Party Time!

Emma and Eli are used to sharing their birthdays and both were due for a party so I started thinking of how we could have a combined party that would be good for 11 yr. old boys and 13 yr old girls. A few years ago we did ice skating and that worked great. After some thought we decided on "Jump Street". Then one night as Emma and I were reading scriptures she said "You know what I would love to do for my party? A mall party." Which I soon discovered meant a mall scavenger hunt. Suddenly lots of fun memories from my mutual days flooded my mind. I was lucky to have some really fun leaders and we had at least 2 mall scavenger hunts. However, I said "Well we already were planning on Jump Street..." She said "Ya, maybe next year." Anyway, this was Tues. night and the party was planned for Saturday even though I had yet to make an invite. Horrible I know. But, we do our best right? Anyway after phone calls to my most trusted advisers, Dana and my sisters (that I would need help from), we decided to have everyone meet here and then split off. The boys going to "Jump Street" and the girls to the mall. It was like SUPER crazy with that many kids here in our regular-sized house (esp. when a couple "active" type boys showed up about an hour early!). Oh and the kids got pizza. Probably Eli's favorite present of all :)

I had a last minute idea to make birthday shirts for them to wear that night and their friends to sign. 

I'm no artist but I think they turned out pretty cute. I should know better than to try cursive though.

 

So we had pizza, the kids decorated a cupcake (the girls seemed a little more interested in this than the boys- go figure!), and opened presents. I got a couple group pictures and we were off. Oh and sang "Happy Birthday" and blew out candles of course. 

The Boys
 

The Girls (Holly was beyond thrilled to be a part of the "big" girls)
 

I went with the girls so obviously didn't get any pictures of the boys, but Dana said they all seemed to have a great time.

To pick teams for the girls, I had 3 colors of ribbon in a bag and they had to choose one with their eyes closed. The teams worked out perfect- three girls on each. In my research for "mall scavenger hunt" online (which was WAY more popular than I knew) a few people said their malls didn't allow or like scavenger hunts so I tried to keep our activities non-annoying and the smaller groups were helpful with that too. Here's a couple of the several tasks they had to do:

• Find out what year the mall was built 
• Ask an elder person for some "advice for life" 

Haha I loved that one! Here's a far away picture I took of the girls asking a man in the food court.

   

Since I was taking a picture of something far off this girl came up and asked me if there was a celebrity over there. Funny:) Anyway, the man said "Have fun, work hard, study hard, and stay away from drugs." Pretty good for the spur of the moment I thought!

Here are a couple of the photos they had to get:

Everyone wearing sunglasses
 

Mimic a window display
 

We also had special guests: our "hidden superheroes" that my niece and her friends volunteered to be for me and the "classy lady" that my fun sister portrayed. They were so cute!

   

The list said, "Once you've completed everything, find the 'classy lady' wearing sunglasses, a headscarf, and red shoes and she will give you a clue of where you need to go to win." Is my sister the best or what?

   

At the end we compared pictures and swapped stories of things that happened. It was so fun! 

Here are the group leaders- Christine, me and Amy. I'm so grateful for their help!

   

Best of all Emma kept telling me that it was so much fun. Yea! 

 

I wish I would've gotten more pictures of all the girls together at the mall cause they're all so adorable and sweet. Emma is blessed with such wonderful friends. 

Hopefully we're all partied out for awhile (like 3 years at least?)

Eli's 11th Birthday

Ten years ago he was just this little...

Oh man, I love those brown eyes.

And time has just flown by. On his birthday Dana was working from home and so we both got to pick him up for lunch! He was pretty excited about that.

His present from us this year is the gear to start "Sparring". He had his intro class last week. I pretty much just sat there watching him with a big smile on my face for half an hour. It was just so cute I couldn't help it. He starts into the real class today. Hopefully get to put some of the karate learning into practice.

 

I also just went down to the scout store the other day and got him his shirt and patches, etc for Boy Scouts. Friday night and Sat. morning Dana went to Day Camp with him and they had a fun time.

 

He sure is growing. I can't help but think of the changes he will make in the next 10 years! I know it'll go by way too fast.

Eli we love you so much. You are so good and kind and fun and unique. I know you will make your life amazing. We're so blessed to have you in our family sweet boy :)

Emma's 13th Birthday (Week)

Emma's birthday fell on a Sunday this year. On her actual birthday she felt like she got the raw end of the deal a little bit. But she got the at-home royal treatment that day including: waking up to streamers in her doorway, her birthday cereal for breakfast, extra love and hugs and "Happy Birthday!"s, and some presents. Oh and the birthday spankings which I don't remember every year but gave her a few hearty ones this year.

   

 

I got her some mechanical pencils and a pink egg-shaped chapstick. It sounds bad but she loved them both SO much. She asked for the pencils and the chapstick I just thought was cool (and it worked out because apparently everyone has one.) Besides, her main gift from us was a horse-back ride to the Riparian Preserve from her horse lesson teacher, which she's been dying to do. 

The next day was President's Day (and no school) so I was hoping to make her birthday a little more fun by taking her to lunch and a little shopping. Then Amy told me that a few of Emma's friends wanted to come kidnap her in the morning for breakfast. So cute! I was so excited for her. She's getting so big! A couple friends were gone for the weekend and not back in time, so it ended up being Jane and her friend Lexi. In the morning Amy texted me to unlock the door and then they pretty much ran in and grabbed her.

