Ninjago Party Details

When Luke get's an idea in his head there is no talking him out of it. This year he was obsessed with Lego's, specifically Ninjago's. What that now means is that I have to plan a party that lives up to his obsession. I think I look forward to birthday's because it means I get to unleash my creativity and party plan. My most favorite thing EVER!

It all started with personalized invitations.The entry table was housed the party favors, lego bingo, fortune cookies and candy.I think personalizing is such an important detail. The bags each had a personalized tag as well as each place setting.
Each party bag was filled with lego man crayons, a coloring book, treat and a Ninjago sticker. Many hours were spent making the crayons but it was so worth it.Lots of little Lego men. Luke spent lot's of time creating these little guys.I covered a 'party in a box' pinata with crepe paper and some cardstock.Party food details.Still deciding if these look like Ninjago's or Angry Birds.
Rice crispy sushi. Chocolate cupcakes and chocolate Lego bricks. Again, is it a Lego brick or a piece of cheese? Liv say's "piece of cheese." Note to self: Never make seriously awesome chocolaty cupcakes for five year olds. They will take one bit and throw the rest away. Make the $1.50 box kind!It was great party and I loved planning every moment of it for my Lukie.

Christmas 2011

Christmas Eve this year was spent eating, dancing, giving and laughing.

Cousins

Almost bed time.

Santa was very good to everyone.Anna gave everyone a handmade card and paper craft. The gifts were so thoughtful.Luke gave each of us dirty socks full of spare change. It was the cutest thing ever! And I mean EVER! I had no idea what the gift was until I opened it. Grandma and Grandpa Evans sent this over for the kids.Until next year...

Piano Recital 2011

After only 6 months of lessons Anna had her very first piano recital. I can't even begin to express how proud we are of her. She amazes us with her knowledge and dedication to learning and practicing. The month of November and December she practiced 5 songs from her Christmas book diligently. She could almost play them from memory. When it came time for her recital and she was told she only needed to play one of the five she was so disappointed. Good thing her teacher allowed her to play two. Anna played with such confidence. We are looking forward to next years recital.

Halloween 2011

We had cute and scary costumes. Anna was a tight rope walker, costume made by me. Luke was a spider and Liv was Little Miss Muffet. I hope the years of matching costumes lasts for a few more years.Melissa and Sarah were the SCARY!All together now.

Back to School Weekend

The weekend started off great.

Anna got a new hair cut on Saturday.On Sunday we had our Back to School dinner. All of Anna's favorites, salmon, rice and heart shaped brownies. Chris then gave Anna a fathers blessing, getting her ready for her big day at school.Monday morning she woke up bright and early and was excited about
school. She got dressed in her new school outfit and was excited about her new backpack. Took a couple of the traditional First day of School pictures, in the front yard.Taxi MomRight after Anna took this picture it all went bad. We got out of the car and Anna had decided to she wanted to ride her scooter. She took a hill a little to fast and fell off the scooter. My heart sank, I knew it was gonna happen as soon as I saw the front wheel begin to shake. It was awful, there was nothing I could do but watch it happen and run to her as soon as she fell. I picked her up and she was bledding and scraped up all over. After a getting her to the nurses office for some clean up and band aids, she decided she wanted to go home and not go to class. I didn't try to talk her out of that decision because I could tell she was in no shape for school.
This was the walk back to the car after the fall. As we were walking I said "Well Anna, at least you didn't ruin your clothes." Her tearful response was "I wish I had ruined my clothes and not my body!"We went home and couple of hours later Anna decided she wanted to go to school. Three hours late, but we made. Despite the bad start, she had a great day.

New Look

Anna has been asking for a few months if she could cut her hair. I've been putting it off because I wasn't really sure she wanted the short hair. Or maybe I was more worried about how traumatized I'd be. Well it being the weekend before school started, I asked if she wanted to go and get her hair cut and when she said "yes," we went.

BeforeDuringI have to admit, I was a little nervous at this point. Was she really going to like the cut?

AfterOne very happy girl. This is the cutest hair cut ever. We both love it!

Pinky

This kid kills me! Really, I have never has such a mischievous child. Went to the mall for the first time in months, three days ago and bought a very needed MAC blush. Two days later, Liv found it and did this.She is so proud of herself. I just want to scream!I can't even believe she was acting so silly for the pictures. I should have been so mad but all I could do was grab the camera and take pictures.

Life is so busy, I'm going to have to go 'blushless' for a long time. Good thing it's summer and I've got some color on my face.

Happy Birthday Craft Time

Somewhere in the big, big, big internet, I found the cutest idea. A birthday cake countdown block set. HELLO! CUTE! Hosting bunco this month gave me the perfect opportunity to make one of the block sets.

Coordinating papersWood blocks, glass plate, and mod podge, were almost done. Trickiest part is gluing the paper flat on the plate.Ta! Da! I'm done. I forgot to take a picture of my favorite part of the whole project, the crepe paper ruffle. Get out, I sewed some ruffles.

Chocolate Cake and Strawberry Cake, my fav!

Happy Birthday Grammy

It was grammies birthday this month, so my mom, brother, the kids and I went over and picked her up for lunch and cake. First it was Chando's for lunch. Taco's, torta's and burritos, oh ya!Funny faces. Do these two look alike or what?Then we went over to Freeport Bakery for her favorite cake, The Fruit Basket.This is my favorite picture of all. I see the happiness in her face as she's talking to Anna. She even mentioned at lunch how much she misses having kids around and how much she really loves the babies. She makes me happy and I was so happy to spend the day with her.The same smile, years ago.

Kitchen Remodel

I love a good deal and at Target last week I found an AMAZING deal. That means we went from this free kitchento this kitchen

for only $15. That's right, this kitchen was orginally $130 and I got it for $15 bucks. It did take a couple of hours to put toghether with all it's 1000 parts. But we did it and I had one happy little girl.