Happy Valentines Day!

Valentines Day this year was on a Monday, not a really great day to go out on a date with your hubby. I talked to Kefford about it and suggested that we go out and celebrate Valentines day on the Friday or Saturday before but he said he wanted to go on Monday so that is what I planned for. I want to keep my tradition of doing a Valentines theme dinner for my kids and so this year I did it on Sunday instead of Monday because Kefford and I were not going to be around. I made a heart shaped meatloaf (yum, yum), pink mashed potatoes, pink biscuits and I put food coloring in our lemonade to make it pink. Yay so fun! I was laughing sitting there thinking about all of the food coloring we were ingesting and I wondered if it would make our pee pink. I was really hoping it would have but it did not, such a bummer!

I also made our traditional heart shaped cake that I accessorized with sprinkles and gummy bears. We had so many treats lying around the house and we are not huge cake eaters that after we each had one piece this cake was not touched for the rest of the week. So crazy! So I took it to my in-laws for all of them to enjoy. So thoughtful of me I know. :o)

I told Rylee a couple of days before Valentines day that I would let her decorate sugar cookies to give to her siblings on Valentines day. She did not let me forget that promise and as soon as Avynlea got on the bus Rylee was ready to decorate. I put the frosting on for her and she was in charge of the sprinkles and the heart candies.

We put the cookies in baggies that said Love Rylee and as soon as her brother and sisters walked in the door Rylee was right there to give them their Valentines treat. She was so, so, so cute with her delivery. "Happy Valentimes Day guys, Happy Valentimes day". Oh man was she ever adorable. It was so sweet to watch. She even made one for her Dad and was so excited to give it to him when he walked in the door. Love it!

So while the kids were going through all of their Valentines things Avynlea was telling me something about a ring that she got from school. I thought she said that she found a ring and I said "oh that's nice" not really paying to much attention to it all. Well a little bit later the phone rang and Kenedy brought it to me with a funny grin saying "I know what this is about". What? I was confused but I said Hello. It was my friend Lanette who is the Mother of Avynleas best friend Daniel. Apparently Daniel took a $200 ring out of his Moms Jewelry box and gave it to Avynlea at recess asking her to marry him! WHAT!!?? I was laughing so hard. Maybe I should have been paying better attention to what Avynlea was telling me. Of course I took the ring from Avynlea and put it aside to give it back to it's rightful owner. I asked Avynlea more about it and she confirmed it all. I asked her what she said when he said will you marry me and she said that she was just like "ummm, OK?" Seriously these kids are in Kindergarten! So funny!

When Kefford came home he and I took off and headed over to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Kefford had the amazing foresight to stop in the restaurant on his way home and put our names on a waiting list. So once we arrived we only had to wait 15 minutes as opposed to everyone else who had an hour and a half wait! Yeah Kefford is pretty much amazing! We decided to have the valentines day special which included and appetizer and then two entrees. The waitress asked me if I wanted mushrooms on my steak and I said of course Kefford got them too since they were offered. Little did we know that we were going to have to dish out an extra $4 a serving for those mushrooms! We were not very happy with that extra price. We had a great dinner and then when it was done we went home to be with the ones we love. :o)

Kefford and I had gotten our kids little valentine boxes of chocolates which they loved. Of course no pictures were taken. :o( Oh and when Kefford came home originally Avynlea heard him first and went out into the garage to meet him. She came back in carrying a vase of flowers for me and when I asked who they were from she said her and Daddy. When Kefford came in he laughed about that because Avynlea went back out and told him with a funny little grin that she told me they were from her also. Pretty sneaky I might say. :o) We had a great Valentines Day and enjoyed being together. I sure do love my little family!

Biography "Book Talk"

Throughout the year Kenedy has had to do different book reports on different topics. This last one she had to do a Biography, write a report about this persons life, dress up in costume to be that person and then present it to the class. Kenedy chose to do her report on Susan B. Anthony. She did really great research and wrote up a great speech. I was contemplating making her a period piece costume but I told her that if I did it would have to be her Halloween costume also. She contemplated and then decided to use a costume that her friend said she could borrow. I was a bit relieved because that would have been a lot of work and money to make her a period piece costume, I would have done it, but I was glad not to. :o)

We were allowed to come and watch and so on my way to the school I thought that it would be cool for her to have a Susan B. Anthony silver dollar to show to the class. So I stopped off at US Bank to buy one but they did not have any in their cash drawers..bummer. So I left to go the school feeling bummed when I saw another bank. It was not one I banked with but I figured I would give it one last try. Success! They had the dollar! So I went on to the school feeling like a hero!

