Mercedes and the Girls

Wow.  What a fabulous time spent with Derek in Vegas.  I took virtually no pictures--crazy, I know, but we were too busy running around and soaking each other in.  We ran into craziness yesterday.  We were supposed to leave Vegas by noon or so to grab kids and get them home, but we ended up not leaving until 6:30 PM.  Thanks so much to everyone who helped out with the girls, getting them to bed and settled while we zoomed up to Salt Lake.

The girls had gotten me presents for my birthday and had made darling cards.

They have paid great attention lately, and take pride in knowing that I love chocolate candy!  They each picked a kind of chocolate candy to give me.

Their cards were super awesome.  Mac's again declared my love for chocolate.

Leiden's was very Mommy and Derek centered, with us in our wedding clothes and the temple.  SO cute.  She thanked me for being the best mom in the world and taking such good care of her and her sisters.

Mimi's was a mix of both chocolate and wedding.  Complete with backwards I HEART U, and a wedding veil.  Love it!

The girls seemed to excited to be back in the swing of things after I had been gone for so long.  Mimi was thrilled to go to school.

Later this afternoon, Derek had gifts for the girls.  He gave them beautiful scarves and fun little bracelets with scorpions in them.

Tonight the birthday celebrations continued with family dinner at Spaghetti Factory.  The highlight of the evening was the singing.  My mom always goes crazy with her operatic harmonizing, but what surprised us all was Derek busting out HIS!  My mom was super excited to have a partner in crime!

They have a cotton candy drink.  Like a real live drink with legit cotton candy on the straw!  I couldn't resist.

The balloon guy was wandering the restaurant, and Mimi got a crown.

When he found out it was my birthday celebration, he made me a giant candle hat out of balloons.  It was actually pretty clever stuff, although hard to see in the picture.

Bapa joined in the fun and borrowed Mimi's hat.

Thanks everyone for such a fun night out!