Porter Turns 15

I can't believe that Porter is now 15!  He had a fun birthday with a lunch outing to Tucano's with Mom (he was able to skip a couple school classes, too).  We had plenty of good food.  Then later we enjoyed some time at Wahooz, burgers at Wendy's, and then pie and icecream.

Later in the week he had a friend party with at bunch of boys from church and cousin, Braden.  Paul kept them happily entertained with Minute -to-Win-it Games, and a youtube viewing game.  I kept them happily feed with a pizza lunch and ice cream sundaes.  All in all the party was a success and everyone had fun.  We love you, Porter.

My Big Birthday

Today I turn 40 years old, can you believe it?  I just thought this birthday would be like any of the others, but NO -this one is different and memorable (already).  Paul skillfully planned a surprise party - it really was a surprise!  

It started out with Jody calling to ask if she could take my girls home after school to play.  Of course, my girls loved the chance to play but I was a little hesitant.  I really didn't want to drive across town later to pick them up because I had a terrible headache (result of my long nap).  But I thought I better let Jody "have her way" because we take turns being the "bossy one".  (Thanks Jody for assisting Paul with his secret plans).

So I drove to pick up the girls and Jody told me that we were going to drop off the girls at my house and then meet the guys somewhere.  I didn't know any better so I went along with the plan. But I did remind her that I don't really like surprises, because I like to be in control  (isn't that true!).  However, in the mean time, her and Paul had talked on the phone.  Paul warned her that I might not be in a good mood.  I didn't know I was upset, just not feeling my best.

So we came to my house to drop off the girls and I asked if she would like to see my newly painted living room.  When I opened the front door (it got stuck on the rug) I saw the Merrills just standing there by the fireplace!  Then I said, "OH NO!"  because it was all registering that something was amiss.  Then everyone yelled - SURPRISE and the party began!

The party was total hit!  Paul did such a great job with the food, the decorations, the games - everything!  I was totally amazed at his party throwing skills.  The party began with me blowing out all 48 candles - Porter didn't count.  But at least I know I can blow that many!

 We divided into teams and played several "Minute-to-win-it" games, including: chocolate unicorn, elephant march, bottoms up, defying gravity, paper dragon, ping tic tac, hanky panky, dance with me baby, use the backboard, and face the cookie.  

They gave me some funny gifts.  Of course, the depends from Tisha and David are going to come in handy really soon along with the walker from the Turleys!  Everyone was very kind and thoughtful - thanks for making my birthday a big one!

And a special thanks to my dear husband, Paul.  He threw me an over-the-top birthday even when I have been rotten all week!  I love you, honey.

 More pics and birthday news to come.....

Olivia's Harry Potter Birthday

Yesterday I threw a birthday party for Olivia.  I hosted "friend parties" for all the kids this year (which is a rare treat....I only do this every couple years or so).  She has been in love with the Harry Potter books (she read all seven books in a couple months) so she asked for a Harry Potter party.  With the help of Pinterest and many hours, I was able to pull it off.

This morning when I was out looking for broom stick branches, I thought "what in the heck am I doing?"   I then reminded myself that I am doing this for Olivia because I love her.  This is what us, moms, do!

The party got started by sorting everyone into the four houses of wizards: Huffle Puff, Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw.  I didn't know how much fun the girls would have with just a simple activity.  Then we went on a snitch hunt using the Maruader's Map.  They each found a snitch (a Ferrero Rocher gold wrapped chocolate with attached wings) after searching everywhere inside and out.

Then we played a game of Bernie Bott's Beans, you never know what kind of bean you will be eating.  It could be licorice or skunk spray, canned dog food or chocolate pudding, or other surprising choices.

Dinner also brought some interesting foods, including:  Butter Beer, Herbology Bites (a baguette slice with flavored cream cheese and cucumber), Polyjuice Potion (chili cheese dip) and chips, Hogshead cornish balls (sweet and sour meatballs), witches' wands (Pirouline rolled wafers), chocolate covered frogs, Weasley brother's Fever Fudge, and french bread pizza.  Then we topped the party off with a Harry Potter Birthday cake (made by Aulina, one of Olivia's friends) and icecream.

I could tell the girls had a great time by their noise level!  Corbin told me he was grateful that we only have two girls in our family.  They were LOUD with all their happy noises and singing!

Another Year Wiser

For quite some time, I have been telling Paul that all I want for my birthday is a shower cap!  And not just any shower cap, I specifically asked for a pink or green polka dotted one!  I have wanted this because I use a shower cap several times a week because I wash my hair every 3-4 days because it is very dry. 

Paul was very pleased that for once he got me a gift that he knew would make me happy!  I used it for the first time today and I have to say that it works great.  It totally beats all the little crappy disposable caps that I have been using.  And I have to say that it is quite cute.

