Ellie's 4th birthday party

Well, three of the four birthdays have now been princess! Seems like that's all she ever wants! I tried and tried to talk her into Hello Kitty or Minnie Mouse, but she wouldn't budge. At least we narrowed it down from all the princesses to just Cinderella and we got away from the pink!

For her party favors, we bought Cinderella cups and filled them with all kinds of princess goodies. Wands, stickers, rings, fruit snacks, etc.

I made the tissure paper pom poms and Treven made Ellie her birthday banner. He rarely wants to do anything for his little sister, but it was all his idea. He disappeared in to the craft room and came out with this sign. Maybe he doesn't totally wish he was still the baby!

Ellie's friends all came in princess dresses, except her friend, Riggin. He came as Prince Charming; he even carried a sword around most of the night!

We bought Ellie a big girl bike for her birthday, complete with the princess carriage she can put her doll in. She wasn't quite big enough to ride it yet, but it didn't take her long to figure it out. She's an expert now and thinks she is ready for dad to take off her training wheels!

I guess I lied when I said we got away from the pink...she did insist on a pink cake with pink frosting and pink sprinkles!

I can't believe my baby is four already! She is growing like a little weed. It seems like I have to buy her clothes every time we go to town because she is too tall for everything she owns. She is super smart and loves doing preschool with me. She'll be so ready for kindergarten when she turns five...not sure how I will handle it, though!

Gary's Valentine Surprise

I had to work on Valentine's Day and wasn't too surprised when a delivery driver came in with some flowers. We get people all the time that come into the store to ask for directions, so it really wasn't unusual. Then, I happened to look at the card on the flower arrangement: it said Ellie Jones! Then, I knew something was up. I looked at the larger bouquet and it was for me! Gary hasn't sent me flowers since the year Chelsey was born; 16 years!

I can't even tell you how surprised I was! And the fact that he had gone in personally and signed the cards meant so much! I had thought that maybe his mom had gone in and done it for him, but it was his handwriting.

I also found out that he had sent bouquets to Mikayla and Chelsey at school, too. It was such a sweet and thoughtful thing to send them to the girls, too. He felt really bad about not sending a bouquet to Braquel, but he didn't know her address. We bought her an arrangement a day or two later and gave it to her when her and Keven came up for our Valentine's Day dinner!

Ellie's Valentine Party

Ellie wanted to have a Valentine party for her friends. We went to the dollar store and I let her pick out some decorations and paper supplies. Then we made invitations for three friends. She was so excited to have a "big" kid party!

We decided to stick with the Valentine/red theme for lunch. We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cut them into heart shapes. We had strawberry flavored applesauce and red fruit by the foot. We also had some red juice boxes to drink.

We asked each child to bring one dozen unfrosted cupcakes and we provided the frosting and several different sprinkles and toppings. The kids got to decorate their cupcakes to take home to their families.

The kids had a good time and I know Ellie LOVED planning her party and making cupcakes. I was even surprised by how unmessy the kids were!

Treven's D.A.R.E. Graduation

The 4th graders all do a class designed to teach them ways to say No! to drugs. I'm not sure how long the classes took, but the kids got to have a little graduation ceremony. Treven learned quite a bit and sometimes when we are talking about drugs, he says things I can't believe he knows. I always ask him where he heard that word or how he knows what a certain drug looks like or what it's called. He tells me he learned it at his D.A.R.E. class. I'm really not sure if knowing more than his parents do about drugs is a good thing or a bad thing!

Snow Forts/Angels

I was at work one day and the kids called and said dad was helping them make forts. The second I walked in the door, Ellie wanted her snow clothes on so she could show me their fort! They even built a snow couch, a snow t.v., and a snow refrigerator in it! Then, Ellie wanted to make snow angels. Then, she decided she was going to lick the snow like a dog would...silly kids!

Snow Cream

We got quite a bit of snow one day, so Mikayla decided her and Ellie would make snow cream. They took a bucket of snow outside and scooped as much as they could. They added some vanilla and a bit of milk. I'm not sure if they added anything else, but it actually turned out pretty good. The crazy part is Mikayla's outfit!!!!

New Year!

We had New Year's Eve at our house and the crew all showed up! I wrote activities on paper and put them inside of balloons. Every hour, we popped a balloon and did whatever the activity said. We made a time capsule, had a hairy leg contest, and played Just Dance and karaoke. We always have such a good time when we get together and food abounds! We are so lucky to have life long friends and I love that our kids are still getting together as adults and staying friends!

Christmas 2012

I know I'm almost a year behind, but better late than never, right? Christmas 2012 seemed to sneak up on us once again! Every year, I tell myself that I'm going to slow down and enjoy the next Christmas and every year I end up running around like a mad women to get everything done. Totally lose the true meaning of Christmas! Ellie got a game system for preschoolers from Santa this year and a stocking full of Hello Kitty goodies.

Keven and Braquel came up and stayed the night on Christmas Eve with us. It's so much fun to have the whole family here to celebrate the holidays. It makes this mommy's heart so happy! I had fun staying up late with them and helping wrap presents and stuff stockings.

Chelsey got mostly clothes for Christmas this year. Imagine that! The problem with updating the blog almost a year later means I can't remember what Santa brought her!! Mikayla got money to go toward a lap top from Santa. With her going to school, she really needed something she could take with her for homework.

Treven got a Nintendo DS XL from Santa. Lots of electronics at our house this year. The kids went together and bought me a Kindle Fire (which I LOVE) and Gary got me a cover for the Kindle and also a gift card so I could download games and books on it!

Mikayla's Senior Project

For Mikayla's senior project, she chose to put together a blood drive for the Red Cross. She coordinated with the Red Cross supervisor and the school and set up December 21st as the day. We had to have four or five volunteers and she got both grandmas, me, Braquel, Kimberlee, and two other girls that were taking the CNA tech class with her to help. Everything went really smoothly until the day before when the principal at the junior high decided they needed their gym for a dance instead of the blood drive...panic mode! Luckily, the Red Cross approved the band room for the draw, so it was back on! (Huge sigh of relief!) All in all, they had over 50 people try to give blood and I think they ended up with 47 pints of blood. Mikayla was a little disappointed they didn't reach their goal of 50, but the Red Cross people were thrilled with such a turn out and most of them being students. It was really neat to participate in the blood drive and we've all decided to continue giving blood! We're so proud of Mikayla for all of her hard work putting this together!

Chelsey's Sweet Sixteen

We celebrated Chelsey's sweet 16 by renting Wheel's. We invited the family and her friends and had pizza and pop as well as cupcakes. We had several games and spent lots of time dancing! It was a lot of fun and I'm kind of sad that this will probably be her last "Big" birthday celebration that we will throw!