Smile!

This is what I am affectionately calling our "tourist trap, paid way too much for this" picture. Hokey, yes. But fun. And so far, the only picture I have of us together : )

A Post From Mexico

Buenas tardes!

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I'm sitting in the gorgeous lobby of our resort, catching up on some correspondence, and I thought I'd do a little blogging.

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Today is our second full day in Mexico. Our travels went off without any problems, and we are loving our resort. It's called the Catalonia Royal Tulum and its in the town of Xpu Ha (near Playa del Carmen.)

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Here's what you see of our resort looking back from the beach.

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The beach to the left of the resort
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The beach to the right
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The pool and "La Palapa" (Where they serve lunch)
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The pathways here are surrounded by vegetation - It's gorgeous (and also very handy when the sun is beating down on you!)

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One of many, many iguanas that inhabit the area. "Mexican Chicken" as our bus driver called it. Yum!

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One of the "cenotes" (a natural sinkhole) at our resort.

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We woke up early yesterday morning to watch the sunrise on the beach. Does life get any better than this?

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Before we left, we paid for one excursion that we really wanted to take - to Chichen Itza. The old Mayan Ruins in the state of Yucatan. It's about 2 hours from our resort. When we arrived on Friday, we chatted with our Apple Agent here and found out that due to slow tourism (thank you swine flu) there were only 2 tours available during our stay - One was the day after we arrived, and the other - the day before we leave. We decided to go for the earlier date. Unfortunately, that made for 2 really long days in a row . . . but it was worth it!

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The Temple of Kukulcan - one of the 7 wonders of the modern world. These people really knew something about acoustics (or were accidentally really lucky) If you stand at the base of the stairs on the North side, and then clap, it makes a vary interesting sound. Not an echo, like you might expect, but the sound of the native Quetzal bird. They believed that the sound was Kukulcan speaking to them.

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The temple of the warriors - this is where they did their human sacrifices (Mostly children ages 10-14). On the top, between the 2 pillars you can barely make out a statue. This is Chac Mool. The intercessor. They would put their sacrifices in the bowl on his belly and they belived that he brought it to the gods.

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A better picture of Chac Mool. I didn't take this one (I found it on the internet). Since acheiving the "7 Wonders of the Modern World" status a few years ago, no one is allowed to climb any of the ruins.

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One set of stairs outside of the ball court. The steps are literally taller than they are deep.
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A snake head, decorating the ball court.

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The ball court. Yes, the Mayas had their own sport. Kind of a combination of soccer and basketball. But it wasn't played for recreation. Just once a year they would play (after training their entire life). The captain of the winning team was decapitated. Some incentive to win, huh? They considered it and honor and a sacrifice to the gods. They believed it would bring them a fruitful growing season.

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This is one that you really need to click on to see well. (Again, not my picture) It's a carving that is carved into the side of the ball field. On top is a painting showing roughly what the carving shows. Two teams facing each other. One captain holding the head of the other. 7 snakes coming out of the neck of the decapitated captain, along with plants, flowers and fruit.

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Chichen Itza is covered with carvings similar to this, though different in subject matter. These people had no metal tools. It was all done with stone.

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After Chichen Itza, we were taken for a buffet lunch, and enjoyed some Mayan dancing.

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Our last stop on our excursion was "El Cenote." Another natural sink hole. This one is HUGE! The water is 150 ft. deep. You have to walk down 90 steps to get to the water table, and then you can swim in it. We passed on the swimming - too tired!! This is the view from the top. Those are roots that you see hanging down.
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They had a couple of stopping places on the way down, and this is the view from one of them. It was very cool!

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Today has been spent in ultimate laziness! It's been wonderful. Sleeping in a bit, lounging by the pool with a good book. For lunch, we enjoyed a great buffet in "La Palapa" where we were seated with a beach view (See below). We enjoyed yummy food, a great view and a nice breeze. It was heavenly!

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Next on the to-do list: snorkeling. Time to go get changed. More to come . . .

School's Out for Summer!

