Taylee is FINALLY 14!

This cutie just had a birthday and turned 14!

Photo background: This lucky shot was snapped when we were taking a "break" from Taylee's uncooperative 2 yr old photo session. She was being such a stinker I think the photographer was about to give up on us. As Taylee looked over her shoulder, the photographer saw it and snapped it. 

I was so grateful..it's one of my favorite pictures of her.

I definitely didn't escape the "mother's curse" when it comes to photo sessions. I was a terrible photo taker as a child and I've had my share of  terrible photo sessions with my kids. Sorry Mom! 

I wanted to give Taylee a "First Dance Kit"..since she can FINALLY go to the Stake dances. Here's what I came up with..kinda cheesy, but I think she liked it.

She says she is the very LAST one of her friends to turn 14..and some of them even got to go to the Stake dance BEFORE they were 14..oh well. I have to admit, I was a little tempted to give in when I learned there was a dance 2 days before her birthday, but she didn't even ask and I would have said no anyway..I hope. :) 

Polish remover, mascara, Baby Lips lip gloss, bracelet, flower headband, Ice Breaker mints, Extra gum and Milk Duds.

Abree had saved up enough "money" at school, to earn this monkey, from their class store. She was so excited to give it to Taylee for her birthday. She drew her a Pooh bear picture too. --I think it's so sweet when siblings are thoughtful of one another. --Treyson bought Taylee some candy with his own money and gave her some Crayola Twistables crayons.

Grandma McKinley gave Taylee a cool artist book, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards . Looks like something I would like to read as well.

Of course we re-stocked her with 5 rolls of duct tape.. she can never get enough of it. She got some converse-type shoes and an i-tunes gift card too.

Grandpa Waite took her out for a milkshake and gave her a card and money.

For dinner she chose chicken alfredo and green salad. 

And chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and Mud Slide ice cream. 

Happy Birthday beautiful Taylee!!!

Happy Birthday Jordyn!!!

Just because the Cousin Party ended, didn't mean we were done partying!

Saturday evening, we went over to Teresa's parent's house (they were out-of-town) and had a birthday party for Jordyn.

We ate pizza and played in their awesome back yard. The back yard had many different levels with huge rocks and landscaping. On the bottom level, there was a swingset/play structure, play airplane and slide... it was like a mini park! The kids had a blast climbing and playing on everything.

Sarah LOVED the slide!

She figured out how to walk up the grassy hill..

position herself at the top and slide into Catie's waiting arms.

Over and over and over and over!

We sang Happy Birthday, ate cake and Jordyn opened presents.

As it stared to get dark, we bundled up and took our blankets over to the side yard and watched fireworks for the town's "Founder's Day".... we just pretended the fireworks were for Jordyn's birthday. Lucky girl.

Happy 10th Birthday sweet Jordyn!

Harry Potter's Book of Spells

As you may know, kids in school equals lots of friend birthday party invites. I have a philosophy of not spending a lot of money on friend gifts... especially if I don't know the friend well. Because of this, I have GIFT BINS. I find things on clearance or super inexpensive and then put them away in a Rubbermaid tote, until a party pops up.

Just recently, my GIFT BINS have been getting low and my gift funds, even lower. So when Treyson was invited to a birthday party a few weeks ago, we made the gift. We put together a MAGIC TRICK set. I got on the internet and looked up simple magic tricks, then printed them onto cardstock, cut them up and bound them with a metal binder ring. Next, we gathered all the supplies needed for each magic trick and put them into a little plastic carrying tote. To top the kit off, we made a magic wand. I painted a wooden dowel black and then added glitter to one end for that magic sparkle. His friend's mom loved it...hope the friend did too. :)

Treyson was again invited to a friend's birthday party this week. Funds still being low, we decided to make another gift. The theme of the party was Harry Potter.

I went onto the internet and looked up "homemade Harry Potter gifts". I found a site that showed how they made a Harry Potter wand with a wooden dowel and hot glue. First gift idea, CHECK!

Next, I found a site that had all the Harry Potter Spells listed. This was a detailed list. It had the pronunciations, descriptions, where the spell was used in the movie or book and some even had the Latin roots to the spell's name. Second gift idea, CHECK!

I took the wooden dowel and sanded down one end to make it tapered. Next I hot glued around the dowel to give it some texture and make it look wand-like.
Then I spray painted it brown and called it done.

For the cover of the Book of Spells, I used an empty cereal box and paper grocery bag. I sprayed adhesive to the box and bag and then trimmed the bag around the cardboard. Next, I used brown ink to "age" the cover. I also burnt the edges with matches in some places to give a worn look. Finally, I took a cool metal button and some red ribbon and made a closure for the book.

For the inside, I copy and pasted the spells from the internet sight, printed them off in brown ink, then "aged" the pages with more brown ink.

I thought about many ways to bind it, but decided I would try and machine sew the 24 pages together.... and it worked! Then I hot glued the group of pages to the cover.

It wasn't exactly what I had envisioned initially. It was more of a Spell binder/folder, than a book, but I think it turned out fine.