In addition to my new shower cap, I treated myself to a shopping trip to the mall and stopped at a few stores (Williams Sonoma - love all things in the kitchen, The Body Shop, Sephora, and See's Candy) to grab some fun things for myself.  And the kids topped it off with some yummy chocolates.  I had several nice phone calls, cards. gifts, and thoughtful friends.  Thank you all for sharing your love with me!  In case, you are wondering I am 39 years young!  It's my last year to live it up.

Olivia Turns 10

Olivia with her family!

 

 Tisha and Olivia share this special day!

 Family and  friends celebrate with us.

 The kids are watching Olivia open gifts.

 

Olivia loves playing her new game, Sleeping Queens.  Olivia loves birthdays. We are shopping Saturday with some of her bday money!

Porter Turns 12

Porter loved lighting his 12 candles!  This is a special birthday because he received the Aaronic Priesthood and joined the Deacons Quorum.  Next week he will be passing the sacrament with the other young men.  I can't believe he is 12.   Oh, the years pass to quickly.

Porter celebrates his birthday while being surrounded by cousins (Braden, Lacy and Abby)

 and siblings (Olivia and Vivian - where is Corbin?).

Saturday we played at Wahooz (formerly named Boondocks).  Porter had an unlimited pass because it was his birthday. The rest of us enjoyed riding the go carts and playing games with tokens.  Porter was really hoping to reach the 60" height requirement, but was just a hair to short (even after wearing six pairs of socks).

Olivia braves a ride with Paul.  Vivian rides with me.

Corbin is the driver with Porter.  After this little fun, I told Corbin that his opportunity for drivers education will be postponed.  He was a terrible driver.  I had to drive defensively on the track just to maneuver through all the crazy drivers!

Porter, we love you!  We hope you had a great birthday.

Snow/Birthday Fun

We braved the snowy roads and had a birthday lunch escape to Chili's.  I learned that they took my favorite item "lettuce wraps" off the menu over a year ago - where have I been?  I had to come for their delicious Chocolate Molten Cake (free on your Bday) because it is absolutely to die for!  Everyone, thank you for making my day special.

I experimented with the dinner roll recipe that I added a few days ago.  Because at that particular class on rolls, the teacher told us that she uses that same dough to make baked maple bars.  She usually adds a bit more sugar and some cinnamon to the dough and then frosts them with maple flavored icing.  All my kids liked them, except Vivian.  They were a yummy afternoon treat accompanied with hot chocolate as the kids came in from playing in the snow.  Click here for dinner roll link and then scroll to the bottom for bar instructions.

My gift to myself was to make my chicken noodle soup (minus the noodles) with added Danish Dumplings (recipe here).  The dumplings are a recipe of my Grandma Anderson, a favorite dish of mine when I was a child.  They turned out fabulous - just as I remembered!  This dish brought back a lot of sweet memories of cooking with my grandma.

Olivia enjoyed the snow, too.  The kids would come in with wet clothes so we would pop them in the dryer and then send them out again!

 

 Viv's found great joy in sledding with the Zipfy down the bank of snow along the side of our driveway!

Porter and Vivian had a blast  - he pulled her all around, up and down the banks of snow!

 

 Vivian's snowman!

Olivia's snowman - it was dark when she finished!

Olivia turns 9

Last night we (Chad & Marne's family and Tisha/David) celebrated Olivia's 9th birthday along with Tisha's 26th birthday!   We enjoyed brownie sundaes as requested by Olivia.  (The brownies were extra yummy because I added the leftover caramel from the apples and 1 cup of melted chocolate to the batter.)  She loves her new Webkinz puppy, Gracie, and her new Zhu-Zhu hamster pet, Jilly (which goes online at Build-a-Bear).  Olivia's siblings were extra generous this year.  Corbin made a thoughtful card with $5 attached to it, Porter gave her an envelope stuffed with $9, and Vivian gave her a card and chocolate kisses.

Saturday Olivia opened her birthday cards and used the money she was given from grandparents (along with a $5 coupon) to purchase a new animal from Build-a-Bear, one of her favorite stores (it's up there with Costco).  She chose a horse which she named Hershey, after Trinity's horse. 

Happy Birthday Paul

We had a great time celebrating Paul's birthday.  The night before Paul's birthday, Vivian told me that she didn't have school the next day -  that was a surprise to me.  I asked her why she doesn't have school (because I was not aware of this.)  She said that she doesn't have school because it's Dad's birthday and she was staying home to play with him.  She said she wanted more than two hours to be with him, she wanted ten hours!  She was so sweet - she gave Paul two $1 bills and an envelope full of change.

I enjoyed a lunch date with Paul.  I also made a rare office visit and helped him hang some vinyl lettering on his walls - it looks great (thanks Tara).

Paul then took us out for dinner to a Japanese Steak House where they cook your dinner in front of you.  It was a fun presentation and great food.  We then came home for a homemade Oreo Cheesecake.  We love you, Paul!  


FYI:  If you have a belated wish for Paul - contact him.  He doesn't read the comments left here.

