Shalyn turns 17

Shalyn moved in just in time to have her birthday with us.
She wanted red velvet cake.

We went out to eat at Longhorn Steakhouse. Yumm! Then home for cake.

She got swim goggles from Richard. This girl can rock some goggles.

Adorable.

Happy Birthday Emma!

Never afraid to show the wacky side of her personality, that is, if you happen to be close friend or family. Publicly she appears completely reserved and shy, but that is not the Emma we know and love. Our albums are filled with the wackiness of this girl.

Lives on a diet of peanut butter and chocolate and remains one of the skinniest girls I know. Oh, how I wish her diet worked for me. She always prefers a chocolatey, gourmet-type dessert for a birthday cake rather than something decorated all fancy or cute. It's all about the taste. This delicious cake was filled with chocolate chips and served with hot fudge. Super yum!

Emma is another year older and it's really starting to show now. She's suddenly looking so much more grown up. The has the only math/science, left brain in the family. She excels at those subjects, but amazingly also seems to be blessed with a love for music and sings like an angel. (More on that later.)

Ellie is 8

Ellie had a great birthday this year. It was an even birthday, so that meant a family party. Her big gift was a new American Girl doll from her older siblings. Wow! Josephina doll is a beauty. Silly Ellie had a few odd requests for her cake. She wanted it to be chocolate and strawberry and it had to say, HI. It also had to use the "8" candle AND the tall skinny candles. So that's what she got. Not the best looking birthday cake, but she LOVED it. Yay!

Happy Birthday Lauren

This sweet girl (yes, I said sweet) is growing into such a kind-hearted, energetic as always, fun tween. She's finally 10. That means she got to have her ears pierced. She was so excited, right up until the very last moment when she suddenly decided she wasn't ready yet. I was able to convince her that she was, indeed, ready and would really regret it if she didn't go through with it. In the end she was glad she did. This is a girl of many eclectic styles and tastes in . . .well, everything. She is certainly destined for something that requires imagination and a free spirit. She has the ambition and energy to make things happen.

She wanted a "peace" cake. She wanted to get her ears pierced. She wanted a cool sled. She wanted to get her American Girl doll's ears pierced and get new stuff for it. She wanted to spend the day at Chuck E. Cheese. I talked her into America's Incredible Pizza. She was very happy with that choice. In fact, she took her best friend and we spent about 6 hours there. Who knew you could eat and play games for that long? She was thrilled and kept saying that it was the "best day of her life." Yay for best days! She also really wanted a motor scooter. She's been wanting this for about a year now. It just doesn't seem to ever happen. Maybe someday. Other than that though she was able to get everything she wanted. Happy Birthday, Beautiful Lauren!

Maddie's Birthday

This post is late in coming, but Maddie has turned 16! No, she's not dating. No, she's not driving. And it's all okay. (Just thought I'd get those out of the way right up front because everyone asks.)
She had a fun party here at the house. Lots of friends came. They played games, ate food, listened to music, and sat around the fire pit. She got flowers (because I remember Ronda gave me flowers when I turned 16 and I thought it was so cool), cutie balloons, and a Twilight themed birthday cake. (It's supposed to look like Bella's cake. I fully intended to do a three-layer cake, but once I got started, realized that that was A LOT of cake. I couldn't imagine what we would do with all of it, so I stuck to just two layers. It's not an exact replica, but pretty good for a beginner. I still haven't quite figured out how to get the corners squared with the fondant. I bet I could have done a better job if my cake were styrofoam like the movie cake was. But this post is supposed to be about a birthday, not a cake, so. . .anyway. . .) Yay! Hopefully she will get a license soon and she can start doing some of the driving. She's so busy and that keeps me busy too. Aint she cute?

(I hired this nice lady to be a stand in Mom. She's a lot more photogenic than me. Thanks, Jacque.)

Happy Birthday (cont.)

