Hotel CaliFarnsworth

Doug took the kids Mountain Biking with him. I was excited to have time to myself. However, the trip did not end well for Douglas. He came home very upset for a few reasons. Reason One: Too many kids for him to help out of difficult riding spots. From now one I think he will be taking them one at a time. Reason Two: Different riding abilities means different speeds and harder to hear Dad. Preston rides so much better than Chloe and Derek that he would get way ahead and then not hear Doug telling him to stop and wait. Oops. Seriously, now he will only take them one at a time. Reason Three: Doug lost his phone on this ride. :( Very sad.

The kids managed to still have fun though and Doug did bring home some cute pics of Chloe and Derk playing on the rope swing.

Chloe turned 7 years old! Can you believe it? Big girl huh? She was so excited to have a Cowgirl birthday! This birthday was much easier to plan than the Diary one. Anyway, Doug and I once again made our own invites. Chloe LOVED passing out the invitations. She LOVED that they had her picture on them (Preston liked that about his too). The part Chloe loved the most was when she would hand someone an invitation and they'd say, "Oh, how cute you are Chloe." That's really what she liked. Ha ha. She was also a lucky girl because her party was on her real birthday! Yay! On her birthday morning, we had a family birthday and let her open her presents.
Grandma Fisher bought her these beuties: Curlformers! Chloe was ecstatic! She couldn't wait to try them out!
The Family!
The invites told everyone to dress up! This was so fun! It was a hoot seeing the kids all dressed up. For her party we had some lil games. For each game that they'd complete they would come and get a piece of candy. We let them do this until the candy was gone. The could paly whatever game they wanted whenever they wanted. The only game that had a special candy was the Digging game.
The first activity was to decorate their bags. The had to have a place to carry their loot! Right next to the bag decorating was the cowboy boot cookie decorating. Everyone's favorite game was the Digging for Diamonds! The liked it because the girls liked the little "diamond" jewels and because the treat they got for playing this one was a ring pop! This was the only game that they could only play once. Unfortunately our talented photographer didn't get any pictures of the "Wagon Rides". This was also a favorite. We had our wagon and the kids gave each other rides. Too funny! We also had horseshoes set up for the kids.

The food was so yummy I am sad that this is our only picture:

Chloe LOVED her cake as well. It had to be cowgirl themed right?



And finally here are some of my favorite shots of the cute kids at the party! Thanks Preston for being a great photographer! The kids were troopers for staying and watching Chloe open her presents in the rain!

I love Teacher Appreciation Week! Even though it turns out to be the busiest week of the year for me. I make some kind of treat for the Staff each day. This year I wanted to try different things. I made Pocket Apple Pies (in the shape of an apple), Carmel Chocolate Apples, Chocolate and Candy Bark, Cupcake shaped Cookies, and homemade gourmet smores. I even made homemade marshmallows and graham crackers. The marshmallows were DELICIOUS! Yum!

Doug always does amazing food for the Teacher Appreciation Luncheon. Doug did the food a Luau theme. So yummy! This year he decided he was going to take pictures. The teachers and staff were so excited and grateful! We love them and truly appreciate their hard work! Thanks for taking care of Preston, Chloe, and Derek! We couldn't ask for a better staff!! We love Sierra Vista!

Enjoy Doug's mouthwatering photos.

This year I decided I wanted a party. I had been wanting to have a "girls night out" party for a llloooonnngg time and hadn't had the time for it. My birthday was a perfect excuse I thought. I had a "Favorite Things" party. Everyone brought two products that they LOVE ($10 or under). They told about each product then chose a random name from the hat and gave one product to them to keep. The other product became my birthday present. Sweet huh? It was so fun. The hubbies came and hung out. Melanie decorated the house for me and Doug made awesome food! I love my husband! He even got me a Banana Cream Pie! I made "Killer Cake" for everyone else. Lol. Thanks for a fun party!

P.S. I am super sad we didn't take any pictures!!