Happy Birthday Chad

Last night we surprised Chad, my brother, with a birthday cake & ice cream, probably the only pink cake he has ever had (cherry flavored frosting)! We (our family, Tisha, David, Tara, Neils, and Gage) all sang to him and then the reward for the kids to brush their teeth was to give Uncle Chad birthday spanks. Oh, they ran off all excited to brush their teeth.

He gave them a choice of 5 soft spanks or 1 really hard spank - all my kids went for the hard spank. Chad said they were harder than he was expecting, even little Vivian gave him a mighty one.

Happy Birthday Chad, we love you!

Happy Birthday Grandma & Grandpa Clark

We were lucky enough to have some time on our trip back from Yellowstone to stop and visit Dad and Luanne. They fed us a wonderful spaghetti dinner and topped it off with pie and brownies! The kids had a great time trying to beat grandpa at Monopoly Deal (we love this game). Porter pulled through and took the win. It's fun to watch them get into the game, they all love competition especially when grandpa is playing!

Happy Birthday to both Dad and Luanne - their birthdays are two days apart! We love you both and hope you have a great celebration. Corbin just happened to be born on Dad's birthday so they share that special day together.

Viv's Last Celebration

Vivian really wanted a friend birthday party, but I did that for each of the children on their last birthday (I do a friend party every other year). However, she was so insistent so I decided that we could do a simple gathering of friends with their families in the park, just a few houses down from where we live.

Vivian, Olivia and the Richael girls decorated the cupcakes earlier in the day and I made a whole bunch of chocolate chip peanut butter cookies (recipe here for those who requested it). In addition, we had Popsicles and water. We topped it off with balloons and called it good!

The kids had a blast in the park, the moms had fun visiting and the dad's played wiffle ball and kickball! I wish I would have got a picture of them - they took their games seriously and were sweaty. It is one of the few warmer days that we have had so far this summer.

At the end the girls were playing "Red Rover" - oh, that brings back fun childhood memories. Thank you everyone for coming!

The story of the balloon:
As we were leaving Paul offered a balloon to Kenzie. Oh, Vivian was devasted that he gave away the purple balloon because it was her favorite. Earlier I had taken Vivian to the party store where she picked out each balloon. She cried and cried and we could tell that she was heart broken, so Paul called Kenzie's parents and explained that he was in the dog house for giving away her special purple balloon and that he could trade it with a green one. So Paul made the exchange and Vivian was very grateful. Oops, sometimes Dad's don't understand how important the tiniest littlest things are to a child.

Vivian Celebrates

Olivia made that little house out of a cereal box for Vivian's new pet, how sweet!


Vivian birthday morning...opening a couple gifts and saving the rest for later. Of course, she has to start the day with a new shirt in her favorite color (orange) and a Zhu Zhu pet!

Vivian is happy that her birthday finally arrived. She has been counting down the months and recently the days until today. Lately she has told nearly every store clerk that we have seen that her birthday is in "so-and-so # of days", they were all very gracious as they wished her an early birthday wish.

Vivian knew exactly what birthday cake she wanted. She gave me clear instructions that she wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (recipe here) topped with strawberries and candles. I made a delicious chocolate frosting and spiced it up with some hazelnut creamer (yummy!) and topped the cake with chocolate dipped strawberries. The cake is loaded!

We also went to Costa Vida for bday lunch (yesterday - just the two of us)!

Yesterday Vivian and I went birthday shopping at her favorite store, Build-a-Bear. She picked out a cute flamingo, which she named Pinkie! And then her siblings bought her a Zhu-Zhu pet (Nugget) that she can plan with online at BuildaBearville. It was a fun trip, plus picked out some candy at ToysRUs with her $3 gift card that the store sent. Nothing could be better in her eyes!

Pinkie - is awaiting her birth certificate!

Vivian is a special little girl. She has totally come out of her shell this past year during Kindergarten. She is no longer shy or reserved. She is very smart, witty, and darn cute. She is a delight in our home. I will miss her when she begins first grade.

She has been checking the mail box everyday for letters. She has found a few and she took many pictures of them - this is just one picture! If you ever want to send her mail, she will LOVE it!

Corbin even sent Vivian a nice handmade card with $$ inside! You made her day.

This video is from Sunday, it is Vivian reading at scripture time. She is such a great reader!


Before dinner we had some family fun at a local place - playing arcade games, riding bumper cars and the carousel, and earning tickets to redeem for little prizes. We had 1 1/2 hours of fun with $10 and 7 bottles of BBQ sauce (each item earned us a ride pass). Plus on Wednesday it's double ticket redemption...so if you earned 100 tickets, you counted it as 200!


After all the fun, we went home and enjoyed homemade pizza, cake and some more gifts. Plus the girls and I had fun in the park, while Porter and Paul attended scouts.

Happy Birthday sweet Vivs! WE LOVE YOU!

Porter's Friend Party

Porter had a great time having nine other friends over for his party. Oh, they had a great time playing air hockey - they had their own little tournament. How can you go wrong with pizza, dessert and a movie? Happy Birthday Porter!