The mom of this birthday boy loved the gift and emailed to tell me. Hope the birthday boy loved it as well. If not, at least I'm scoring points with the moms. :)

Happy Birthday Jaime!

Last year, Marianne and I took Jaime to breakfast for her birthday. This was significant because Jaime's birthday is on Christmas Eve and she had never spent time with friends on her actual birthDAY.

This year, she invited lots of friends to celebrate. We went to "Goldy's Breakfast Bistro" downtown Boise. It was a quaint little place, so we filled it up with about 15 women.

We talked, we ate, we laughed..... and had an ornament exchange. It was a fun, early-morning celebration. Jaime is hoping to make it an annual thing.

Happy Birthday Sweet Friend Jaime!

My Birthday

My birthday celebrating began with this....

Treyson made me a Captain Crunch cereal, toast and milk breakfast-in-bed.

Started my sugar rush early...it was a FREE day!
For lunch, I went to Red Robin with some friends from the ward. I had a yummy burger. I can't remember the name of it, but it had a fried egg in it. I was a little scared to try it, but the waiter said it was good, so I went for it.
It was good.

We were also celebrating Stacey's birthday.

We're Birthday Sistas!!!

Weeks earlier, Stacey had told me she loved skulls. So when I saw this, it had her name written all over it!

She said, "I don't have one THIS big. Thanks."

Good Food + Good Company= Good Lunch!

I received a text from Jason, it said, "I'm getting off at 5. I will pick you up at 5:30 and we are going out!"

When I got home from lunch, I took a little nap. I was feeling a bit under-the-weather and wanted to rest up before the evening events began.

When Jason got home he showered and rushed around. He asked if I would hang out in the room for a while because he and the kids were doing something.

No problem..... I'll just take a little longer nap.

In my sleepiness, I heard scuffles, bumps and glass clinking together. Couldn't figure out what was going on out there, so I didn't try and went back to sleep.

Finally, Jason came in and said that they were ready. He escorted me to this quaint little Italian cafe, "Smullini's".

We were greeted by this lovely hostess...

"Hello. Welcome to Smullini's. How many will be in your party tonight? We have a table over here, next to a window, does that sound good? Great. Right this way. (Lead them to their table.)

I found her script, behind the sign, after dinner. Too cute!

We were seated and noticed the nice view of the broken trampoline, in the back yard. :)

Our waiter then greeted us...

"Hi, my name is Treyson and I will be your waiter for tonight. Can I get you something to drink? We have cherry Kool Aid and water" (said in the cutest, kind of robotic, voice).

He then took our order and poured our drinks. Next, he brought out our Caesar salads.

As he was walking back to the kitchen, he stopped (probably thinking to himself, "I should say something"). He then turned around, nodded his head and said, "Enjoy!".

So funny. We couldn't contain ourselves and started laughing. He was trying so hard to remember everything he was supposed to say and trying to be the best waiter ever.

He WAS very attentive. He kept our water glasses full. He also kept asking, "Does everything taste ok? Can I get you any thing else?"

Rylee the cafe manager.

I later heard her say, "Wow, being a manager, you've got to do a LOT of work (she prepped all the food and kept the kitchen running smoothly)..... I thought that I'd just be sitting back and watching!"

Abree the waitress.

She brought us our garlic bread, hung out in the kitchen and eventually brought me gifts to open.

Smullini's menu

When we were finished with our meal, Treyson said, "I heard it was some body's birthday."

All the kids came over to the table with a chocolate cream pie and candle and sang "Happy Birthday".

Next, it was time for gift opening.

The best gifts EVER!

"This coupon entitles Alisha Smullin to a 'get out of jail free card' from a weeks worth of laundry by your awesome Hubby."

"This coupon entitles Alisha Smullin to one full day (8am to 5pm) of honey do's (arrange with J) for a day."

"This coupon entitles Alisha Smullin to a sink free of dishes for the rest of the month of October. Happy Birthday!"

Can't wait to use my birthday coupons! I always tell Jason he doesn't have to buy anything big or expensive for gifts. All I want is a mile-long list of Honey Do's ....DONE.

He would rather buy the big or expensive thing. :)

Rylee is becoming the rich one in our house. She bought me these cute flats.

Taylee gave me this. She actually made it with a kit and a mold.

She said, "Do you get it?"

Me-"Uhhhh, no."

T-"It's a cricket..... you know a CRICUT."

Me-"Nice!"

Do you get it? "Cricut" is a scrapbooking die-cut paper cutter thingy.

She really knows what I like. :)

Treyson gave me a Bronco sport poster.

Abree have me a colored princess picture, sack puppet and a piece of gum.

She said, "Since I ALWAYS give you a sack puppet, I thought I should give you something else too, so I made you a princess picture."

To end our evening, I was escorted upstairs for a movie..... including a concessions bar; popcorn, cookies and pork rines. We all started watching the movie, but when it got too "kissy" we sent the kids to bed and finished it ourselves. They were not very happy about that.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable day. I felt loved, appreciated and remembered by the phone calls, texts and Facebook messages.

Thanks for making my birthday so nice.