Preston was most excited to graduate from Wolves to Bears in cub scouts. He really wanted Jenny Majestic to be his den leader because they always do such cool things. She has a system for cub scouts I tell ya. The first week of the month they earn a requirement from the book. The 2nd week they go on a hike or adventure of some sort (a field trip). The 3rd week they earn a belt loop. The 4th week is Pack night. Sweet huh? I want to be a Bear too!

Every year we let the kids pick a theme for their birthday party. This is something they help plan and LOVE to do. They usually start planning their party for the next year a month after their birthday! Too funny. Well this year Preston was NO different. He wanted a Wimpy Kid party. I figured by the time his birthday came around he'd change his mind. Nope. Not.A.Chance. I was beginning to fret about how in the world I would pull off a Diary of a Wimpy kid party. Doug and I made the invites:
Front

Back

We ended up setting up an outdoor movie theater in the backyard. Yes I said, backyard. Usually we have the kids' parties at the park because so many kids want to come and DO end up coming. Doug reassured me that the party would be easier if we just did it at our house. So I eventually gave in and said yes to the ordeal. Let me tell you, we had over 70 kids show up (yes that is more than he had invites for but his always happens). That many kids is a LOT in our backyard. Oh it was crazy! It was hard to get them all in the backyard to because we had the trampoline set up in the front. Lol.
I only had one game to play. I made 60 shrinky dink bracelets. Some kids didn't get to play (the younger ones and a couple older ones too). I bought really cheap plastic containers and traced (with a Shrapie) the stinky cheese from the book. Then I cut them out and baked them. Instant charms. Added a few beads and that was it. I had 2 special bracelets that had different beads on them. The kids that ended up with those bracelets got a Diary of a Wimpy Kid poster. The kids went NUTS when they found out this was the prize. Too funny. You wore your bracelet and if someone caught you saying cheese you had to give them your bracelets. The person with the most bracelets won a Diary of a Wimpy Kid Movie book, bookmark, and stickers. Again, the kids went crazy!
We served cheese, Nachos, licorice, sodas (an entire Aquafina fridge full), cake, hot chocolate, smores (gotta have the hobo fire right?) and popcorn. Melanie let us use her popcorn machine again (Yay!). The party was a hit! Preston is a great kid with lots of fun friends. Thank you all for coming!

Chloe has gotten all of my kids obsessed with lady bugs. She spends her entire recess time at school hunting and collecting them. Which also means she comes home with dirt in all her crevices and a lunch pail full of ziploc bag lady bug houses. Throwing away sandwich baggies full of dirt, grass, pebbles, and dead lady bugs has become part of my daily routine. When Chloe got in trouble at school for collecting the insects we figured we needed to do something about it. She got into trouble because there came a day when her mom didn't give her any ziploc bags in her lunch. Ha ha. Outsmarted her I thought. Nope, Chloe still collected the bugs. She stuffed them up her jacket arms to keep them safe. Too bad it was a hot day and when she walked into class she just had to take off her jacket. Out flew about 20 lady bugs. This made the kids go wild I bet. Oops.

Doug and I both remembered a couple years ago while hiking up Ice House Canyon we saw literally thousands of lady bugs. We thought it must have been this time of year. So we planned a family trip. One day after school we went to Ice House Canyon to hunt lady bugs that we could keep alive. We persuaded Chloe top quit collecting them at school since they were dead by the time she got home anyway. We let her know we'd get her ones that would stay alive in her room (for a few days--oh, we may have forgotten to tell her the "few days" part). Doug made a nice lady bug home in a water bottle. It had air holes, dirt, grass, and a few pebbles. Chloe was happy with it.

Hiking up Ice House Canyon was super fun. The kids felt so adventurous and free. We ended up not seeing thousands of lady bugs but we did find about 20 to keep. Preston had his Davey Crockett hat on and he and Derek took turns wearing it. Two boys with a coon hat equals one big imaginative play period. I loved seeing their little imaginations go wild. Running and jumping around in the woods is the best for little boys.