Regan's 12th Birthday Party

We went SUPER EASY this year, and just reserved our neighborhood pool! It was very easy and she invited some neighbor friends, from kids from school, and that's about it. It was fun though, she wanted the ginormous Costco cupcakes, so I got those, she wanted a giant submarine sandwich, so I got some sub rolls and made a bunch, and chips/drinks, and we were set. I got a bunch of pool toys and water guns, and they had a blast. They got out of the pool to eat and open presents and that's about it! There was a bit of a cupcake war thanks to David! Little Bella was licking the icing off her cupcake and David smashed her face in it, she thought it was hilarious, so everyone else wanted in on it, and it ended with Tony wiping his face off on David's back! It was fun, the kids loved it.

So here's the million pics I took of her and her friends.

Regan's 12th Birthday Party

K1 Speed

Our Girl Scout Troop was planning a weekend camping trip but we got rained out! So, at the last minute, we had to plan something to do to make up for it, so the girls voted on indoor go-karts. It was really fun! We ordered pizza and had ginormous Costco cupcakes and had a party! The girls had fun, Riley and David came so Riley could race too, and Regan came in 3rd place from her whole troop. Riley came in 2nd in his race. It was a neat place, we will have to go back sometime this summer, good way to beat the heat!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Regan told me the other day, "Mom, no more homemade Valentine's, okay?" Ugh, shot to the heart! It was bad enough that this was my very last school Valentine party to go to, now I can't even make fun Valentine's!? So, I bought her some Fun Dip and called it a day. She signed up to bring Ranch Dip (the good kind, she said) and David had the day off work, so I figured we would both go.

First, David made surprise lunch reservations for us at Fogo de Chau! The kids have separate things tonight (Riley and David are off to Ft. Hood, Regan and I have a cookie booth) so we figured we would celebrate early. It was nice! After lunch, we ran to the store to get the good dip, then went to Regan's school, where David surprised her with flowers.

I think she liked having her daddy come and bring them to her too! Then we came home and took a nap before we had to run pick up kids, get cookies, and go our separate directions. Ah, true love. It's not all hearts and flowers, it's the day to day commitment of being there for each other through thick and thin and still being able to have a conversation over the lunch table (that's not about the kids!)

Happy Birthday David!

Typical night at our house, everyone headed in different directions! Regan had a Christmas party with the neighbor kids, and she was spending the night after. They had a White Elephant gift exchange and she brought an Uncle Si Chia Head, from Duck Dynasty! Riley spent the night with his friend Yash, so he got to drive over there and let dad be the passenger for a while (he didn't like it). Then David and I had dinner with his parents for his birthday. It was a nice night out and relaxing and no bickering kids, very enjoyable! The kids and I got David a fancy lighter for his birthday since he complains about the one we have every time he has to light the grill. Not a very fun gift, but practical, and he's hard to buy for!

Christmas Concert

Regan's Winterfest Christmas Concert was tonight, as well as an annual Christmas party at a friend's house that we always go to! So it was double duty. We went to the concert and left early to head to the party. Regan stayed to see the dancers and went home with her BFF to spend the night. The choir did a great job, they sang a ton of songs, and I did record a couple, so I will put them on YouTube soon, and post here. It hit me while we were sitting there, this is our last elementary Christmas event! More than likely, our last elementary event ever. My babies are growing up!!

The party was fun, it's a White Elephant gift exchange, and I brought the funny gold Yoga frogs I got there last year! We also brought a Potty Golf set that Riley REALLY wanted, and he ended up with it! He loves it.

Came home, watched some TV with the boy, and was awoken early the next morning by a sick girlie. I have been having major allergy issues, so she and I laid around all weekend taking care of each other.

And just because I think this is the absolute cutest thing ever, here is a before and after picture of Elise, and her first time meeting Santa. Trista said she stood there talking to Santa and Elise loved him, she was all smiles until Trista put her on his lap and backed away. So funny!! I so love that baby girl!

Cake Smash and Early Birthday Party

We had some family in town so thought it would be a good idea to have a little early birthday party for Elise. My cousin, Trista, made her a cake to smash and brought her fancy camera to take some good pictures of it. Riley helped too, and really got into the cake smash thing, since he said he can't remember smashing a cake for his 1st birthday! He's so funny.

