Boo Boo's Birthday!

Steve and I have been looking forward to the day we can do a simple birthday party at home where the parents drop off their kiddos, we order pizza, play games, and call it good rather than rent out a place and spend a fortune.  We figured the 7th birthday would be a good start.  To make it easy we invited all the girls in Brooklynn's class for a Saturday afternoon party.  Brooklynn wanted an art theme, so I bought some canvases and setup our painting party.  How hard could it be to instruct a simple painting to 7 year-olds?  Little did I know........

We had 10 girls total and our "little" party turned into quite the production (doesn't it always?)  Steve assembled the easels (made out of donated pizza boxes - thanks to Pinterest).  I sewed together some easy aprons with the girls' names, and we made some paint brush Rice Krispies treats.  This would be easy peasy!  Four hours with 10 girls on a snowy afternoon would be a blast!

The cute little 1st graders soon turned into drama queen, emotional, screaming monsters running through our house.  The painting was fun, but it was difficult to instruct them all at different levels with the short attention spans.

All in all the owls turned out cute and the kids had a fun gift to take home.

After our pizza it was on to games.  The biggest success was the doughnuts on a string.  The kids had fun watching each other and the powdered sugar made it messy and even funnier!

Our innovative group that figured out the floor was much easier!

Cake time!

Present time

All I can say is that we were both ready for a drink and bed right after.  Brooklynn had her best bud, Adilan sleep over, and it was easy compared to the craziness we endured that afternoon!

On her actual birthday we all went to have lunch with Brooklynn.  It's always fun having lunch with her and having all the kids want to sit with us!

Then we went back to her class to hand out treats after they sang to her.  She absolutely loved it!  I know last year her teacher didn't make a big deal about birthdays, which I completely understood, but it was nice to see her really bask in the joy of the celebrating.

That night we opened gifts and went out to eat at Red Robin.  The girls picked out these hats at Target and wear them constantly!  Gotta love the Fedoras!

Brooklynn attempting to get every present in the picture and look cool doing it!

Dessert time at Red Robin!

Our "little" 7 year-old

The next weekend was our family brunch party.  Brooklynn was so appreciative of all her gifts and it was fun watching her read all her cards!

 Birthday "Turbo" snail cinnamon roll

 Always so goofy

Brooklynn's Favorites
1.  Toy - Barbies
2.  Food - Mac & cheese
3.  Activity - drawing
4.  Movie - Turbo
5.  Color - pink
6.  Subject - Math
7.  Book - If Mom had 3 Arms
8.  Sports team - Rams (duh)
9.  Place to go - school (ahhhhh)

When I grow up I want to be a singer, artist, dancer, or teacher.

Height - 4'2 (85%)
Weight - 57 lb (76%)

We love you Boo Bear and you still amaze us everyday!

Valentine's Day Celebrations and Mountain Getaway Re-Deux

I'm not much of a Valentine's Day fan, but with 3 girls that love any excuse to color their worlds pink, purple, and red, I don't have much of a choice but to shut up and enjoy the hoopla.

The weekend before the big day Chandler had her first sleepover at our house with her BFF, Taylor.  All the girls love Tay Tay, so everyone was excited and had a great time decorating cupcakes, watching movies, and ending the night with mini-makeovers.  

 My favorite smile of Ady.....EVER!

 Their creations

With both girls fully immersed in the Valentine's school party modes, it's become quite the climactic holiday around here.  I absolutely adore homemade valentines (even though the girls don't see the uniqueness as cool), so we sit down and make our valentines days in advance.  This year I found this cute ones on Pinterest for Brooklynn's class:

Brooklynn's class did an ice cream party on Tuesday, since they had the rest of the week off, so I was able to bring Ady and Chandy and introduce them to the craziness otherwise known as school parties.  Chandler even participated in their BINGO game.  This girl couldn't be more ready for kindergarten!

 The kids checking their bags.  They were so cute going around thanking each other for the valentines!

On Saturday we headed up to Allenspark, which is outside Estes Park for a winter getaway re-deux, since the girls were so sick for the last one and only Chandler got in some minor sledding.  Dad and Kenz met us up there to enjoy our quaint little cabin.  We were warned that the cabin had  no cable, no cell phone service, and no Internet, but I wasn't fully convinced until I witnessed it for myself.  Hell, we even get phone service at the summit of the 14ers.  Little did I know our "unplugged" weekend would be just what we needed.  We played endless amounts of games, puzzles, and listened to the girls play the keyboard nonstop.

Saturday the weather was beautiful so we drove into Estes Park to walk around the bustling town!  The streets were packed with people enjoying the warm weather.

Chandler found these at a little shop.....so funny!

 Cousins bonding on the river.  (What you don't see is me freaking out because they just want to "dip" in the water)  I thought for sure we'd have someone try it!

 Sunday morning we packed up the cars and headed to Rocky Mountain National Park to their snow play area.  We knew the snow would be limited, but we weren't going to let that slow us down.  When we arrived we were basically sledding on grass, but the flurries started shortly after and we finally had some real snow to sled!

More cousin love!

 Ady and Brooklynn are ready to go!

After a heavy snowstorm all day Sunday and into the night we woke up Monday determined to find snowing near the cabin.  Eventually we found a good spot and the girls were at it again!  Finally.....a little sledding time to top off our fabulous family weekend!