Ila's Birthday, Mom's visit and our New to us Car...wait, no it's a short bus

All of sudden my boring life got really busy, so there's lots to talk about.  Well, our little girl is growing up...tear...on the last day of January, Ila had her fifth birthday.  I feel that day is ushering in a new year of changes in regards to Ila.  She'll be in Kindergarten soon which means that we'll be facing new challenges like peer groups, mean kids and the PTA.  There will school parties, open houses and meltdowns over her favorite shirt not being clean to wear to school.  Yes, we're on the brink of a whole new set of challenges, but before I have a panic attack, let's focus on her special day.  We had a few of her friends from school and church over.  The theme she picked was 'Barbie and the Diamond Castle.'  They all got to dress up as princesses and we ate pizza, had cake, smashed a pinata, jumped in the bounce house and watched a little Barbie and the Diamond Castle.  The best part is that my mom, sister and two nieces were able to come for a visit and just happened to be here over the time of her party.  

Kristina (mi hermana) had surgery on her shoulder so I finally talked her into coming out and staying out here for a little while where she would be less tempted to hurt herself again by using it too much.  So, she and my mom came and brought her youngest, Sophie.  Aiden and Sophie got along for the most part.  Sophie was a little rough and much to my surprise Aiden just took it.  But by the end of their stay, he started fighting back.  I think he was secretly hoping that she would leave but when she kept coming back, I think he gave up.  I think we had a good visit and it was too short.  But, they've sworn to come back in the summer with all of the girls so, we are really looking forward to that.

Finally, the last of our big events is that under much protest from myself, we got a new car.  Well, it's new to us, after all we're not high rollers...but, Jason was convinced my car would not make it past a year and he was afraid by then we would have missed our chance to buy b/c he'd be done with school and we'd be even more poor.  So, he made me sell my car, which much to my surprise someone actually bought it even though I was completely honest about what was wrong with it.  Then we fought for about a month about what kind of car, etc and he was really annoyed with Consumer Reports by the end of it.  But, we did a lot of compromising and research and finally settled on a Ford Windstar...hold the comments please.   I hate mini vans but, it was just such a good deal that we had to take it and it wasn't on the Consumer Reports bad list for that year, so, we're all happy.  When it comes down to it, we've been really blessed through this whole thing, and we came out both winning.  I got to pay bills and he got a new car.