Elise loved it, she would get a little cake on her finger and lick it off and keep sticking just that finger in the cake. She turned and got some icing on her toe and just cracked up laughing, it was so cute! Trista made her this cute little tutu also, so we got some cute pictures of her in that, with her shirt that says "It's My Birthday!"

She loved all the attention and we got some cute pictures!

Elise's Early Birthday

Regan's Birthday Dinner

Regan has been wanting to go to a Hibachi type place for dinner for a while now. She wasn't sure what it was called, but kept saying one of those places where they cook in front of you with a lot of fire! So, I found a Groupon for a new place that just opened in Pflugerville, so we thought we would bring her for her birthday dinner. She loved it!

The chef we had was great, he was very entertaining, and Regan loved him. He tossed shrimp into everyone's mouth (Riley was great at this, and he even tossed one from across the table and Riley caught it, everyone was suitably impressed).

At one point, he lit the stove on fire, and it made a big whoosh, and Elise completely freaked out! It was the funniest thing we have ever seen! People across the restaurant were laughing at her. She just sat there and shook her hands back and forth and her face was priceless. I grabbed her and she held on to me like she would never let go! It sounds bad, but it was really cute. She never cried, but her lip kept curling down like she wanted to. She came around and later one when he lit some more things on fire, she was much better with it.

Regan has had 2 of her horseback riding lessons that were her birthday presents from us and her Mimi and Papa, and she is LOVING them! The horse farm where she is taking lessons does horse shows, so she can't wait to get into one of those. Not sure what that takes, but I guess we have something to work towards.

And then we have just some random update pictures. Elise is doing great, she's really enjoying trying to crawl and pull up and get around on her own. She's so cute!

Regan's 11th Birthday Party

Regan turns 11

We decided to have Regan's party a little early this year, usually being in the middle of June, people are already leaving for summer vacations. And since school isn't out yet (grumble grumble) we thought this would be a good weekend.

We started the day with breakfast at Cafe Java, her favorite (or our favorite) and then headed to the horse party!

She's been wanting a horse party for FOREVER so I found this stable near our house, and thought she would love it. A friend of ours from church makes the most awesome cakes, so I had Regan pick out her flavors and colors, and left it to Jennifer and the cake turned out perfect! Regan, and all the kids, loved it! And it was delicious, the kids all loved eating the "apples" and Regan saved the horse and the bucket of apples, she said they were too cute to eat.

The girls started in the barn and looked around at all the horses and helped get them saddled up, and headed to the covered arena to ride. The rode for almost an hour and then we went to the party room for cake and presents. Then they went back to the barn and saw some babies and just spent some time with the horses. Regan is very excited that Mimi and Papa are getting her a few horseback riding lessons for her birthday! And she can't WAIT to get started!

It was a great party, not too crazy, even if it was crazy hot, and Elise ended the day by falling asleep on dada. The party was right during nap time, and she was cranking up a little, but they both got a little cat nap.

Build A Bear End of Year Girl Scout Party

Build A Bear keeps coming out with super cute Girl Scout bears, and our leader bought them all for the girls, so we had our end of year party at Build A Bear again! Probably not too many more years for our girls to be into Teddy Bears, so I'll take it! The bears are "Thin Mint" bears that had mint green ears, and even come with a scent of mint that you can put in your bear so it smells minty! They have a cute "Thin Mint" outfit too. So we all met at the mall for an early dinner, then headed down to build our bears, and then back to the food court for Thin Mint ice cream and passing out patches and cookie prizes. I had Elise with me, so she was a handful. But, she got to build her very first Teddy Bear, and she loved it! She would grab a hold of it and just hug it tight and lay over on it to smush him up. It was so cute. She got to stuff it, and then I took her over where there is a pretend bath tub with air jets coming out so you can "fluff" your bear and that freaked her out some. But, she loves her bear, she's been sleeping with him every night. We named him "Snowball".

So that was the end of our very busy, something every night Girl Scout week!

I "mustache" you to be my valentine!