I got there and sat through a couple of presentations before it was Kenedys turn. She got up and gave her speech and I think she did a really great job. Her presentation was supposed to have been five minutes but she took more like six and a half minutes. She used alot of dates and really had a lot of information about Ms. Anthonys life. It was cool to see her up there pretended to be this person and giving "her" life story.

 After Kenedy was done her teacher told her she did a great job and he sounded really impressed. A couple of days later she brought home her grade on the "book talk" and this is what she got:

1. Costume: 5 out of 5

2. Facts/information: 10 out of 10

( he wrote on the side, "great information, good job using the dates in your presentation.")

3. Presentation: 9 out of 10

(he wrote on the side, "more eye contact")

She got a grand total of 24 out of 25 and scored a 96%

I think that was a great grade and I agree about the eye contact, she needs to work on that! I thought she did fantastic and was very proud of her!!

Her friend Natalia was who she borrowed her costume from and in return Natalia asked if she could wear the Christmas dress I made for Kenedy for her report on Mary Lincoln.  Kenedy asked me if she could let her friend use her dress and I told her it was up to her. Of course she let her borrow it and so I had to take some pictures of Natalia wearing Kenedys dress. She looked really pretty in it and I overheard a couple of girls tell her how pretty the dress was. Yeah I patted myself on the back, I love validations! ;o)

                                              

SURPRISE!!!

Avynlea mentioned to me about a month before her birthday that she wanted a surprise birthday party. She said it only one time but the idea stuck in my head and I decided that is what she was going to get. Whenever we talked about when to do her party I would be really vague about it and say maybe we would do it after Valentines Day. A couple of times I even mentioned that maybe we should skip the party this year, all done to throw the birthday girl off track.

I planned her party to be Saturday February 5th. That morning I told Kefford he needed to take Avynlea out of the house and an hour before the party was to start they were on their way. As soon as they walked out the door and the garage door closed I hauled out decorations and we all got to work. Balloons, crepe paper, hearts every where, it was a valentines theme we had going on and it all looked so cute.

I could not figure out who to invite for her party and when I asked her she was pretty vague about it. I knew we were going to do some church friends because she plays with them a lot but I did not know who to invite from her class and how to go about doing it. When I would ask her what school friends she wanted at her party she was never sure and always named different kids. Finally I asked her who she played with at school and it was always Daniel her best friend. Whenever I ask her who she plays with at recess she always says Daniel. Daniel is in her church class also and so I decided to limit this party to church friends and her two cousins who live close. Makes it loads easier cause I did not want to deal with a ton of kids.

Once all of the guests arrived we had to wait for Avynlea to come home.

When she walked in the door we all yelled surprise and she kind of just stood there with a silly grin and waved at everyone. It was really cute. I think she was a little overwhelmed but she got over it pretty quick and was ready to have some fun!

I did not plan any games, what was I thinking, and so I had to think of things quick off the top of my head. First up was a rousing game of Duck, Duck, Goose. But instead we called it Happy, Happy, Birthday.

After the kids tired of that we had a fun freeze dance contest and then all of the kids crowded around the table to do a craft. We found a cute ladybug clothespin craft on clearance at JoAnns and so I bought it for the kids to make a fun craft and of course to fill time. The kids really liked it and luckily I had Brit there with another glue gun cause it would have been no good to only have me do the gluing.

After the fun craft I pulled out cupcakes, frosting and decorations so the kids could make their own cupcakes. Before the party I had Kenedy put names on plates with a cupcake and then I put dollops of frosting on their plates with a Popsicle stick. This made it very easy and kept the cooties contained to each individual person. :o)

Make a wish!

and BLOW!!

After asking all throughout the party we finally let Avynlea open her presents. She got some pretty great things from her friends and she was very happy!

Presley Berger

Emily Naratko

Trevor Howell

(Trevor and Avynlea used to play together alot until he moved out of the ward this last summer. We have not seen a whole lot of him and so I completely forgot to invite him to the party. I woke up at 6:00 in the morning stressed because I for got all about Trevor. Luckily when I called at 9:00 he was available and happy to come. Phew!)

Qiana Peterson

Daniel Blackburn

Lindsay Nicholes

Once all of the presents were opened we broke out the Wii and put in Just Dance. We only could use 4 controllers and so we had the kids trade off every other dance. I encouraged them to dance even if they did not have a controller and most of them did. It was so cute seeing these kids dancing around. Love it!

