Happy Birthday Ali!

Well, my oldest is officially half way to 18! Weird. Forgive the insanely long post. We had a really fun birthday party with Ali . . . and I have 47 pictures to post. Yes, that is a record for me!
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Ali's party this year was an "American Girl Slumber Party." Basically that means that Karis stayed the night with Ali and Emma with a slight American Girl theme. They had a blast!
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Ali is Little Miss Planner these days. I had to reign her in a bit. But, she was very excited to do goodie bags for her friends (and one for herself - the bonus to having a birthday party with only two other people!) She very specifically wanted to buy bags that she could decorate!

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Karis actually stayed with us for two nights while her parents were out of town. So, all of the girls got to help me get ready for the party. They thought that was awesome (yeah, I heard that word a lot!) They helped blow up balloons, decorate the cake, and here they are setting the tablecloth.

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The table is set and ready to go . . .
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The cake (before candles) - The American Girl theme can be tricky to pull off. When in doubt, use stars.
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Dolls and cake, so nicely displayed
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For dinner we did make-your-own pizzas on English muffins

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I don't know why kids think these are so fabulous, but they did!
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Blowing out the candles

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Time to pass out the goodie bags! We filled these from the dollar bins at Michael's and they got some really cute stuff! (Which Ali thoroughly enjoyed picking out) It was nice to not just give them normal goodie bag junk.
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Time to open presents! She was completely elated over every gift she opened. Here she is opening garden tools from Karis, complete with a gift card so she can buy plants for her garden.
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A Disney Fairy t-shirt from Emma
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A potholder weaving loom, also from Emma.
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And, also from Emma - lip gloss. I mean really . . . can a girl have too much lip gloss?

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A new sleeping bag from Mom & Dad - She has pretty much outgrown the kids sized ones we have . . . so it was time for a full sized sleeping bag. Pink camouflage - every 9 year old's dream!

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And her last gift kicked off the highlight of the night. It was the first clue of a treasure hunt. These girls seriously felt like they were on Fetch with Ruff Ruffman (if you don't know what that is, you're missing out!) I found the clues on a treasure hunt website and printed them on American Girl wallpaper from the AG website. They LOVED it!

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Here goes . . .

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Reading the clue from the toothbrush drawer.

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If they were older they would hate me for this picture! Here they are trying to search the bookshelf in Ali & Emma's closet.
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Searching in the shoe closet
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Looking in the tub
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Reading the clue that they found in the silverware drawer.
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They were confused by this clue b/c they could see all the way down the stairs and there was nothing on them. It was taped on the vertical surface of one of the bottom stairs.
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A clock, but which clock. Emma was ready to take down my wall clock in my living room. Aaron's alarm clock was the winner!

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This one was rolled up inside the TP roll.
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Okay, so they're not exactly in neat rows, but they got the idea!
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Under the bench in the dining room!

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And now, for the moment we've all been waiting for . . .

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"Emma, why do you have clothes in your desk?" Yes, that's a direct quote, from Karis.

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I love this picture. They were all thrilled! "American Girl" jammies for them and their dolls.

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Aren't they adorable?
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Now onto our craft. They decorated flip flops with "jewels." This was actually something that I had on hand as a back-up craft in case I had some extra time. We were supposed to make name bracelets for the girls and matching ones for their dolls. Well, being the genius that I am, I put the beads "somewhere convenient" for the party and forgot where I put them! The flip flops were a hit, then I went to Wal-Mart the next day to pick up more beads to make this our Saturday afternoon activity. Aaron found the original beads on top of my refrigerator (convenient place, right?) on Monday afternoon.
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Next I painted their toenails for them . . . and they got a chance to show off those cute flip flops!
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What slumber party is complete without make-up. They're to the age now where they really want to put on their own make-up . . . and that gave me some down time! : )
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The Littles spent most of the evening at Pizza Hut and then Petsmart with Daddy (and Bella!) We arranged it so they could get home a bit early and the big girls could do make-up and nails for the Littles. You can't imagine how excited they all were about that - all 5 of them! Meg was talking about it for days before the party.
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Emma putting some blush on Julie (Don't you love the strangle hold?)
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Karis taking care of Meg's cheeks!
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I love this picture! Here are my Little enjoying some girly chat time while their nails dry.

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And finally they ended the night with a 9:30 fit of giggles! Really, what slumber party is complete without that! : ) They were all asleep by 10:00 and up at 6:00am!

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We all had a blast . . . these are, seriously, some of the coolest kids ever!

Time for Easter Eggs

So, I'm about a year late for this post. With preparations to move last year, we never decorated eggs. Oh well, better late than never, I suppose!

Ali & Emma actually got to help with dunking the eggs this year - they thought that was totally cool. They actually managed to die 3 dozen eggs without tipping over any of the mugs!


Of course, Daddy helped the dying process along, so that we weren't working on eggs all evening!


For Meg and Julie I bought a kit that included lots of stickers, so they could have their part in the fun. Thankfully, there were a lot of stickers in the kit. We didn't run out, and each egg was thoroughly stickered!


We managed to decorate 3 dozen eggs and only broke 2 of them. The kids thought that was awesome b/c it meant that they got a snack! When I gave Julie her egg, she was a bit confused . . .

And of course, I had to have a picture of that! (Runny nose and all)

So pretty

Easter Eggs are always fun, but mostly we are looking forward to the celebration of our Lord's resurrection. Praising Him because He is alive!!

