Carlie's 10th B-day Invite!

Can't believe I almost forgot to post this! Smilebox.com is THE BEST invitation website EVER! We had the best time making this one!

This free digital invitation personalized with Smilebox

Carlie's 10th Birthday Luau!!!

I can't believe that I have a 10 year-old daughter! SERIOUSLY!!! She should be like 4! Ugghhh!!!! They just keep on growing don't they! Well, we had our usual pool party--the ONLY thing to do for a summer birthday! Carlie decided to only invite girls this year. Her party guests included: Arianna Braun, Claire Mushet, Abbygale Grant, Maya Koehnemann, Madison Parry, Emily Havey, Grandpa & Grandma Knoop, and Grandma Donna.



I had soo much fun decorating the cake this year! I found several ideas online and I just kinda combined them all. Carlie LOVED the cake too! She said, "Mom....that's not food....THAT"S ART!!!" (I sure did appreciate that comment:)

My mom and dad came up from NM to celebrate with us. No need to hire a magician or clown when my dad is around. He's total entertainment on his own!!! Those girls were BRUTAL to him and he LOVED every minute of it! Poor old guy!



So the party pretty much went like this:
SWIM:
EAT PIZZA:
HULA-HOOP AND BUBBLES:

Ethan cracked us up! We had NO idea that he was such a talented hula-hooper!!!! He just kept going and going and going!!! (Too bad this won't get him into college:)

SWIM:

EAT CAKE & OPEN PRESENTS:




SWIM AGAIN!!!

So it was a very HAPPY day for our girl! We just love her tons and tons and can't imagine our lives without her!!!

Oh yeah...it is also my 1 year birthday for BLOGGING!!! My first post every last year was Carlie's 9th birthday! So Happy 1st blogging birthday to me! Wish I would have started years earlier!!!

Summer Fun!

So every summer I swear my kids turn into fish and grow gills! A day without water to them is unthinkable! So we're always looking to mix things up a bit. They already swim 3+ times a day at home so we decided to take a quick trip over to Tempe Town Lake. We just enjoyed a morning playing in the water and even packed a picnic lunch. Perfect way to spend a Saturday morning in my opinion! Here are some of the pics:

Mom & Dad enjoy a Sunday Matinee!

This morning I wanted Carlie and Ethan to work on a goal from their "Faith in God" books. They chose a goal in the "Developing Talents" section that required them to write a play about a gospel principle or God's creations. They REALLY got into this and we thoroughly enjoyed the finished product. They were soo thoughtful and creative about the whole thing that I just couldn't help snapping a few pics!

So they wrote a play about God's creations and Adam and Eve in the Garden. Carlie and Ethan were the narrators and Max and Tatum were the actors. In the first scene, Max is a bear on the land (green blankets) and Tatum is a fish in the sea (blue blanket representing the ocean).


THEN...there was a quick costume change and Max became "Adam" and Tatum became "Eve." The kids even made a tree (complete with a bird and a squirrel running up). They taped a bag of trail mix to the wall to represent the "forbidden fruit."



Max and Tatum ate the fruit and bam...they ended the play with a baby!



And so we all learned that "The Fall" was a good thing because we couldn't have been born without it:)

Max...tells it like it is!!!

Okay, so let me just start off by saying that this is my week off! I have NO piano lessons this week and so I am just at home for the next 6 days enjoying time with my kids by the pool and doing some much needed spring cleaning. So, with that being said.....make-up is NOT on my "to do" list this week. So today Max asks me:

"Mom....did you forget to go to sleep last night or did you forget to put your pink thing in your mouth?"
(I'm a HORRIBLE teeth grinder and so I wear a pink mouth guard to bed every night--not sure how he knew that:)

I say, "No Max, why?"

He responds, "Cause you kinda look ugly today! Make sure to go to sleep tonight!"

Man, I feel really great about myself tonight! Aren't kids great?!?! The truth hurts sometimes--I'm still not going to put on make-up this week:) And I still LOVE LOVE LOVE this little guy!!!