The PARRTTTAAYY

So, as said earlier, Addie is 5 now. We don't do birthday parties every year around here b/c, let's face it, they cost A LOT of cash (usually) and are a lot of work. Sooo... they get parties on the "big ones". 5 is a big one. So, we partied. Addie's friend Lily had a Strawberry Shortcake birthday @ the gymnastics place in November and it left quite an impression on our little Addie Ray. That was exactly what she wanted. She had never heard of Strawberry Shortcake prior to Miss Lillian's big event, but that is what she wanted. And that is what she got....

I love making fondant cakes. I know I'm no Cake Boss, but they look way cooler than frosting cakes and the fondant (Marshmellow recipe) is delicious. Ok, so I make them so I can eat the frosting... I digress. Birthday party. Cake. Here it is. I made it at night when the herd was sleeping and when she woke up I told her to check the fridge. I wish I had a camera to see her face. She LOVED it.

All the tiny gymnasts. Monkeys hanging all in a row!

For party favors, I ordered a dozen little canvas bags from Oriental Trading, hot glued some tool stuff I got on MAJOR clearance @ Sears after Christmas and tadah!

Placecards were tiny little "a's" for ADDIE. Placecard holders were made a couple years back for another party... terra cotta pots, painted, sprayed with glitter, pipe cleaner wound around through the hole of the pot. Easy and cheap. My fave.

Banner made with Cricut:)

I wanted to take a pic of Addie and her BFF Anabelle. This was one of a series of about 5.

The rest looked like this... Addie lovingly pushing Anabelle out of the pic... Silly girls.

Our sweet Isabella Nemling. We love her. Her dad and Mike were roomies FOREVER in college. Sillies!Big sis

The whole crew. They were all so well behaved, I was amazed... and grateful. Mike was working (boo) and I had a couple mom's and a dad that stayed and helped. Having sweet kiddos made the day flow so smooth and easy. We could all just enjoy it!

I wonder how many pics we'll have of these girls blowing candles out together by the time they are in high school? BTW, the shirt Anabelle has on... She got it for Addie for her b-day so they have matching BFF shirts.T

The birthday girl and her loot.

Overall, it was a blast!!! Fun was had by all. Addie Ray ~ I sure love you girl. You make your momma proud.

Happenings

Joshua loves his daddy! How cute is that kid's smile???

This was his first popsicle experience. YUMMY!

Three blonds hanging out on the bed:)

They like to snuggle... the kid, the cat and the dog. I guess they can put the rivalry aside for a comfy place to sleep!

Happy Birthday to ADDIE!!

We have a 5 year old in our midst. I absolutely cannot believe she is 5. I look at my sweet baby girl and still see the little tiny munchkin she IS. Until I look closely at her and see she is not a tiny munchkin. She is a young lady. For her birthday she wanted to go shopping, go to Sephora, have a cookie dough ice cream cake and wanted to make sure that we remembered to put balloons on her bed and on her chair at the kitchen table.

After a delicious breakfast (and since I'm so behind on my blogging I have no idea what it was) she got to open her gifts and we got ready to head out to San Luis to do her shopping and play make-up at Sephora.

These girls LOVE Sephora. Addie always wants to have hot pink eye shadow with glitter. And Kailee always wants to have her make-up look like mine... "Just NORMAL Mommy, " she tells me.

Then we went and did a little shopping... And home for birthday dinner... which was completely trumped by the amazing cake. So delicious. Kailee and I had made it earlier. Homeade ice cream cakes are WAY better then store bought.

Welcome 2011!

Welcome 2011! We are so glad to meet you! I am sure you have all kinds of adventures in store for our family! To start, check out my silly hubbie playing with his dog. We had Mike's little brother and sisters over from Fresno for a few days. It was so fun to have them around. They are growing up so fast and it's good to hear what they are up to. The girls love having playmates around and I like the extra help:)

More 2010 pics....

So I am totally aware that my blog has been WAY behind!!! Well, I guess that is an understatement. My blog has basically been non-existent for the last 4 months. Holy cow. I am finally (after this post) caught up on 2010 action. I know it's old news and would just pick up with current news, but I put my blog into a book at the end of the year and I want everything documented since scrapbooking is just a pasttime of mine. I don't foresee actively scrapbooking for at least another 10 years. In the meantime, blogging will be our fam's documentation of life.

Ok, in November, my girls and I did the Templeton Turkey Trot. We had a few stragglers to hang with us... Bethany's hubbie, Tim and KAILEE!! and Beth's son DAWSON! They both did the kid 1 mile race and had a blast! Post race oranges:)

No, he didn't wear this for the race... but was proud to wear it afterwards.

My awesome hubbie got me a Garmin GPS running watch for an early Christmas present. I LOVE it. And now I'm a cool running chick.

Onto other events.... Whipcream is very important in our house around the holidays. You need it for everything. Hot chocolate, Caramel apple cider, or the preferred use... direct squirts in your mouth!!!

Even Josh got in on the action!

Aunt Candi and Uncle James stopped in on their way home from Pismo. We love our quick visits!

The girls really enjoyed jumping into our mini-pile of leaves. This was the 2nd and last jumping session... then the leaves got to smoooshed to be fun. Buried in leaves. Let's just say they were a little itchy after this adventure!