You've had a birthday, shout hooray!

And maybe shout hooray because I finally paid to be able to blog with pictures again. Yay! Our little diva turned seven last week and she wanted to have a rockstar party. I designed the invitations to look like concert tickets. And by the way, I spent a bit of time on them, so if anyone ever wants to copy this idea, email me and I would be happy to send you the file I used so you don't have to create your own from scratch.

First the guests walked up the star lined sidewalk.

They could locate their name on one of the stars.

Then they picked out a leather bracelet to decorate.

Then it was over to the rockstar buffet table to get glammed up. (Or for the boys, I don't know, duded up I guess.) The boys didn't get quite as exciting a selection as the girls.

The boys selected a rocking bandana to wear. The girls got a sequined shrug, face glitter, sticker earings, chain necklaces, and glitter spray for their hair. Both got black streaks in their hair.

Partly because I am insane, and partly because, well, we'll just go with insane on this one, I made a sequined glitter shrug for each girl to wear. This fabric is not easy to sew on, and I made ten of them total. Plus I made Sareny a matching dress to wear over leggings.

Then we had a photo shoot. The group (minus the boy who walked in, said it was too girly, dropped off his present and left, and the boy who arrived a little late.) Renae, Allie, Abigail, Sareny, Emily, Emily, Sammy, Isaac, Finley, Bobbie Jo, Keira.

Sareny the rockstar.

That fabulous new group Falltrocity

The cake.

I took it as a compliment when I asked Sareny if she thought this was the coolest cake ever, and she said it was really cool, but last year's cake was even better.

She used one breath per candle, and let me tell you there were some scary moments where I thought her hair might go up in flames considering how close it was getting to the candles, and how very much hairspray and glitterspray was on it...

The kids got to take home with them their shrugs, chains, bandanas, and a cd we made them with their rockstar picture on the cover. I think everyone had a great time!

How Can One Possibly Look at a Book With No Pictures in it?

Last week was Sareny's spring break and Keith took the week off so we could have some family time. We didn't have anything major planned, and a lot of the week was just spent chillaxin'. (Wish I was doing that right now instead of listening to the kids possibly committing a capitol offense in the next room...)
On Monday we went to a matinee showing of Mars Needs Moms. Maybe it's because I had pretty low expectations, or maybe it's because I just came off of seeing Rango, a real stinker in my opinion, but I quite liked Mars Needs Moms. It was much more engaging and fun than the previews made it look.
On Tuesday we celebrated an early St. Patricks day and a late pi day and invited some new friends over for corned beef and cabbage and key lime pie. We capped the evening off with some Ticket to Ride (thanks, Shauntel, for introducing that one to us years ago.)
On Wednesday we met friends from our old ward at a park and had a lot of fun catching up with everyone. As the Beehive advisor in our new ward, I also attended the YW campout at one of the leaders' homes that evening. It was a lot of fun with good food and good conversation. We set up a screen outside and watched the movie Forever Strong, which was pretty good. The girls all ooed and aahed over the main character, who was so obnoxious the first half of the movie that I didn't care what he looked like, I wanted to slap him.
Thursday we ran a few errands and ended the evening with dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the BYU basketball game. Fun, even with kids. :)
Friday we went camping with some other new friends at Estrella Mountain Park, which is quite literally 10 minutes from our house. But it was actually super fun, and the kids especially loved having friends there to hang out with. The campground has a fun playground and had more trees than I expected as well. The weather was perfect, and I think we all had a good time.
Saturday we bummed around most of the day recovering from our one night camping trip...(what is wrong with us?) then went to some friends' house to watch the BYU game. Parents happy--visiting with friends and a good game. Kids happy--playing with friends and don't have to sit in a restaurant and watch BYU game. In case you're wondering--we don't get any TV channels, so watching the game from the comfort of our living room is not an option. And yes, somehow we are surviving without TV.

What the??

Did you know you can run out of storage space for your blog, and in order to upload any more pictures, you have to pay a yearly fee? I just found this out about a week ago, and it is why I haven't blogged in a while. I suppose I'll have to pay the fee, but I'm not very happy about it.