 

I got to come to IHOP too :) It was so cute, she loved it.  

The rest of the day got busy so I ended up doing the lunch/shopping plan Wednesday. I loved picking her up from school and surprising her! We went to Chipotle for lunch and then over to the mall. She's been growing so fast lately. I predict we'll end up about the same height. 

Oh and to fit right into our coldest winter EVER- the Superstition Mountains had snow on them that day! I've seen the top dusted a little before but nothing like that! Course we had to get a picture- (like everyone else that lives here :)

 
I also saw some people's pictures of snow in Mesa! We got enough hail for the kids to make small snowballs, but not snow. 

Anyway, we had so much fun! We got a few things at Forever 21. We can share a lot of clothes now which is really awesome :) Then Saturday was her horse-back ride and Saturday night her and Eli's birthday party! We love the "birthday week" in our family :)

And I love YOU Emma! You are sweet, thoughtful, funny, clever, interesting, creative, helpful and so much more! Keep up the great work being as wonderful as you are ALL through the teenage years K? 

Get ready for even more birthday fun. I have 2 more posts to come...

"Fab"ruary

Although February is always busy- it's been a wonderful month so far. So before I continue on with the birthdays, here are some highlights:

The two little girls got to go to our school's Daddy-Daughter Dance. It was Sadie's first time- her being in Kindergarten now and she was SOO excited.

\

Sally and our favorite baby boy came out to visit :)

So we got our cuteness quota filled.

And of course I love spending time with Sally.

Sadie got to go on a field trip. I think she was most excited that she got to bring her lunch to school.

 

The kids got to pick out their "birthday cereals"- no small deal in this health conscious house.

 

I thought this was a good picture to summarize Valentines breakfast. I had to get a picture when I saw Sadie doing this...

Boy I'm glad that's only once a year!

Valentines evening was crazy. I was at karate with Eli late and then was trying to pull dinner out of a hat when I got home. Dana got home in the middle of the craziness and I said "Boy, this is a romantic Valentines Day isn't it?" Haha! So about 8pm when I finally got dinner on the table (spaghetti) I thought of lighting candles. The kids loved it and it made it feel like a special night. Dana and I were able to go out the next night with Dan and Amy and Sally anyway so it worked out. Besides, I see many a romantic Valentines Day in our future :)

Here's an old picture from 1998- our first Valentines together married. Dana brought roses home to me in our little apt. in Provo. I love our memories from there :)

Emma and Holly were both sick one day (Sadie wasn't at school yet) so they made some "Sick-day art".

I realized the bug had spread to Sadie when I saw that she fell asleep on the couch which NEVER happens.

 

On the day before her birthday Sadie's class sang "Happy Birthday" to her and I brought in donuts:)

Holly lost her 3rd tooth on top on Sunday.

And then one more day before yesterday.

 

Hopefully those big front two make their appearance soon and help her out with eating! (Sorry it totally looks like I never brush the girl's hair!)

On President's Day we went to the dollar theaters (along with the rest of our town) to see "Rise of the Guardians". We ended up paying extra and seeing "Wreck-it Ralph" in 3-D in the first 2 rows of the theater because that was the only thing available. We all liked it though!

And finally- I got a picture of something that I've wanted to photograph the last couple years that I see on our walk to school (only in the winter since the sun has to be in the right spot).

 

Emma had a great birthday but her celebrating isn't over so I'm going to post it all after her party.
Hope you're having a "fab"ruary as well!

Happy Birthday Booie!

Are ya ready for birthday posts?! I hope so- because they are coming your way. Ready or not. Just like 3 birthdays in a week do to me each year. But we have as much fun as possible through the chaos.

Yesterday Sadie turned SIX! My baby is 6 and she was soooo excited about it. Like- squealing with delight every time she thought about her upcoming birthday- excited. She, overall, has such a fun personality. She really wanted a party (and REALLY wanted a pinata at her party) and didn't have one last year, so we went for it. Her birthday was on Saturday so we had the party on her actual day. Since it was right after Valentines we had a "heart party" and picked up a lot of Valentines 50% off stuff for it. (yay!)

Here's the picture we used to make her invite: She loves her friends and was so excited to invite everyone:)

She wanted to help do everything to get ready for the party and was a really good helper. In fact, all 4 kids helped clean and get ready all morning. 

Emma and Holly even got Sadie all ready:) It was pretty cute.

She had 10 friends come. It was funny because during the party I kept thinking about how these little parties used to stress me out but now they seem so simple. And that it's the last time we'll have people that little at a party. So Dana and I were just enjoying all the noisy excitement. 

Sadie came up with one of the games for her party: Making people and animals out of toothpicks and marshmallows. So of course we had to do it :) Here's her creation...

I think the kids thought that was fun.

We also did a "Photo Booth"...

Pin-the-heart-between-the-giraffes-necks-making-a-heart-shape...

Of course the beloved Burro Pinata named "Lucky", who finally made it to his lucky day where he got smashed to bits...thereby fulfilling his destiny.

We also played bingo, and of course cake and presents.

And even a little time in the end for Dana to break out a few magic tricks. Okay all the tricks in his repertoire. But the kids love it. Look at their little faces.:) But I think Dana loves it even more.

Happy Birthday to our little one. You make our lives more bright, beautiful and wonderful. We are so grateful to have you!