Once all of the kids were picked up I asked Avynlea how she liked her party and she said she LOVED it. She was so surprised and really had a lot of fun!

SUCCESS!!!
I took pictures throughout the week of Avynlea wearing her new clothes and so here are some pictures of my styling cutie

Brielle Peterson

(This picture did not get added until at the end, obviously, I tried to drag it up with the others but was having a hard time and so it got left here at the bottom. But Brielle was there and we were so happy to have her there. :o)

Avynlea got some birthday money and so we took her to Target to spend it and after looking through everything she finally decided on this cool thing. It is a Barbie Fashion Design Studio and with it you can design and color your own Barbie fashions. She loves it and has been very happy with her new toy.

Avynlea's Favorites:

food: pineapple

color: dark pink

candy: gum

tv show: iCarly

movie: Aladdin

toy: Barbies

friend: Daniel Blackburn

thing about Kindergarten: Miss Clements her teacher

book: CareBears

thing to do: play with Rylee

church song: Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam

radio song: you belong with me by taylor swift

place to go: the snowshack

5 things I love about Avynlea:

1) Avynlea plays really well with Rylee and is usually the peacemaker when there is a problem. If Rylee wants something that Avynlea has and is throwing a fit Avy will usually let her have it. She is a sweetie.

2) I love when she cuddles up to me and lays her head right by my heart. She has told me that that is her favorite spot and I love when she lays her head right there because I know she is happy and content.

3) Avynlea always gives me a kiss and a hug right before she gets on the bus to go to school. It makes me happy.

4) She is kind to her friends and likes to play and have fun. She is a bit of a tomboy which is a little obvious by who her best friend is but I think it is cute. She can be really rough and tumble but knows how to be girlie also. She is a perfect mix of roughness and girliness.

5) I love her smile and her laugh. When she gets a big grin on her face and her dimples show, it looks like sunshine. She has a funky laugh which I love to hear. I really love this kid a whole lot!

Happy Birthday Avynlea!

It was Ground hogs day but it was also Avynleas sixth birthday! I had planned her birthday party to be on Saturday and I was making it a surprise so she had no idea. Since she did not know about her party I had to make her actual day somewhat special.



Avy made the cute little groundhog hat in Kindergarten. She looks adorable! On a side note do you notice the scabies all around her mouth? She had those nasty sores for about a week before I finally took her into the Dr. Turned out she had impetigo which is highly contagious. Oops. I have been sending her to school and church with this disease. Thank heavens she is not a kissing kindergartner, that would have been bad. :o)

We got some medicine for it and after a couple of days it cleared up good. Thank Heavens!

When Avynlea woke up i let her open her gift that her Grandma Bonnie sent her. Money and a whole mess of Bubblegum. Now that made the birthday girl smile. My Mom always sends the kiddos their favorite treat along with their birthday money and for Avynlea, there is nothing in this world she loves more then bubblegum! She was one happy girl!

I let Avynlea pick what she wanted to eat for breakfast and of course she picked pancakes, her favorite breakfast food. She also wanted them blue so she got blue pancakes with a star candle on the Special plate. Yeah!

After breakfast she got to open her gifts from Grandma Alison. A couple of weeks ago Keffords Mom came and took us to Target so that Avynlea could pick out some new clothes. She had a ball being the center of attention and picked out some way cute clothes. I gave them to her in the morning so that she could wear her new clothes on her birthday.
After school Kefford came home a little early and we told avynlea she could pick where we went to eat. She originally said McDonald's but when Kefford put the words Dairy Queen into her head she latched on and insisted that was where we had to go. So off to dairy Queen we went. After our yum meal we came home and let Avynlea open her presents from us. She kept telling me she wanted some boy barbies so their girl barbies would not be lonely anymore so that is what she got. Rylee and I went to Target a couple of days earlier and picked out Avynleas presents. I told Rylee she had to keep it a secret and could not tell Avynlea no matter what. I had my doubts but she surprised me and kept it to herself. My sweet little secret keeper.

So Avynlea got two boy barbies, some barbie boy clothes and some extra barbie clothes. I am so tired of seeing naked Barbies so I had to get some extra clothes so that they had no more excuses.

Rylee and I got Avy some cupcakes from the store so that Avynlea could have a cake on her birthday. We found some cute ones that had princess rings on them and they were a big hit with the birthday girl.

After the kids ate their cup cakes only two cupcakes were left, mine and Keffords. Rylee saw those cupcakes, took the rings off, licked the frosting off the rings and put them back on the cupcakes. What a funny kid.

We were able to give Avynlea a great birthday but the best part is yet to come! :o)