eight is great

We gave out beach balls with the invitation for Paige’s “dive-in” movie birthday party. Paige had been planning her party since April and could barely contain her excitement. So we planned to swim and swim and swim, and while we were swimming, would watch Aquamarine on the big outdoor screen.

Hitch One – July 23rd seems to be a poorly placed date on the calendar. With the start of school looming, many of Paigey’s little friends were on vacation. And it is all. my. fault. for having her in July. We did manage, however, to wrangle in a couple gals that were still up to party.

Hitch Two – Mother Nature decided this would also be a perfect week for monsoons. One of the only weeks, in fact. So, after about an hour, when the dark clouds started to roll in, we made our way inside for cake and ice cream.

Operation Plan B was officially underway and we headed for the bowling alley. The girls were surprisingly thrilled about it and had a really great time. It took almost 90 minutes for the 5 girls to bowl ONE game. The overhead monitors clocked some of the girls balls at a whopping 3 mph! Thank goodness for bumper bowling.

It was really something special when the front desk called Paige up to the front. They made an announcement over the PA system and everyone in the bowling alley wished her a happy birthday. She was presented with a bowling pin that everyone in our party could write a birthday greeting on. Talk about spoiled! :)

posers

Friday was our annual sisters Halloween party. Good chili, good treats, good company.

I have some pictures of the kids - but mostly we let the kids run wild and experimented with my camera and it's timer feature. I'm not kidding when I say we spent a good 30 minutes taking pictures of ourselves! (Should I be embarrassed to admit that? I'm not.) I figure the kids will have another chance at the spotlight on Halloween night.

We all turned out in costume. Justin and Sara did a hilarious clothes swap (sound familiar?) I couldn't take Justin seriously all night. Dad & Karen - came from south of the border, Mara - a very black widow, Faith - a great witch, Joe - a convincing werewolf, I was obviously a nun and Todd was, um, he was uh... a dead head (?). I always forget how much I hate that awful hair (but it comes in handy as a last minute costume).

welcoming fall

October is here! To celebrate, we had a party. We kicked it off with a little chili and cornbread. I made popcorn ball jack-o-lantern treats - they didn't turn out as flawless as I intended (I'm no Martha Stewart), but they were gobbled up all the same.

The kids ran around as we waited for dark. Taylor appointed himself drill sergeant for a bit and the kids did sit ups, drills and obstacle courses. Everyone brought their own pillows and blankets and watched a Halloween themed movie outside, Corpse Bride. Everyone had a great time. I was surprised that, for the most part, the kids stayed put to enjoy the movie. Although, towards the end, Gabriel, Issak and Ethan opted to bounce on the trampoline instead.

Hooray for the outdoors! Bring on the holidays...

swimming party

For Gabriel's birthday, we had a small swimming party - his favorite - with family. Here's a peek of some of the festivities. I attempted to use stop motion - because I just don't think independent still photos show the chaos that is a child's swim party. (The song will be familiar, there just isn't a better one for swimming!)

it's not your birthday unless you celebrate all week

Her birthday started out with Cinderella waffles on the coveted red 'special' plate. The Beatles Birthday song blaring, we had a family jam session.

Miss Paige had 2 birthday parties - one for cousins and one for friends.

Paige chose a spaghetti dinner and swimming with cousins. We made brownies instead of cake and had lots of chaos -- I mean fun!

Good times were had by all:

Her friend party was a very girly beauty salon. I recruited a couple of my friends to help (thanks Sara and Amber). Each girl got a mud mask, makeup, hair and toenails done. They left looking gorgeous and I'm sure felt pampered.

Paige had 2 solid days of 'all about me' time and milked it for everything she could. Now she has to go an entire year before she gets any attention again. Just kidding. We love you.

Hau`oli la hanau!

... or, Happy Birthday! (for those of you less fluent than I in Hawaiian)

Friday night we celebrated Faith's 30th year with a tropical celebration. Not trusting our party skills, she planned and hosted her own luau. Faith is a party planner extraordinaire, and every last detail was fantastic.

Just a sampling of her tropical paradise party include::

Invitations (message in a bottle) ~

Leis for the babes and shell necklaces for the dudes at the entrance ~

Colorful umbrella drinks~

Exclusive tiki bar (made by handy hubby Joe) ~

next to their own blue lagoon~

Hoola girls~

Flame blowers~

Fine dining and scrumptious food~

~Faith even managed nice weather (warm but no monsoons)~

Not to mention fun friends and family ~

and birthday kisses from her favorite boys~

Happy 30th Birthday Faith!!

girly girl movie night

Paigey invited some friends over for an outdoor movie party this past weekend. Each brought their favorite pillow and blanket and at the last minute they turned it into a pajama party (naturally...it was at night). They had a crazy fun time. I think I had nearly as good a time playing cool mom hostess.

