I keep hoping that one of these days when I go get Odette out of her crib (especially since she has so much more room in there now!), that I'll find that she's rolled over! But...
...so far I never do. Oh well! It will come, I'm sure!!!
I was very excited this morning...looks like Odette was, too! I think she could feel my anticipation for the evening's festivities!!! :) That...OR she's ALWAYS a happy baby...I think it's the second of the two!!! Hahaha!!! :)
Alegria always wants to climb in with Odette, today was no exception:
Odette was not interested.
Once we were all dressed and ready to go, we had one order of business to attend to before nap time...and that was a trip to the post office. I had promised Cameron I'd send him a new sports band for his iPod (his broke) as well as a magic 8-ball (some inside-joke thing they've got going on there in Iraq, I guess!), and some magazines he's been getting here...
At the post office, the inevitable happened. Odette cried while Alegria ran around, while I scrambled to get everything in the box for Cameron. When we'd shown up, there were only two people ahead of us in line, but as time ticked on, the line grew longer. Thankfully there are good people in this world! When I was done, I was about to go to the end of the line (which by now was out the door!), but a lady about four people away from the front told me I could go in front of her, saying that she knows what it's like to have to be out with all of the kids...! So I stood in line in front of her. Then a few minutes later, a lady two people ahead of me who was about go to the counter, motioned for me to go ahead of her as they called the next person up. What nice people! I was so grateful! We thanked the wonderful ladies, sent the package off, and left. Of course, as soon as we were out the door, Odette was fine and stopped crying. Maybe she just doesn't like the post office...!
Cameron had called while I was still getting his package taped shut, so he'd said he'd call me back in 20 minutes. As soon as we got home, he called again...ahhh! So nice! Now we could talk without me being flustered and rushed!
After talking to Cameron, I got both girls into bed for their naps and I showered and got ready and then began getting the chocolate fountain set up for the party, as well as all of the decorations.
When the girls woke up, I relaxed and we played and watched some TV. Odette is still having trouble staying erect when she sits...that, too, will come! Practice makes perfect, right?!
At about 4, I was about to start melting the chocolate to put into the chocolate fountain, but when I went to get Odette, she had had a blow out...of course...on the day that I needed things to go smoothly and where I was crunched for time! So I had to take time out to clean her up. Then, when I put her in her swing, Odette was not cooperating and was being a little fussy. I nursed her and hoped that would do the trick. By 5:15, I was getting the chocolate poured into the fountain, but Odette was still being fussy, which was a little unnerving.
Finally, Abilehi showed up and I was so relieved! She quickly came and picked Odette up and that got Odette to stop whining and that put my mind at ease and I was able to work on getting the pound cake cut up into cute little heart shapes! Poor Alegria wanted to be held, too, but we both had our hands full!
At about 6, I still had not taken out all of the fruit and set it around the chocolate fountain, so I asked Abilehi if she could do that for me while I nursed Odette.
Odette didn't nurse long, but she seemed happy and content, so I didn't worry about her anymore.
A little before 6:30, Traci and Linda showed up. By then, most everything was ready. Abilehi had cleaned up in the kitchen and had set out most of the fruit, and I had finished getting the girls' diaper bag ready for Abilehi. It wasn't long before I was able to hand over both girls to Abilehi's care after giving them goodbye kisses. She left with them...both happy and not crying, and I was able to relax the rest of the evening!
Tonight I was hosting the Sabre Coffee. For those who are wondering, the break-down goes like this: Cameron is the platoon leader for White Platoon, which is in Fox Troop, which is in Sabre Squadron, which is in 3rd ACR. Get it?
So I was hosting the coffee for the Sabre coffee group, which is a group of officer's wives at the second highest level of the hierarchy I just mentioned. That meant that I would be having at my home the wife of Cameron's boss's boss. Make sense?
Anyway. This was the first time I'd hosted a coffee and I was pretty nervous...I wanted everything to be perfect! When Traci showed up (she's the Squadron Commander's wife and she comes to all of these coffees), the first thing she said was how beautiful everything was decorated...and from then on, I was at ease! Haha! It's not like I was nervous because she's hard to please or anything...not at all! She's wonderful, great, and super nice! I knew it would be fine, I just needed to hear her say it! :)
When they had walked in the door and I was still scrambling to get the girls' diaper bag ready, she had said that they'd come a little early to see if they could help me set up or anything, making mention that they knew it might be difficult for me with both girls. Traci even asked to hold Odette for a while before Abilehi left with the girls. :)
Once Abilehi left with the girls and before everyone else showed up, I got pictures of everything.
