An Enchanted Evening

It's nice to have connections. Martin was a part of the committee a couple months ago that decorated our church's huge Modest is Hottest Dance. (The theme was Enchanted.) Well, Mr. Creative that he is, Martin suggested using the same theme for Olivia's 5th Grade Graduation party she so badly wanted to host. So... bless his heart, being the BEST DAD EVER, he spent countless hours transforming our garage into an Enchanted castle using the decorations from the dance. We even used the drawbridge for the girls to enter. It was so awesome! I hope my girls know how lucky they are to have a dad like that.

All girls from the 5th grade were invited and we had a great turnout. Best of all, they had FUN! And I had fun watching them. The highlight of the evening wasn't the outdoor movie projected onto the house they watched, but instead the Karaoke going on in the "garage". They sang their hearts out screaming, "Play that funky music, White Boy!!! Play that funky music right!!" To get a taste of what that sounded like, play the video at the end of this post. Listen carefully - it was too dark in there to get any visual. But it's worth listening to.

These girls are awesome. I have loved watching the progression of their friendships over the years as they have tried to figure out life. Many of these girls were my Girl Scouts for 3 years (Kindergarten thru 2nd Grade) and I was able to learn to really truly love them. Off they go to Middle School now.

Congrats Girls!

Olivia, Deborah, Makayla and Alyssa

Olivia's turn on Karaoke

Ryker (the ONLY boy present!!) takes a turn. At this point, I was parked in the living room feeding the baby when one by one, girl after girl, would run in to tell me, "Ryker's singing!!!"

Sierra and Sydney

Alyssa

It was difficult to get good photos in here without much lighting.

Hannah and Deb

All bundled up watching the movie in the cold.

Remember to pause my music before pressing play on the video.

Twilight Book Club

Last night I hosted our ward's book club... on Stephenie Meyer's book 'Twilight'. Let's just say, it's a popular book. We had 22 ladies in my living room. Can you say COZY??

Here we all are minus Teresa who had to sneak out early.

(Thanks, though, Teresa, for the pics!)
We had great discussions on this book; however, it was difficult with that many girls to keep side conversations at a minimum. Cracked me up! Everyone loves these books and had so much to say.

Refreshments.

So... as many of you know, the vampires in these books don't eat real food. So to provide refreshments based on the book was a bit difficult and I had to get a bit creative. Here's what I came up with:

Candied apples representing the forbidden fruit AND the apple on the cover of the book. Yes, I hand made the concoction to hand dip the apples in. I only burned myself three times. :(

(Anyone figure out how to eat a candied apple?? Morgan's having a heck of a time figuring it out...)

Vampire bitten cupcakes.

See the fang marks?? Inside they were filled with "blood" (cherry pie filling) so when you bit into them, they bled!
Red punch with a frozen ice cube hand in it representing Bella's bitten hand.
Test tubes filled with "blood". (tomato juice)
Pitcher of "blood".

For those of you who attended book club, you'll appreciate this video.

My dear Morgan was taking our picture and FOOLED us by setting the camera to 'video mode'. Listen to her giggle. She thinks she's so funny!!

(remember to pause music before playing video)

Bingo Bango Bongo Baby!

A good friend of mine called me at noon Saturday and invited me to our local high school's Bingo night. Little did she know how desperately I needed a night out with the girls!
At this Bingo, we play a total of 14 games. Most games are worth $25, some are worth $50, and two are worth $100. Our table wasn't doing so hot all evening long. In fact, we weren't even warm. No wins. No bingos. Nothin. We came close several times, but in the game of Bingo, close doesn't cut it.
As we played the final game - Blackout! - I said to my girlfriends, "You know. Even if I walk out of here not winning a thing, I had FUN!" And that's what it's all about, right???
Well guess who won the final game of the night worth a whopping $100???? YEP! You got it. Little ol' me! Our table pretty much screamed when I won. We have no shame.
What am I planning on doing with this money, you ask?? I'm thinking of buying a cute set of crib bedding for the baby. How exciting does that sound??

Happy 2nd Birthday Christian!

For Christian's 2nd Birthday (which so conveniently falls a week afer the girls'), we kept it simple and headed to Putter's Pizza. Those that joined us were Grandma and Grandpa Hansen, Uncle Greg, Cousins Lowden and Parker, Friends Lonnie and Jennifer Burgans with their kiddos Madison, Ryker, Julianna, Lillie and Kylie. (Kylie is Christian's girlfriend!) As much as I would've LOVED to have baked a cake, it just wasn't in the works that day. So our friendly Fred Meyer bakery supplied a Finding Nemo cake, which Christian loved (as he watches that movie regularly.) We lit the candles, sang Happy Birthday, he even started singing along... all was well. UNTIL he decided he needed to TOUCH the tempting fiery flames!! As you can see in the video, it was a Kodak moment!

Olivia and Morgan Celebrate Their Birthdays!

With the girls' birthdays being 3 days apart, we find it easier to combine their parties. This year we decided to rent out our local rollerskating rink, Skate World, and invite ALL their friends and classmates to a fun day of skating! We had close to 70 children present! Thanks to the enormous help of my mom, dad, sister, and mother in law, we made it through.
Happy Birthday, my little lovelies!