Highlights of the evening were:

*Paige brought out a slew of her dolls and stuffed animals and distributed them amongst her friends

*dancing to a blaring Hannah Montana soundtrack all over the yard

*simon says and duck-duck goose games (I worried they would feel like they were 'baby' games, but they ate it up) and hide and go seek (one of the girls suggested 'truth or dare' and I nixed that, thinking back on the game as a teenager. perhaps I jumped the gun, considering they are 7-ish years old and I was chaperoning)

*snacks for the everyday movie-goer

*the girls all involved Gabriel into their activities enthusiastically and would giggle when he did something funny... he tested each girls' pillow for softness, danced, jumped and swinged with the best of them and ate their popcorn off the grass (so helpful)

*big brother and his friend banished to the house to keep them from ruining girls' fun with relentless mockery.

Who knew I would fully recommend hosting a group of 7 year old girls? I think it's a real accomplishment when when they enjoy the activities, food and the mommy hanging around! It is too much to hope that the same attitude continues into their teenage years?

isaak is 2

Monday was Ikey's terrible two birthday party (although I have not yet been witness to anything terrible on his part). I captured this picture of him at the party. At first I was a bit perturbed that Faith and her camera got in the way of my awesome shot. Then I figured, our children are subjected to having a camera in their faces on daily basis, so it was actually pretty fitting.






There was enough food to feed an army of monsters, 'monstrous' cupcakes, 'monstrous' bubbles, and an all around 'monstrous' good time. Happy Birthday Buddy!

another rockin' good time

I contemplated whether or not I even wanted to post this. But, really there were just too many pictures that I just have to get out there. Case in point:Ya. Look closely. He's wearing eyeliner.

I guess I should explain... Sara and Justin hosted a 'Guitar Hero' party. Faith made up some awesome invitations that looked like concert tickets and instructed us to come dressed as musicians, groupies, stage hands, etc. Todd took this challenge seriously and raided my make-up bag, wore his favorite Metallica shirt and rolled up his pants! As for myself, I dressed up as a concert-goer (I didn't dress up).

But the prize for best outfit went to Faith and Joe. I'm not sure it came with a real rocker vibe - well, maybe 80's rock. Joe was definately 'Joe Cool', but it was hard to look at him because I just know my dad had almost that exact ensemble at one time. Faith rocked her side ponytail and all night she heard, "Vote for Pedro" (from Napoleon Dynamite - the similarity was spooky)!

Other than the 3 of them, nobody dressed up. How lame, right? But we did manage to get a couple of decent shots of everyone doing the rocker pose of the evening:

It just wouldn't be good parenting if we didn't let the kids get in on it too!

Rock on!

'tis the season

With close to just 2 weeks left of Christmas, I decided it was time to buckle down this weekend and get some holiday spirit going. The weather cooperated and helped put us in the mood - it was rainy and chilly and so hot-chocolately.

Daddy was home so he put his expert engineering skills to work and put the train around the tree. Taylor gets the 'most holiday spirit award' for his dancing skills and love of loud Christmas tunes. As soon as he realized we would be doing something Christmas related, he ran to the stereo and found the music and pumped it LOUD for all to enjoy. He danced on his own and with Gabriel and each loved it equally. Gabriel wins the 'most excited about the train award' - he was the first to sit down to watch the train and the least willing to go to bed and leave the train. When the train first started up, he just laughed and choo-chooed and signed 'train' over and over.

Luckily, Paige was enthusiastic about decorating, otherwise it could very well be another week until it was done. She wins the 'most helpful award'... sort of. We had fun putting up the tiny trees that I allow the kids to decorate however they want. She had an unscheduled invitation to play in the middle of our decorating party, and rushed off - leaving me to finish it all alone.

That evening, Mara had a gingerbread making/pizza party at her house. The kids look forward to this each year. Taylor and Paige make houses and Gabriel decorated a gingerbread man. All the cousins were excited about their crafting skills and did a great job on their projects. I'm reminded, though, each time all the cousins get together that outside parties are much more fun for the mommies. Inside parties wear a bit on this mommy's ears. :)

As if all that wasn't enough fun for one weekend, we got really crazy and went to our ward Christmas party. The kids were happy to put in their requests with Santa- with the exception of Taylor who declared that he was officially too old to meet Santa and he sat this one out. Awww... I guess it was bound to happen. We were nearly the last in line and it was a long, hot wait. Paige and her little friend were just silly and cute, I enjoyed watching them run around holding hands and giggling together. Gabriel was a tad nervous about his visit with Santa until he was told that it was Grandpa (not his, just a grandpa). Then he sat on his lap and stared suspiciously. When he was all done he signed 'thank you' which brought many aahhhhs from those still around to watch.