Regan was home sick the day before Valentine's day, so I wasn't sure she would make it to school, but thankfully, she ran a low fever for a little bit, and then was fine, so she was able to make it to the party! That also meant I stayed up late cutting out 22 mustaches. Nothing like last minute, right? But, she said they were a huge hit, and they are super cute. There is just something I love about homemade valentine's!

The Super FUN Week

Can you detect my sarcasm? It HAS been a fun week. Well, it kind of started off fun, we had dinner with friends, and that was fun. Then I got the flu, and the puppy took about 3 giant leaps backwards in the whole potty-training business, and decided that 5am is just as good a time as any to be up for the day and eating shoes.

And there's a little matter of about 400 boxes of Girl Scout cookies with MY name on them staring at me from my living room. And me with no energy to do anything about it but whine.

But, in my near-delirious state on the couch, I would hear Hunter on the move and jump up and run to the back door to let him go potty outside, so although I haven't gotten the much needed rest to get over the flu, the house training is back on track.  Regan and I had a really good cookie booth last night where we sold 80 boxes, so I feel a little better about where we stand there. And right now, everyone is gone but me and the tired dogs. I think I am going to catch up on some DVR and enjoy the silence.

Regan was invited to a "Rock Star" birthday party tonight. She was so excited, wanted me to buy her a whole new outfit, with new high heel shoes and hoochie mama shorts and everything. She's in this awkward phase right now, the girl section is too "girly" and the women's section is too "womanly" or, hoochie. Not that it's stopping her, she would be fine with some hoochieness. But that's not leaving my house! Also, I wasn't really thrilled with the idea of buying a new outfit AND a birthday present, so we compromised and got a new shirt and a clearance scarf.

She came home so excited, but quickly got upset when she saw her friends looking "more glam" than her. We have no "hair crinklers" (yeah, left that back in the 80's) no spiky high heels, no funky jewelry. Sorry, I'm too plain Jane for my 10 year old I guess! Well, she was upset, ready to not even GO to the party, and I promised her I could glam her up like nobody's business. She wasn't convinced, she said all my stuff was too "old lady" and nothing, NOTHING would work for her. So, I found my mom's old jewelry stash, and boy, we hit jackpot. My stuff is too old lady, but not my MOM'S?! HELLO?! She was flabbergasted that I didn't wear her stuff all the time, but she felt super glam with her huge silver clunky earrings, double pearl necklace, silver hair clip, all kinds of jewelry goodness! She did wear my wedge heel boots, so I'm not a total fuddy-duddy I guess.  Then I brushed on some of my purple sparkly eye shadow (hello, only a super cool mom has purple sparkly eye shadow!) and she was good to go.

Anyway, drama queen has left the building so I think it's safe for me to relax! And the boys have tickets to see Top Gun at the IMAX. Boring. And here's a picture of Hunter, who likes to "help" me load the dishwasher.

Volunteer KiDS Party

Regan and I had a great time at the church KiDS volunteer party. David was taking Riley to Ft. Hood for Drill weekend, so it was just me and the girl. They had Chuy's cater fajitas for dinner and we played Minute to Win It games and trivia, and had photo spots set up, and a TON of desserts! It was fun, the kids had pizza and then came over for pictures.


Each week in December has a different movie theme, the first one was "Charlie Brown Christmas" and this week is "The Grinch" so we had Grinch decorations every where, and it looks so cute! (I can say that since I helped decorate!)

Church KiDS Christmas Party

Last Wednesday night KiDS service for the year so of course we had to have a big Christmas party! We had cookies and lemonade (hot cocoa for the volunteers) and 137 kids! It was crazy! The kids had a great time though, we watched part of Charlie Brown Christmas and The Grinch, and played Minute to Win It games. The kids had a great time, and so did I. Love those kids!

Regan got picked to play "Reindeer Nosedive", which is a game where you have a cotton ball tied to a string, and you put one end in your mouth and swing your head around trying to get the cotton ball to stick to the end of your nose, where you have a giant blob of Vaseline! Regan looked so cute trying it, so of course, I video taped. Click here for the video!

