Hailey's Super Birthday Party

For Hailey's birthday party this year she wanted a Super Girl Party. It was really a big thing a couple of years ago, but there weren't any local stores that still carried that particular theme, so we made our own. (Thank you vinyl machine) We couldn't even find some plain pink note pads or journals, so we found some at the dollar store, that had dogs on them, and spray painted them pink and white. What ever it takes to make our child happy right? Everything was pink and super- except for the boy's stuff, it was red, which was ok with Hailey because red is a "shade of pink". It was actually one of the easiest parties I have ever done. We had pink lemonade and pizza and the kids played on the playground, swam and played "dribble dribble drench". The game was an immediate favorite and it ended up being the only organized game they played. It is just like duck duck goose, except you use a large sponge soaked with water, and you dribble it over each person's head as you walk around the circle and when you come to the person you want to "tag", you ring the sponge out over their head and "drench" them. It was the perfect game for a hot day! Hailey had a blast of course... she got to have almost all her friends over at the same time, she was the center of attention and she got presents... what could be better?!

Hailey choose cupcakes for her cake and we made them in pink ice cream cones. While it's not a new idea, it was something she had never seen, so she thought I was the coolest Mom ever... and I am running with that one! Colby liked them too... obviously! No one wanted to share with me except Colby, sort of. But I kind of wanted to try them, and I thought they weren't to bad either!

One of my favorite things from Hailey's party was the cards that her sisters made for her. Jade, my little artist, drew her a super girl symbol and filled the envelope with cut out stars. (for a surprise effect when she opened the card. Cambrie decided that she would share with Hailey the top ten reasons why she loves her-I attached a scan of the cards- I love sisterly love. Having grown up with 2 sisters myself, whom I cherish, I love to see those relationships bloom. I hope it makes it through high school! (ha,ha)

The Not So Washable Marker

You know those times, when you are trying to get something done and so you are only haphazardly watching your kids? While I wont mention how often that is... this particular time, the kids had been coloring at the kitchen table. Colby was of course wanting to do what ever they did, so I told them to put him in his chair and give him some stuff to color with. As far as I can remember I thought that I had only ever bought washable markers. And yet somehow, when I came to a realization that Colby had decided to make himself the canvas of his art project, I found that he had a black - NON-washable marker. Aren't all crayola markers supposed to be washable? I mean really, come on...

Of course he was all intrigued about how well it showed up on his skin. He kept showing me his arm - "ook mom ook- oooooh owie" (everything is an owie right now) To bad he couldn't see how well it showed up on his face. So off to the sink we went, he thought it was fun, because first he got to color all over himself and then he got to play in the water. What a treat right? So word to the wise- check your markers to see if they actually say washable, because obviously not all of them are.

Gotta Love Camp Rock!

Thanks to Disney my kids have what seems to me like an endless supply of music and movies. Thier latest favorite "Camp Rock" is what I have been listening to way to much lately. I do love how much they get into it, so I decided to share it. Watching them dance around and sing and play like this makes them look to old to me. I am not ready for them to grow up so fast! Watch and I am sure you will see what I mean.

So how crazy are we?

My friend Liz had a really cute idea to take all our little girls to see Raven Symone at the Turlock County fair free concert series. She made up cute invitations to invite the Moms and daughters to all go, and had it all planned out. There ended up being 3 Moms and 12 little girls, ages 3-9. We got together at 4:00 to decorate shirts, put color streaks in their hair and eat pizza. Then at 6:00 we left for the fair. The plan was to walk around and check out some of the animals and booths at the fair for awhile and then around 8:00 go get seats for the show that started at 8:30. Well... as best laid plans go, we got to the fair at the scheduled time and started to head toward where the concert would be, to check out where we would be going. As we looked in the general direction, we were amazed to find that at 6:45 the seats were pretty well filled. So instead of checking out the fair we wandered aimlessly for awhile trying to find somewhere to sit 3 moms and 12 little girls. It was a mad house!

We drew quite a bit of attention with 12 kids in hot pink tank tops walking around, and yet no one wanted to scoot over and let us sit down. Finally we squished our way in on the edge of a couple of rows, where we had to wait another hour with kids sitting behind us on the back of the bench and 2-3 kids on our laps, only to find that when the concert started, everyone stood up and practically moved up a couple rows. Most all the kids ended up standing on the benches in front of us. It actually worked out pretty good and we had decent seats for watching. Of course about 20 minutes into the show some of the girls started asking "when can we go home?" It never fails right?!?

So after about 45 minutes of Raven, we decided to hit the road. The girls had a good time, but it was late and they were all getting tired. I guess that's just the way little girls roll right?! It was fun and now we can say we have been there and done that, and I don't see a need to ever do it again!

At Tulloch with the Evans

Now that my Dad rents out the lakehouse we have to do quick trips up there to play. So Liz and I decided to take advantage of a break in the renters and take the kids up for the afternoon. As always they had a blast! They were very excited about jumping off the trampoline into the water. Even Hailey finally built up the courage to jump off. She started on the small tramp and finally worked her way up to the big one in the end. It was fun to see her so excited about her accomplishment. Once the kids realized we could take rapid fire pictures they were all about the trampoline stunts. They did helicopters, flips, cannon balls, jumping onto rafts and sometimes onto each other (we are assuming it was not on purpose).