Yes . . . I am once again singing Alice Cooper! It's a wonderful thing!
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The plan was to finish up our school year this Thursday. We finished Math and Geography last week. Science was done several weeks ago. Really, all that was left was Language Arts and Science Fair Projects. With so little on the academic schedule right now, Ali & Emma felt motivated to finish a week's worth of Language Arts in one day. I'll take it!! : ) Science Fair Projects were also finished this afternoon. So, I decided to get moving and do all of my end-of-the-year wrap up. Papers are graded, hours are logged and printed, grades are tabulated, etc . . . It feels OH SO GOOD!!
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Yes . . . I do feel the need to take a picture of my data binders, containing our year's worth of work. Silly? Maybe. But, so satisfying! : )

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Still on the agenda for this year:

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Tomorrow evening we have a Music Recital/Project Fair. The kids (Pattons, Younces and Alligoods) will be singing, they (Bekah, Blake, Ali and Karis) will be playing piano, Jonah will be playing his guitar. Science Fair and Project Fair (depending upon the kid) will be displayed and ready for questions. Everything is ready for tomorrow night . . . we just need to do it.

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Next Tuesday and Wednesday we are joining with the Alligoods to do some standardized testing. I'd like to know that I'm not turning my kids into idiots. : ) Though, I'm really not worried about that, I'd still like to have periodic test scores to go along with all of our school work.

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The last thing is more of a fun thing. I bought Ali & Emma each a blank book from Bradburns and I am going to have them write and illustrate their own story. I won't be taking any grades, but I think it will be something fun to look back on when they are older.

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And . . . do do doooo (hear the trumpets blowing) . . . our school year is over with!!

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope it's a good one! I loved this cartoon and had to share!

End of the Year Art Party

Okay . . . so my blogging has gotten a little out of order. Oh well.

For this year, I have been getting together with my friends, Amber and Jessica, for a few home school extracurriculars. Amber teaches Music, Jess teaches Art, and I teach Spanish. We have 9 children between the 3 of us, and thanks to a 3 group rotation schedule, everyone gets time with each teacher. It's been really nice to have some time with the ladies, for the kids to have some time with their friends, etc . . . But I'm also really glad it's over. (I'm feeling that way about a lot of end-of-the-year things these days.) I want to get together with my friends and just hang out. No school. Yes I'm ready for summer! : )

To wrap up our Wednesday afternoon activities, we decided to have a "party" at The Painted Zebra. It's a local pottery place. We have enough kids that we actually got the party rate. : ) The kids had an awesome time, and so did the moms. They spent almost a full 2 hours painting (I was impressed with the attention span of the little ones!) then got a mini tour. They learned about the glaze and the kiln, etc . . . It was really neat. We'll be picking up our creations tomorrow . . . We'll see how they turn out!

Between the 9 of them, they painted 1 fairy, 2 piggy banks, 2 plates, 2 bowls, 1 coffee mug, and 1 tea cup.

Gardens!

Saturday was time to build our gardens!
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We decided to go with raised beds b/c our soil is a mixture of rock and highly compacted clay. More work than it's worth. Thanks to a tip from Grammy (Thanks!) we found explicit directions to guide us in our endeavor. In a few hours we built two 5' x 10' x 12" beds.
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The girls were eager to help out. They were giddy to be able to help by carrying boards . . . Meg is, literally, whistling while she works!
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Ali & Emma, on the job.
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So, I don't have any "in process" pictures, but here is our finished product. It was a very fun and satisfying project. I love using the drill . . . is that weird? I love doing projects that I can finish in one day. Now, our fence on the other hand . . . that definitely won't be the case!! :)

Time for the Trees to Come Down

One of the downsides to building a new house: Nothing has been done to the yard.
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I guess that could be considered a positive as well.
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Oh well . . . we're gradually making it our own, and enjoying the process. Aaron and I love taking on little projects. Our next project is to fence our backyard. Unfortunately we had a bit of a tree problem, and Aaron and I couldn't take care of it on our own! : )
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In 2 weekends we (with the help of our wonderful friends and family) took down 8 trees. 3 of them were dead. The other 5 were on the fence line. Most of them were rather small, but we had a couple of mammoths!
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Last weekend we had a tree cutting party, complete with 5 fellas, 4 ladies and 10 children! We had a houseful! : ) The weather was great (maybe a bit windy for tree cutting) and I can't believe how fast those trees came down!