Riley had Pfamily Pfun night at his school, so David went with him to that. They had the high school counselors there and they could start picking which classes they want to take next year. David talked to one of Riley's teachers and she told him he is in the top 10% of kids in the whole school in that class. That he's 85% done with what they are doing for the year, and is on track to be the first kid to ever finish that program! We are so proud of him this year. He's really realizing he needs good grades to do what he wants to do in life, and he's being more responsible about getting and keeping those grades up. We do have a few issues in a couple of classes, like Algebra, and of course, I'm no help to him there! But he's wanting it, and that's a step in the right direction for sure!

Regan's 10th Birthday Party

We decided to have a sleepover party for Regan's 10th birthday. You only turn double digits once, right?! So, she invited her Girl Scout friends, a couple of friends from church, school, and the neighborhood, and we had us a shindig! We had about 12 girls for the evening, 7 that slept over. Riley and David took off and spent the night with Mimi and Papa, so we had the house to ourselves. I got white pillowcases for everyone and pink, purple, turquoise, yellow and lime green tie dye, and we dyed the pillowcases. They turned out really cute! Regan wanted ice cream cake, and we got Little Caesar's pizza and they watched Alvin and the Chipmunk's Chipwrecked! They were all very well behaved and we had no melt downs, so all in all, it was a success. She won't be 10 till the 14th, but we wanted to have her party before everyone was gone for the summer.

 

Her gift from us!

Gummy Bear Beach Party cupcakes for school party

Neighborhood Fall Fest

One thing I like a lot about our neighborhood (and it's not the ridiculously priced water that we're trying to fight) but our neighborhood often puts on parties for the kids. Back to school party, movie at the pool, Fall Fest, etc.

Tonight was Fall Fest, and the kids had a great time. They had sandwiches, chips and drinks and cupcakes for the kids to decorate, pumpkins to paint or carve, scary rings to decorate and a cake walk where both kids won candy!!

Then at the end of the night, they gave out awards. Regan won for "Scariest Pumpkin" (hers is the big one on the left) and Riley won for "Grossest Pumpkin" (his is the small one that is puking his guts out). And then they had 4 pumpkins lined up for "Best Overall Pumpkin" and the one that Regan painted was in line to win that prize also. They did an applause-o-meter and sure enough, she won (she said it was because I was so loud) but since the runner up hadn't gotten any candy, she gladly gave her prize to him. So, she technically won, but was sweet about giving it up. I think they did a great job, and I now have a cute collection of pumpkins by my front door, and I didn't have to mess up my kitchen to get them!

Regan's Birthday Party

Regan's Birthday Party

Regan wanted a pool party for her birthday this year. Easier said than done, but after a few phone calls, emails, and arguments with our HOA, we were finally able to have her party at our neighborhood pool. She wanted a simple party where they swam the whole time, so that's what she got!

It was a long, hot, sweaty day since we started off at 5:30 am at a swim meet, then when it was over, at 2 in the afternoon, we had to rush home and make 50 hot dogs, and rush to the pool. The kids swam almost the entire time, took a quick hot dog break, and then swam some more. We took the presents home to open them at home so we didn't have more trash at the pool, and so the kids could swim even longer!

She was happy, it was just what she wanted. Oh, and the night before, we colored her hair bright red! She wanted her hair to be the color of "vampire eyes" and we got it pretty close. But with her being in swim team and in the pool all the time, the red will not last, I'm sure.

Kenzie's Baby Shower

It's getting close!! We had Kenzie's baby shower at her new house with her roommate, Fonda. It was a really nice day. We had a lot of old friends show up (not OLD friends, just friends we hadn't seen in a while!) and it was a lot of fun. I got the cutest cake from a friend of one of my Girl Scout mom's and it was delish. Tammy made a cute diaper cake with the jungle theme too. And we played a few low key games, I'm not one for shower games, but these weren't bad. One game, you have a huge bowl full of baby socks and you have 30 seconds to make as many matches as you can. It was fun. Regan was my little "helper" and boy did she! Afterward, we sat around and talked for several hours, and then Tammy and I dropped Regan off at home and went for a pedicure and dinner! And Kenzie got a good haul, I think she's pretty set, and now we just sit back and wait for Elijah to make his appearance.