It seems to happen at our house that birthdays last for several days. First there's party day and then the real birthday. Well, real birthday just happened to fall on our busiest day, so we had to squeeze party stuff in between regular stuff. So, here's what we did:
For lunch I took pizza and rainbow cupcakes to school to share with her friends. It was great and the cupcakes were a hit at the middle school. I was so glad they tasted as good as they looked.
After school we did all of our regular running around and finally at 9:00 that night (after art club, dance, YW at two different locations, and something else that I can't even remember anymore) we were able to do some at-home birthday stuff. Maddie made a fun birthday banner for her, we ate the left-over cupcakes, and opened a few gifts. I gave her the "birthday ball" which is a fun idea I got from a friend in CA. I've used it a few times now. It's basically a bunch of gifts all wrapped up in crepe paper streamers that form a ball. It's fun to unwrap because you just can't believe how many things are tucked inside. Emma's ball was smaller than a football and included a T-shirt, 2 packs of gum, 3 sets of 3 pair earrings, a pack of pens, cash, nail polish, coupons for future dates with Mom, and a couple other things that I can't remember. Everyone watching enjoys this gift as much as the recipient. There's just so much anticipation.
We all love her!!

Another Birthday

Emma's birthday party was very teenagey--appropriate because she is now a teen!
It started at the movie theater because it just happened to be our orthodontist's patient appreciation party that day that we were planning to attend. (Who wouldn't want to see Iron Man 2 for free?) So we just incorporated that into the birthday party and invited all her friends to come as guests. It was great. (I ended up watching How To Train Your Dragon with Ellie.)
Then we headed to the mall for a mall scavenger hunt and pizza. We ate our fill and then sat around while the girls left in teams to find all the stuff. They had fun, I had a relaxing time--win, win for all. Then they returned for "cookie" cake. Emma would rather have cookies than cake any day so that was her special request. I made it myself and she is certain that a "real" one from the store would be better, but I thought it was pretty darn good. The winners of the scavenger hunt won a HUGE prize. They got to pick their party favor bag first. The bags were made by me from fabric I had on hand. I found the pattern online and thought it was so cute. This was the most economical and easy party I have ever done. A great time was had by all=SUCCESS!
P.S.-notice that all the girls are wearing blue eye shadow. It was part of the scavenger hunt. I thought they all looked quite cute.
P.P.S.-Dillards will not let you have a shopping bag. Don't even bother asking for one.
P.P.P.S.-Foot Locker has too many blue shoes to count.
P.P.P.P.S.-the people that work at Sbarro are really nice :)
P.P.P.P.P.S.-I have a gorgeous 13 year old.

Fairy Cake

Here are better pictures of the cake. I couldn't get them to load before for some reason.

Ellie's 7th Birthday

Well, the big Fairy Party is finally over and we can now return to life as we know it. It was actually a fun party to plan and put together, but it ended up being a lot of work. Here's what we did.
As the kids arrived I had Maddie sitting at the fairy transformation booth where they could get fairy (lip) gloss, fairy dust (body glitter), and nail stickers.
Then they went to the table to decorate their goody bags.
These were just time fillers to wait for everyone to arrive.
When all were present we started making our fairy skirts.
I had strips of tulle and sheer fabrics and taught them how to "tie" them to their elastic. They did a great job actually. I was quite pleased.
Then we had a fairy freeze dance to Tinkerbell soundtrack songs. Maddie was the DJ. She found the perfect music. Thank you, Maddie.

Then it was picture time. I had everyone pose against our fairy garden backdrop which was designed and painted by our family. Everyone helped, but I ended up doing most of the painting. This was the item that I started wondering why I thought it was going to be a good idea. Just FYI, if you are ever going to do a fairy party, go ahead and buy the fairy backdrop from WalMart for $18.00 and forget about this.

