleep over. This would be Kiera's first. Then we thought, "Why don't we make it into a slumber party!" So we asked the twins, Hannah and Haileym and also Lauren's other friend Camden (whose daddy was having a hard time leaving her) and Madyson (who couldn't make it). Sorry Owen (3 yrs old) and Tyler (3 yrs old), we felt you guys were too young, and besides you're boys. Owen told his mommy, "not fair." So Friday night we had 6 hyper, high-pitched screaming girls running around the house who didn't fall asleep until after 11:30 (Lauren's bed time is 8:30). Thankfully, not one cried for their mommy, except one did cry for her daddy, which was Marissa. She was the only one who didn't sleep with the other girls, but had the best night sleep. The other girls, were up by 6 am.

On Saturday we saw Princess and the Frog and just had lunch and cake back at our house. Taking 8 young kids to the movie was tougher than I thought. Thankfully, the twins' mom, Becky came with us. The only people that had to go to the bathroom during the movie was Hilary and Becky. Baby Finlay came and did awesome. By late Saturday afternoon, the lack of sleep definitely caught up with the kids. Everybody was beginning to -up artist, I think Lauren really enjoyed her 6th birthday and first slumber party.

Sunday was another busy day. We ended up going to two Christmas parties, one in Hollywood and the other in Beverly Hills (long drives from Corona). The events were thrown by the Sunshine Kids Foundation and We Can organization. Both are non-profit organizations dedicated to children with cancer. The Sunshine event had real snow, Santa, and the voice of SpongeBob and the We Can event had gingerbread houses and a play written and directed by a cancer survivor. While all the actors and actresses were actual actors, the only one I recognized was Eva Mendes, who played opposite Will Smith in Hitch. She also has some nice lingerie ads. Lauren's favorite part at both events was getting her face painted. Marissa definitely enjoyed the snow the most.

Needless to say, after this long weekend, the girls (and daddy) are beat!!