Off the schizzle (celebration #4)

Leigh shares a birthday with one of her best friends, Maddy.
This year Maddy's adults, Deana and Andrew,

Deana (cake baker extraordinaire) and Andrew (master bounce house setter-upper)

decided that they wanted to throw a blowout for Maddy
What better place to do it then the park across the street, the sight of so many epic events!

(I should mention now that Deana doesn't do anything small.)

The birthday cake Deana decided to bake, the day before, just for the heck of it....

It started out tame,
 then there was mention of a carnival theme.
We have some friends who possess things and do things
I mean, seriously, doesn't everyone need to know at least one person who has
a bounce house?  or cotton candy machine?
With a carnival you need certain 'things', like:
 balloons, 

Willy's Creations, Inc...Awesome!

face painting

Leigh

Maddy with friend

Donovan

bounce houses

Janel (owner of the bounce house) and Shardae (mother of that super cute little blond boy!)

cotton candy

Mary, cotton candy goddess

a magician

 

and of course, being hot, after the park soiree, there was a couple more hours of swimming to be added
(which included a hose/super soaker/water bucket war with the neighbors over the fence..)


Somehow, we also ended up with 2 hamsters (now named Cutie and Lily)
and two goldfish (now named Goldzena and Goldzilla)
So, how awesome did it get?

Pretty awesome.
My big worry now is that I surely raised the bar for birthday parties in this house
When Carson's rolls around, I might be in trouble...he might expect a hayride/ circus/ petting zoo thing....

Friends of ours

I have been realizing lately that we have quite an eclectic variety of friends.  I tried to put them into different categories but for the most part, they defy sorting.

We have been married for a long time and have gathered friends during that time that follow our interests in music, art, travel, and lifestyle.
Some of these friends overlap into our chosen parenting style also.  Although some of our earlier friends do not have children or parent slightly different than us.
 Then there are friends that do not have the same interests in general things and yet share common goals with us, people that I never would have met or crossed paths with but have come to know and enjoy having in my life, brought together only by circumstances or similar sets of happenings.
People that I can't imagine not knowing now, that have enriched and changed my life in multiple ways.
.

 

I guess it's true what they say, "we find our people".  And those people who are true will still be there.  But as interests change and directions in life are diverted, so do your "people". 

The Best Man

Anyway, we went to a wedding this weekend of two of our friends who fit into several of those "categories"

The ceremony was:

started off with the Serenity Prayer
ended with a traditional blessing
included a talking stick circle
kid friendly

 

The reception was:
drum circle inclusive
alcohol free
full of vegetarian (and meat) options
laid back and relaxed

Drum Circle

 and it ended with a sparkler and chanting send off!
Good time had by all.

Actual Birth Date celebration (# 3 if you are counting...)

Leigh's actual birth date is 4/21,
since I had to work early on that morning,
we had a dinner with our traditional birthday ring and gifts the night before.

 

She picked chicken tacos...*seeing a theme here*, had our friend Amy over, opened gifts.

She got some coveted gifts, such as Heelys from one grandma and an MP3 from her other grandma.

 One of my dear talented friends also made her a pair of knit covered headphones (keeps them from tangling..)in her favorite color, purple, using some hand spun soft wool yarn that I had.

We also got her a State Quarter Map.  They have both been fanatically collecting the state and territory quarters and are only short 2 of the 4 territories.  Through the generosity of all of our friends, we were able to locate all 50 states.   Now they are moving onto the America the Beautiful quarters.  These are also giving them travel ideas....

Just one more party left.  Yeah, we like to celebrate birthdays here.
I'll update on what we did on her actual birth date also soon.  It had nothing to do with her birthday but was one of the most fun celebrations that we ever participated in!

End of an era

So, for the last 1000 days, I have been following the most AWESOME blog.

1000 Awesome Things

It came to an end on Wednesday night.

Go check it out, it puts perspective on life and really makes you nod.

**My favorite entry was probably this one: **

It was the one blog that I was always waiting to read daily, knowing that there would be something interesting no matter what was going on in my life.  It really was 'awesome'.

I am thinking of buying the book that chronicles it for a few people.

Another book that is along the same lines as that one is "14,000 things to be happy about"

 


This is one of those books that I have picked up randomly over the years (I first read it in 1991) and have checked off the things that make me happy at that present moment, depending on where my life is at the time.



It is another, 'putting it all in perspective' book.

On a side note, she now has an interesting website to go along with her book.

Next Celebration (2nd one)

Every year we let our kids pick where they want to go out for dinner for their birthday.
We live down the street from a fantastic little Mexican restaurant called Manuel's.
Leigh decided she wanted to go there because:
1) They have a balloon lady on Wednesday nights
2) They have great kids meals
3) They give you free fried ice cream on your birthday
4) THEY HAVE A BALLOON LADY!!!

So, we had to plan to go on a Wednesday (due to the balloon lady being there on that day only) and it had to fit into all of our schedules.
So last night it was.

The balloon lady made Carson a dragon

 
and Leigh a unicorn.

 

Leigh talked her out of a balloon tiara before we left also...
Back home enjoying the spoils:

First day of two weeks...

Not Quite 8 yet...



So today we started with a skating party for Leigh. Her actual birthday is next Saturday but one of our dearest friends is being married on that day.
So we decided to have the skating party today. She invited a few random friends; from school, church, meetings, girl scouts, tribe and homeschool group.





Even the adults got into it.


Kids had soda, pizza, and cake.



We had never done anything like that before.
Don't get me wrong, we'll have the no-holds-barred blowout at the park in 2 weeks.
Yeah, because that's how we roll...



We just haven't figured out how to keep things, say, "low key"

Long Time

Yesterday someone asked if I had a blog. I said, "Yes I do." Then I went home and looked at it.
I haven't posted anything for about a year and a half!

I am recommitting to posting and will start by doing TWO posts a week. I think I can do it.
I'll just have to be diligent and fit it into the day TWICE weekly. That's all. I should be able to do that much....
So, I'm considering this one of those two posts this week..;)




I'll even throw in a pic of the kids at the park.