Time for outdoor games. Luckily the weather was PERFECT! I couldn't have asked for a nicer day. I told them a story about watching stars the night before and seeing a couple of stars fly right across our yard and something was falling to the ground. I finally figured out that it must have been the tooth fairy and the gem fairy, because it looked like coins and jewels that were falling. The kids were totally eating this up. I just love how their imaginations can make these things seem real. So, they took their bags to go look for "fairy treasure" (candy coins and jolly ranchers). They decided that it must have been candy fairies that I saw, because they only found candy. I loved it.
The next game we played was Fairy Freeze Tag. One girl had a yellow (fly) wand and another had a blue (freeze) wand. If the blue wand got you, you were frozen, if the yellow wand got you, you could "fly". We just took turns getting the wands (about 2 minutes each). They loved this too.
Then we played Fairy Godmother, May I. I was the Fairy Godmother. I'm sure you can figure this one out.
Time to eat. On the menu was:
Fairy Fizz- pink lemonade with 7-up
Fairy Wands- pretzels dipped in pink candy coating and sparkle sugar
Fairy Bread- bread and butter, cut in shapes sprinkled with sparkle sugar
Fruit Bouquet
Jelly Bean Jewels
and Taquitos (because it was dinner time and they needed something real to eat.)
Then Cake time. Ellie had very specific requests for the cake. It had to be 3 tiered, rainbow swirl, with fairies. So, that's exactly what she got. It was a fun cake to make. Maddie said it was the best cake I ever made-looks and taste! Wow, I don't get compliments like that on my cakes very often. Yay for me!!
Ellie opened presents, we gathered all our take-homes, and then went outside with a bottle of bubbles to wait for parents. It turned out great.

Another Year

This was about as low-key a birthday as they come. I made a cake and let the little ones decorate it. Ellie let me wear a veiled crown and boa. I opened the dollar store gifts from everyone which included flowers, a frame or two, body wash, a tape measure, and a few other fun items. The big gift was an electric can opener--awesome! But the really big gift was that the kids cleaned the kitchen, decorated it all up for me, and behaved like angels for the whole day. I couldn't ask for more. It was wonderful.

Ooey, Gooey Birthday Party

Hooray! Lauren is 9 and her party is over! Lauren has always been unique. . . individual . . . and proud to be so. While I love this about her, it also drives me crazy sometimes. She also LOVES everything messy; the messier the better. Well, it's party year at our house, so Lauren's idea of a perfect party is an "Ooey, Gooey Party". Can you imagine what this is? This is a party where you get together with 7 of your best friends and make things like Ooblek, and Glop, and play with Gak, Noise putty, silly putty, Floam, and a variety of other gooey things. Then, you watch a "scary" Goosebumps movie and sleep over. Then you get up and make name pancakes with everyone. Unfortunately I don't have a single picture. It was a full time, hands on job managing this event. Of course, Richard did his job by getting as far away from this as possible. . . all the way to Pheonix. Then, Maddie ended up being a huge help (NOT) by going to a movie with her friends. Thank heavens for Emma.
The kids all seemed to love it. They all wanted the recipes and declared this party as the BEST birthday they'd ever been to and many decided they wanted an Ooey, Gooey party this year. That made me laugh.
The pictures we do have are of the night before when we went to Red Robin as a family.
Just in case you want an ooey gooey event I'll post the recipes. I really don't suggest this as a sleep over. It's a bit too much.

Glop

4 oz. bottle of white glue
2 liter bowl
1 pt. distilled water (I didn't use distilled and it worked fine)
Borax powder
Food coloring

Pour glue into a bowl. Fill the glue bottles with water, shake and pour into the bowl. Add 1 C. water and food coloring. Stir. Add Borax 1 tsp. at a time and stir until glop starts to form. Take glop out as you see it forming and continue to add Borax to the remaining mixture.

This really is fun to play with.

Ooblek

1 1/2 C. cornstarch
1 C. water
food coloring

mix together and see the magic. Tap it hard and it feels like a solid, set your fingers on it and it feels like a liquid. Add extra water the next day and it's still lots of fun.

Maddie's 15th

I can't believe my girl is already 15. Yikes really! She is getting more lovely everyday. For a complete post of her birthday check her blog post.

Finally 12

Happy Birthday to Emma! Festivities included: shopping trip w/Mom for new clothes, family lunch at Steak 'N Shake, then off to the theater to see the Hannah Montana movie (it was actually pretty cute). Her very favorite cake is chocolate on chocolate with more chocolate, so that's what she got. Yummm. Apparently she got my taste for cake. Then she got roller blades and she's been skating nearly everyday since then. I love her.