It was great for the adults too. We really enjoyed just floating on the rafts "trying" to be carefree. It was also fun being able to spend some time with my Dad, Mom and Jayleen. Of course my Mom opted out of getting in the water. - It wasn't over 110* so it wasn't warm enough to get wet. (ha/ha)

I love having a place to go that I can let the kids just play and have fun, and I can relax and just hang out with my friends and fam while keeping an eye on them. It's the best of both worlds! Everyone wins!

FLOWERS!

One of the neat things about my Grandma Marilyn and Grandpa Mac is their love for beautiful flowers and for sharing them. I think it is so neat that they bless the homes of others with their beautiful creations. I'm grateful that they are kind enough to share them with us, and I have learned that if you return the vases the flowers will come again!! I happened to love this particular group of flowers, it just made me feel good, so I had to take a picture so I could remember them. I love the colors and combination of flowers. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Mac for sharing this beauty with us!

Our New Cousins!

This last week the Tehero's, my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Jim and their kids (my cousins) and their kids, met at the lake. So of course we crashed their party. Trying to explain to my kids who they were going to see, I told them that they were going to meet some cousins that they had never met before. Quickly they asked if these were "new cousins". To which I responded... "I guess so". Suddenly they were so excited to meet their "new cousins" - I am pleased to say they were not disappointed! They were very excited to see that there were kids that were all close to their ages. I made it a lot of fun for everyone. I loved that I was able to catch up with my cousins! It had been quite a few years since I had seen them all. It had actually been 9 years since I had seen Jaime (she and I are the same age) and her husband Mark. Both our families had grown by 3 since we were last together. They had lived a few places back east and then in Mexico, where Mark had been working the last 2 years. It was fun to catch up and hear all their neat stories about the cultural differences. His next assignment is in Kyro Egypt. I can't wait to hear about the stories from there. Anyway it was great to see everyone and my girls loved getting to know their "new cousins". Hopefully it won't be nine years before we see them again!

With Great Intent!

Colby is truly his father's son. This is just a random picture of him watching t.v., but I thought it was so cute how intent and focused he was. I was right up next to him with the camera and it didn't even faze him. Of course he never looks at me if he knows I have a camera out.

Cooking with Papa

My kids always love to "help" in the kitchen, so they were thrilled when Papa let them help him make the famous tortilla soup. Especially since it involved dropping things into the blender and watching them disappear. Papa was kind enough to let each of the kids take a turn adding items to the soup. Jade was the most consistant shadow. She was focused on seeing it through to the end. The other kids would wander in and out, watching t.v. and playing with other things, but Jade was right there the whole time, and she never missed a ingredient. Hopefully she will learn the some of Papa's secrets and then she can cook for us!

Thanks Papa!

Colby and the Turbo Bubbles

For his birthday Colby got this bubble blower called "Turbo Bubbles" which we quickly found was appropriately named. It has two little fans behind a collection of bubble holes, and when you push the button, it makes the fans turn. Colby loved the fact that he could control how fast and when the bubbles would come out. He would aim and then fire. (just another weapon of course) It was funny to watch him blow the bubbles and then try and catch them. If you got to close you would be blasted! Colby had control and he loved it! What kid, or adult for that matter doesn't love bubbles! Just a little bit of soapy heaven!

Colby's Dinosaur Party

For Colby's first friend birthday party, we had a dinosaur party. I wasn't planing on doing a friend party at such a young age, but when I saw the dinosaur masks and grabbers, I just had to do it for our little monster. Surprisingly enough Colby had a great time at his party. We did dinosaur finger plays and sang some dinosaur songs and for this age group it was perfect. Colby really enjoyed the stomping and roaring and acting like a wild animal (not to much of a stretch for him).

We tried at one point to get a picture of all the kids. There were about 12+ kids there, but with this particular age group....well, it just wasn't going to happen. So we took what we could get! Cute little monsters aren't they?!?

Probably my favorite moment of the whole party was when it came time to blow out the candles. Colby has seen flames before at campfires, on the stove and such, and he is used to us saying "no, no , it's hot", just trying to protect him of course. So when I brought around the cupcakes with the candles in it, he quickly said "Oh no, oh no, hot hot hot hot". At first I wasn't sure what he meant and then I realized that he was pointing to the flame. He wasn't real sure about me bringing a flame closer to him, but he managed to blow it out. I think it was from all the "ha ha ha" when he was saying "hot"!

Colby loved opening the presents as well, although the way he tore threw them I think he was as happy about ripping them open as he was about getting new things.

All in all I think Colby really enjoyed his first friend birthday party, all the way down to the lizards on the cupcakes, which he seemed to think were edible as well. Happy 2nd Birthday Colby! We love you- just don't grow up to fast!