Here's my brother getting his climbers into one of the big ones. It's nerve wracking to have your little brother climbing up a tree like that, esp. on a windy day. I told him that if he fell out of that tree and died, I'd kill him. I am happy to say, that wasn't necessary : )
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Here's the full view . . . it's a tall one. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough guys pulling on it to start with and it started falling the wrong direction. Yikes . . . our neighbors wouldn't have been very happy about that one! Thankfully with the help of a few more guys, we didn't smash any one's roof!
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Thanks to my awesome camera, I got a good good stop motion view of this one:

There is just something so satisfying about the sound of a tree falling . . . the crack of the wood, the thud when it hits the ground. It was tempting to call out "timber!" a couple of times.

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I'm thankful that tree cutting is over with . . . now on to cutting up wood, burning brush, building gardens and fencing!

Happy Birthday Julie! (A little late!)

Yes, we did actually celebrate Julie's birthday. I'm just a slacker.
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My baby is now 3.
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How did that happen?
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Julie's birthday was low key this year. It was tacked on to a busy weekend including Ali's birthday bash and Easter. That's just life when you're 3 and really don't know anything different. We invited the Alligoods over for a joint Ali/Julie birthday dinner. Yes, Ali already had her party, but we needed to have some way that Jonah could celebrate too. Hence, the combo dinner.
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Daddy also worked just half a day and took us all out to Red Lobster for lunch (my kids love that place!) Julie was tickled when Daddy showed up with a princess balloon for her!
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A few pics from her big day . . .
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Sharing a yummy Crazy Cake!

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It was a "Littlest Pet Shop" kind of birthday this year. You can't imagine how many of those little things she managed to pull in this year! : )

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What a crew . . . so glad to be together!

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Happy Birthday baby girl!

He is Alive!!

Happy belated Resurrection Day! I am so thankful for and and humbled by the cross. It is always a treat to worship with my church family, but Easter is extra special! Along with our morning worship there are always lots of goings on for Easter.
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Here are a few highlights . . .

The kids did an Easter performance this year. Ali was part of the hand bell choir.
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Emma and Meg are part of this crew. All of the children sang along with the bells. They've practiced long and hard for this and they did an excellent job!
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I feel the need to interject here - after spending all that time gathering Easter dresses, shoes, tights, etc . . . Then an hour on Easter morning with a curling iron in my hand . . . I didn't take a single picture of my 4 girls together. What a slacker. I'll have to hit Grandma Patton up for that picture!

Ali hunting eggs at Great Grandma House's house
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Emma hunting eggs - you can't even imagine how much candy we came home with!! Insane!
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Meg took to shaking her eggs. If they didn't shake she wasn't especially thrilled. She hasn't yet learned that eggs that don't shake have paper money in them! :)
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I love this one of Jules! Isn't she darling?
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Easter with the Klarners is always an Easter/Birthday combo. Ali and Austin (My nephew) celebrate birthdays on April 11, then Julie is April 13th. Ali was very excited to get a digital camera from Grandma and Grandpa Klarner.
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Julie's big gift from Grandma and Grandpa was a Littlest Pet Shop Gym. She was excited about it, but it didn't compare with the excitement on Megan's face! My sister asked Julie, "Who do you think you'll be sharing that with?" She responded without missing a beat, "Kevin" (My other nephew) It was hilarious - especially b/c she wasn't trying to be funny.
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Meg waiting so patiently to play with that gym!
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And finally - the pic of all the cousins. Kevin didn't especially want to cooperate. So, I looked him in the eye and said, "Listen, I'm way cooler than your mom, so you need to listen to me." The awesome part is that it worked! : ) Brooke got a kick out of that!

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Back row, L-R: Kevin, Megan, Julie

Front row, L-R: Emma, Austin, Ali

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!