Megan's Art Party

Megan had her 12th Birthday Party this weekend!

She decided to have an Art Party at our house - and had 6 friends from church and school (and 1 cousin) come over!  We had the girls each paint a canvas that we had prepped before hand in either aqua, cream, lime or salmon.  They did an amazing job with their paintings and each one was different!  We fed them spaghetti, bread, veggies and hummus, cake, ice cream and gluten free cookies :)  It was so fun!  (Especially because we had Megan's friend come with us to church before the party, then another friend came home with us after church and they both spent most of the day with us!)

 The three girls decorated outside our house for us!

 And did the streamers inside!  Megan and I made the flowers earlier in the week :)

 Jack decorated the ladder

 View into the dining room and kitchen

 A dark shot, but the table

 All the paint supplies

 Such fun colors!

 Megan's cake!  Dan decorated it!

 Me and my Moopert

 Megan, Alyssa, Bethany, Kathryn, Megan, Raegan and Hannah

 Being silly

 Busy painting - we had them each do their names and then decorate it!

It was so fun to see their different styles and colors they chose!

 Me helping them

 Alyssa's - My favorite name - the A is so cool!

I printed out each of their names in fun font so they could do it easily and showed them how :)

 Kylie just wanted to paint a piggy - freehand!  His name is Benny and he's going to eat that flower :)

Incidentally, that is how she signs her name on every paper - Kylie with a heart coming off her "e"!

 Raegan's - so fun and careful!  It was so delicate and looked like she had cross-stitched it - in a very cool way!

 Megan :)

 Very simple and pretty!

 Bugga with Benny

 The other Megan's :)  Her cute bird in the nest and the fun polka dots!

 Hannah's - so cute with the soccer balls and star and squigglys and dots!

 Bethany's was very artistic - and amazing because I'm not that good!  I loved her purple flowers!

 Kathryn's - so cute with the basketball color she mixed herself - and a baby (because she loves babies) and silver!

 Megan's presents - we didn't get to open them until after everyone left!

 The Parcel for Pass the Parcel - it reads:  "The Parcel which thou should exchange!!!" :)  Dan always wraps them so well!

Pass the Parcel

Raegan got the fun present inside!  Fun word bubble post it notes!  Everyone else got a tootsie roll pop and a double bubble :)

Eating dinner - yummy spaghetti!

 The cake!!!

 Lighting the candles

 Bringing it over and singing "Happy Birthday"!

 Blowing out the candles

 Eating her cake!

 Kylie, Jack and Megan

 The girls with their canvases!

 Opening presents later that night

 Reading cards

 She has such a great smile :)

 Our Family

 Our Family again

 Kathryn, Megan and Megan

(our Megan is squatting down to look shorter - not sure why)

 With Kylie

 And goofing around!

 One last pic of our family!

And one last pic of our decorations!

American Girl Cafe

 Kylie got to go to her friend's birthday party at the American Girl Cafe!  She brought Rebecca with her and had a blast!  I dropped them off at the birthday girl's house and her mom drove 6 girls to tea at the American Girl Cafe!  We've been inside the store, but never to the Cafe - and Kylie had a great time!  The dolls had their own booster seats to sit in, their own little tea cups and sauces to keep and Ms. Jenn made each of the dolls pillowcase dresses to take home!  Kylie got to have hot chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles and lots of fun goodies!  

So sweet!

Finishing Basketball

Kylie and Jack had their end of the year team parties and 2nd to last games of the season!  Their last game was supposed to be this weekend, but because of a cancelled game due to snow, they extended the season one week.  Kylie's team warming up!  

Upwards did a great job the whole season!  They even put on team parties after the final games so that each team gets to have a party!  They had pizza and cupcakes and juice boxes!  They each got their team pictures, a dufflebag and a trophy!

Cupcakes!

 Coach Jim talked about each player and then handed the trophy out - he said that Kylie ALWAYS asks him questions (which is totally true) and to not stop asking questions :)  He was the perfect coach for her personality!

