Life as a Leach

Abby decided long ago that she wanted her birthday party to be a spa party. Now, I wasn't about to break the bank by taking eight little girls to one of those kid spas, so I set up a spa in our house.  Thanks to Matt, my sister, and my mom, we managed to soak feet, do facials, paint fingers and toes, and make homemade sugar scrub. Here are a few pictures of my set-up...before things got crazy! Once everyone came, we welcomed them to the spa and got them set up with a nice, warm foot soak.  I even included a few marbles to give their feet a little massage. Then I started in on the facials while my sister took a few girls to paint nails and Matt made sugar scrub with the rest.  The girls thought the cucumbers were pretty funny!  The facial mask I bought ended up being one of those clear peel-off masks...um...not so great...I'll just leave it at that... I ended up grabbing my good mud mask (using mud from the Dead Sea...

Dear Abby, Every year on your birthday, I write you a letter.  Each year, I wonder if next year I'll view October 22nd as "just" your birthday and not have a roller coaster of emotions.  In case you're wondering, it won't be this year. :) Year 4 has been a big year for your, girly.  You have had 5 major surgeries in the last year:  a VEPTR attempt/bone grafts, two VEPTR insertions, a jaw distraction/gtube placement, and jaw hardwear removal.  That's enough for anyone in their whole lifetime, but that's just a year in the life of Abby. But you know what?  This year has been HUGE for you in so many other ways, because you are not defined by your surgeries.  You "graduated" from Infants and Toddlers, started pre-k at big kid school, continue to love Young Athletes, have made leaps and bounds in eating, have wonderful friendships, have surpassed all of our expectations for physical therapy (especially with all of those surgeries!), starte...