Here's the prize and gift-bag table:
And the refreshment table:
Kerri and Lauren were the next to appear. Since that was about half of us that were going to show (and I was hungry!), I welcomed everyone and gave them the go-ahead to start eating while we waited for the rest of the guests to arrive.
Everyone loved the chocolate fountain and all of the yummy desserts to eat and dip into the chocolate! We ate and visited and had a fun time catching up since the last coffee we'd been to.
Now, the name "coffee" can be misleading. We don't necessarily have coffee at these events. Whoever hosts gets to decide how and where to host. The very first one I went to was at a restaurant. Others have been at people's homes. Since I had bought the chocolate fountain, I wanted to get good use out of it and what better time than in February, where we celebrate Valentine's Day and have a plethora of chocolate?! Obviously, Valentine's Day is over, but I decided to keep with the hearts and chocolate theme for my even and because of the chocolate fountain and because I was having games at my "coffee," I called my event "Fountains of Fun!"
Once everyone had eaten, we started playing some games. For the first game, the ladies had to try to make as many new words out of the phrase "Happy Fountains of Fun Night!" I had printed off the phrase on slips of paper with slots for them to write down their words. Kerri won that game...and one of the red pillar candles.
Next the ladies tried to guess the number of candies in a jar...and the winner got to keep the jar!
Then we played "Unwrap the Chocolate Heart." I divided the ladies into two teams. The object of the game was to finish first...and this is how they played: each team was handed a paper bag filled with chocolate hearts AND chocolate kisses. The first player had to don a set of kitchen gloves, reach into the bag, feel around for a chocolate heart (no peeking!), then unwrap it while still wearing the gloves, and finally, eat it! Then she passed the gloves and bag to the next person and the process was repeated until the last person finished!
Lauren's team won that game and they each got a small votive candle.
The next game was called "Stack the Hearts." I handed conversation hearts to everyone and they had to try to make the tallest tower without it toppling over!
Nasha won that game (after a three-way tie!) with 13 hearts stacked and got to take home a pillar candle!
After that, we made a craft. I found a cute idea for a button napkin ring at Martha Stewart.com and thought it would be a great idea to make! It wasn't too Valentine's-y so that it could be a skill used throughout the year and could be customized for each individual's tastes and home decor!
Finally, things were winding down and people started leaving. When Traci left, she thanked me for hosting and told me it was great to have been to a coffee that was different that the usual ones. She said that it was fun and when I gave her a gift bag to take home she was pleasantly surprised, saying "You didn't have to!" But I was happy to. :)
Once everyone was gone, I called Abilehi to see if she was on her way yet with the girls (I had told her she could bring them back by 8:30). She said they'd be on their way soon.
While I waited, I got a few more pictures...
I got these super cute heart-shaped napkins at Walmart during the Valentine's Day clearance sale for only 50¢ a pack!
These little arrows are actually skewers for the chocolate fountain! I glued red felt to the end as the butt of the arrow...and for the tip, with brainstorming from Abilehi and Ryan, I was able to come up with a sort of "pen cap" idea where I cut cardstock into a thin trapezoid shape and glued red hearts to the outside so that when people grabbed the arrow, they just had to take the heart off and they could use the skewer to put their fruit on and dip into the chocolate! They came out cute, don't you think?! :)
I had originally been thinking of getting large mashmallows and cutting them with a heart-shaped cookie cutter, but when I went through the Valentine's Day clearance candy aisle, they actually had heart-shaped strawberry marshmallows! Perfect!
Abilehi and Ryan and the girls finally showed up. Odette had fallen asleep in the car, so she was happy and now up for a while! Alegria, as always, was ready to have all the fun that she could find!
Here Alegria found the button napkin ring samples that I had made to show the ladies and was using them as bracelets!
But when we all moved to the kitchen to have some chocolate-dipped fruits and goodies, Alegria was not far behind!
After Abilehi and Ryan left, I finished getting the girls in their pajamas and first put Alegria to bed. Odette was pretty tired by then, you can tell!
Then I nursed Odette and she went to sleep pretty fast, just like Alegria had!
There was still cleaning to be done, so my night was not over yet.
While I cleaned up, I realized I had not gotten pictures of this cute heart card holder that I had in front of the gift bags for people to take one!
And here's a close-up of the button napkin rings that I had made to show the ladies what kinds of things they could do with them!
I had so much fun tonight and it seemed the ladies did, too! All of the planning and preparing really paid off!
Thanks to Abilehi and Ryan for fitting the last piece of the puzzle in by watching Alegria and Odette so that the night could be stress-free for me!!!
Now it's time to finish cleaning up!
Good night y'all!!! :)
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