 Then we watched Jack's game and cheered him on - while Kylie's two buddies (and Megan) braided her hair!

 Jack had his team party after his game!

 So fun

 Coach Blum said what a nice boy Jack was and how he did a great job!

 And the kids got Ring Pops one day - and had colored tongues - so I took a picture of each of them!

And Jack!

Bookshelf

I realized last week that we still had maybe 6 boxes of kids books in boxes downstairs - the only boxes we hadn't opened yet.  That meant, that while my big kids had read through most of them, Kylie hadn't had a chance to get into our stash of chapter books or just kids books to read for fun!  I decided I needed a bookshelf for the bottom of our staircase in the basement.  We have a landing there that's a decent size and not really being used for much - so I went out looking at the new Habitat ReStore and Salvation Army.  I didn't really find anything I liked.  I had to run by Benjamin Franklin that is closing it's doors after 34 years of being open.  They are selling EVERYTHING - fixtures included!  They had the above shelf for sale!  I took it's measurements (because I always carry a measuring tape, thanks to Grandad) and talked to Dan when I got home about it!  He said to buy it!  I went back the next day and got it - and a nice man put it in the car for me!  

I got home at 1pm and hauled it into my kitchen, wiped it down and went to work painting it!  It took two coats of Annie Sloan's Provence Chalk Paint, but it looks so cute now!  (I also managed to yank off one side of the top of the bookshelf getting it out of my car - so Dan and Jack used some wood glue and nails to fix it and it's sooo sturdy now)!

Before

Side view

Other side view

Two undry coats of Annie Sloan

 Other view!

 Situated at the bottom of the stairs (with a few books on it - we still have 4 boxes to go through)!

 And the view walking down the stairs!  I love it!

Kid's Bathroom

 The Kid's Bathroom

We painted the kid's bathroom before we moved - and we still love the color!  Before we moved, we had fun dogs and cats on the shower curtain in mostly black and white with a bit of color.  We painted the letters Dan made to match in a cow print :)

When we got back this summer, we kept the same color - a Spring Green.  I had wanted a navy and white striped shower curtain but couldn't find one in a price I liked :)  So I got the one above - white pleats.  It was cute, but not what I wanted.

 Then I found this shower curtain - that I LOVE at target - and at a totally reasonable price!  I switched them out and painted the letters to make it match a little bit of a nautical theme (that's a lionfish in the picture above the toilet).

 We lived with the newly painted letters for a few months and they bugged me, so I changed them last week and I love them!

The original letters - totally cute, but didn't match the rest of the room!

Black to cover the spots

 Then navy with turquoise, lime and yellow polka dots - they bugged me for the next couple of months!

 Until I changed them out for this!  Aqua with navy stripes on the sides!  I couldn't take the letters off the wall - they were screwed on tight and managed to last through 5 years of renters! 

 And one more shot of them!  So fun!

Snapshots

 Jack, Megan and Kylie before church one morning!

 We got to celebrate Mary Kate's 13th birthday with her at her house!

 Jack had to draw a landscape for school and he chose a farm :)

 Kylie was sick recently and fell asleep on the couch while I went to Walgreen's to pick up something for her - when I got back, Megan was sound asleep, too!

 We made mini Valentine's cupcakes for Jack's class party!  He finally remembered to bring home the container 16 days later :)

 Kylie recently took a test on Matter:  Solid, Liquid and Gas.  Here's her essay answer :)  When she got it back and I went over it with her she said, "Oh, I didn't realize I was supposed to give as much detail as possible!"  Her teacher is awesome for handling Kylie so well! :)

 Kylie made card houses one afternoon

And Dan and I finally got to see Saving Mr. Banks in the movie theater!  It came out December 20th and we finally saw it on March 1st!  The kids had given us money - and Grammy gave us a gift card ticket to use there for one ticket - so with the kids money, we were able to get Dan's ticket and a large slurpee for him!  It was perfect!