Off to Russia

We are just finishing up a unit on Russia. For a bit of hands-on language exposure, we asked Alena to come and teach them a bit of Russian (she is actually from Ukraine, but they speak Russian there - close enough!) She did an excellent job! She came prepared with folders for each kid (and teachers' folders too) with our names written on them in Russian. She had some cool fairy tale books on display - and of course, nesting dolls (which were a big hit!). She also brought chocolate and caramels for everyone to try. The kids thought it was all totally awesome!

Mostly I just love this one of Julie - Enjoying her chocolate!


The Littles with the nesting dolls - they especially loved the teeny tiny ones.


Alena's fun display items

I love this picture! They're all crowded around to try and read words from a Russian picture dictionary.

Thank you Alena!!

Meet Bella!

Isn't she darling?? Let me introduce you officially . . .

This is "Bella Bella Dancerella" a.k.a. Bella (Long story, and Megan is involved - enough said!)

After our devastating experience with Tucker last fall we took some time to recover, and recently started considering a new pup. We prayed long and hard about her . . . and those prayers were answered beyond what I ever could have imagined!

We started watching the Petfinder listings, and found a few pups that we were interested in. One by one they were crossed off the list. Yesterday afternoon Ali asked me to show her some of the pups on Petfinder. We were looking and came across a listing that was brand new, for this little sweetie. It gave her basic info, and said that she would be at the adoption event at Petco in Fenton that day. We ran upstairs and told Aaron about her. We decided to load everyone up and go check her out in person. We were immediately smitten. She is literally the most beautiful pup I have ever seen. She is also very sweet and mellow, but still playful. We decided to bring her home, feeling like we had struck gold . . . little did we know that there were more treats in store!!

We got her home to find out how sweet and mellow she really is. She loves her toys, has never nipped at the kids, doesn't jump up and is completely uninterested in the cats (SCORE!) Now I am well aware of the fact that we have had her for about 24 hours, but hey . . . I'll take it!! She also has not had a single accident in the house. All in all - VERY different from our first 24 hours with Tucker!

(We also found out that our vet (who we love!) is one of the approved vets to do her free spay - minor, I know . . . but still a treat!)

In our adoption papers we had a note from Cindy (the owner of Bella's Mama). She had written to request an email from the family who adopted her pup, including pics as she grows up, etc . . . I was more than happy to oblige, knowing that it must have been tough to give up this little sweetie. I also had a few questions for her. What an awesome thing to be able to be in touch with the woman who has raised her so far! To know if/when she has had Frontline/Heartguard. Where she slept, what house training she has done, etc . . .

We were so blessed this afternoon to get an email back from her, answering all of our questions, sending a ton of pics (starting with 1 day old!) and including a pic of her Mama. We also found out that she has been working with her on house training since she was 3 weeks old!! Talk about an angel!!!! You can't even imagine how that made my day! Thanks Cindy!

Now that I have made a short story very long, here's her basic info:

She is 9 weeks old
Mama is a Boxer, Papa is a Black Lab (I think she has a Lab's body with the markings of a Boxer)
One eye is blue, the other is blue on top and a brownish-hazel on the bottom (Beautiful!)
She weighs about 14 lbs.

So . . . with all of that said . . . enjoy my insane amount of pictures! :)


Meg snuggling a very-happy-to-oblige Bella
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Sleepy girl
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She's been doing a whole lot of sleeping . . . but Emma was happy to pet her anyway.
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Ali's turn
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Pretty eyes . . . the pics really don't do them justice!
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She is thoroughly enjoying all of her toys
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Meg and Julie trying to convince her to play
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Just some random cute ones . . .

I love the wrinkles on the forehead!
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Apparently her crate feels "homey" to her. That's where she goes when she wants to nap.

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And here are 2 from Cindy (Thanks!!)

Bella's Mama, Penny. Isn't she beautiful?

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1 day old pups!

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Time to end my insanely long post! : ) Much more to come!

Welcome to China!

We have spent these past two weeks studying China, and today was our wrap-up. I had it written in my plan book that we would make paper lanterns. The girls had a great time with that. Then when it was time for lunch (and I didn't really feel like making lunch!) I decided to go for a full feast. When I told Julie that we were going to order Chinese, she literally started jumping and shouting, then ran down the hall calling "Yeah! We're getting Chinese! Ali! Emma! Megan! We're getting Chinese!" The response from the other three as they came sprinting out of their rooms was similar. It cracks me up. When I was a kid, the thought of Chinese food grossed me out!

This was such a hilarious experience! They really felt like they were authentically experiencing China . . . and I wasn't going to burst their bubble. We enjoyed broccoli with beef, sesame chicken, pineapple chicken, honey chicken, egg rolls, crab rangoon, egg drop soup and of course, fortune cookies (funny story about that yet to come).


Watching them as they tried to use chopsticks was awesome! Emma was the first one to discover the "easy way"


Julie didn't last long - she quickly opted for the fork!


Nice try Ali! (But no luck!)

I guess now would be a time for that funny story . . . While we were eating our fortune cookies, we were talking about the legend that if you can get the fortune out without breaking the cookie, then the fortune is supposed to come true. Ali looked up at me and said, "But what if the fortune says that you're going to be in the hospital for a week or something like that?" She's always thinking! : )


Meg proudly displaying her skewered pineapple.

And finally . . . Julie really enjoyed that crab rangoon!!