New Year's & Arnold's Birthday!

Hubby's birthday falls on new Year's. he was actually the New Year's baby for 1982 in his county. He never lets me forget it and tells everyone that story, haha ;) Anyway, on New Year's eve this year we didn't really have any plans so we decided to have a little family party/get togther at home with just the 5 of us and celebrate both things at once. We ate our dinner on happy birthday plates and we wore silly hats around the the kids wore party bead necklaces. I rented "Home" which we have already seen but it's a cute movie and I knew everyone could agree on that one. I even bought the little individual popcorn holders for the kids while we ate during the movie. it's the little things ;) We played charades and Heads Up and lots of fun games. the kids thought it was a blast, even if it was simple. Our friend Chasity surprised us and stopped by with some of her yummy cupcakes... for Arnold's birthday. We put a candle in one and sang to him :) We let the kids stay up til midnight and they did better than I did! I am so lame now! I was tired by 10:30 and me and the dogs rested for awhile waiting on the ball to drop. At midnight we let the kids blow these noisemakers and they were jumping around the living room :) Caleb even asked if they could stay up even later. Um.. no! 

New Year's Day we went out for a birthday lunch at Applebee's for Arnold. He hoped to get through the lunch without the waiters singing to him, but RACHEL told our waitress it was her daddy's birthday, so they came out at the end ;) They brought a little icecream sundae and extra spoons so we could share ;) After lunch we went to Game Stop to let the kids use a giftcard they had and they bought some new skylanders for their XBOX they got for Christmas. Then we stopped by Target and let Caleb pick out a new lego set with some of his christmas money. The kids all just have to spend their money as soon as they get it. (wonder where they get that from?!)

That evening we went over to Mom and Dad's for dinner. Grandpa came over too. They made homemade pizzas for Arnold's birthday. this is a big deal because my mom is one who does the traditional "lucky" dinner on New Year's with the greens and black eyed peas and all that, but she did this instead for Arnold since his fave food is pizza ;) The kids had a blast helping roll out the dough and put on the toppings. They also kept sneaking cheese and olives throughout the process and I was afraid we were going to run out ;) It was a fun evening over there hanging out with mom and dad and the pizzas turned out delicious! Mom even sent us home with some leftover dough to freeze and use another night. 

Skipping ahead a little bit... last minute a friend of Arnold's couldn't use tickets he had to go see a Rolling Stones cover band in Charlotte that Saturday, so he asked Arnold if he wanted them. We were afraid we wouldn't get sitters that late of notice but Arnold's parents took the kids over night!! We dropped them off and headed down to Charlotte. First the GPS in our phones didn't pick up what Arnold said and led us to the wrong place. Then we found the place after driving around. After we knew where we were going, we decided to go find something to eat. I kept putting in local restaurants and it brought up like 20 Chinese places.. whaaaat?! I wanted to go to a nice place and eat since we were alone! We drove even more and ended up at Outback but the line was out the door! We had been driving for hours by then and were tired and frustrated. Then Arnold accidentally went on a one way-thing to turn and realized it and had to jump a median! It about scared the you know what out of me. At that point I was crying, Arnold was ticked, and it was almost time for the show and we hadn't even eaten. So we started to head home. Yep, the trip was for nothing. Well.. at least we were together kid-free. but I don't know if the stress was worth it! We ended up eating at Fatz on the way home, finally, at 9:30 at night. There were hardly anyone left in there! Then we ended up at Walmart getting dog food. Some date! But at least we had a crazy story to tell at church the next morning, haha! Here's hoping our next date night goes much better! ;)

Some goodies I picked up for our birthday/new years party at home.

Arnold and I being silly and taking selfies with our hats on

Getting ready to sing to Arnold and then eat some yummy cupcakes!

Arnold at his birthday lunch at Applebee's! With the dessert they brought him.

Even on a holiday it seems like we end up at Target... oops

Daddy with his sweet babies :)

Making pizzas at Grandma's! We had a blast!

Some of the pizzas ready to go in the oven. Arnold's was heavy on meat. Mine and the girl's had a lot less on it but was still yummy. 

Grandma and her girls

Arnold and I taking selfies in the van while we waited on Arnold

Rachel decided to photo bomb us!

Me with my sweet birthday boy!

This was us eating at Fatz finally, after our crazy failed date night! You can't tell on my face but I had just washed off a bunch of mascara that was running down my face from crying... haha.