Bear Party!

For Miranda's 7th birthday party, I decided to go with a bear theme.  Miranda wasn't sure about this theme at first, but I talked her into it.  Here is our little bear cake.

We fed the girls this very fluffly bear pizza for supper.  I thought it turned out pretty cute.  The girls all liked it but said that they didn't want a piece of the face, because of the olives and pepper.  There's no accounting for taste, I suppose. :)

 

Here are Megan and Bella stuffing their Build-a-Bears.  We got these kits from Hobby Lobby and they were so much fun.  Bella and Megan picked up on the stuffing thing very quickly and then helped the other girls to stuff their bears properly.

Cute Kirra, Sharlotte, Lily & Miranda with their bears.

And there's Kirra again with the equally cute Brynn and Rachel.  What a fun bunch of girls.

After building their bears and eating dinner, the girls settled down for a showing of "The Care Bear Movie".  Miranda wasn't thrilled with this choice at first, but she admitted afterwards that she liked the movie and though it was okay for big girls too.

And here Miranda is blowing out her candles after the movie.  The cake tasted yummy and she totally loaded up on awesome presents.  She says it was her best birthday party so far.  Score Mom!

Quote of the Day

"Mommy, I had an accident because I was laughing so hard, it made me allergic." - Amber. After her sisters laughed hysterically, Amber said, "Mommy put that on the log." Oh boy! This is for you silly girl.

Bluebird

Amber learned this song in preschool and she sings it all day long. She even sings herself to sleep at naptime. When she first started doing it, I thought it was quite darling, but the song is really addictive and now I find myself humming it in the car, in the shower, in the grocery store...you get the idea. Also, please note the obnoxious older sister to the left of Amber. This is what we deal with on a constant basis.

Quote of the Day

"There's a new sherriff in town. " Chad, when I commented that at his most recent basketball tournament, the usual starters were getting less playing time and the benchwarmers (Chad included) were getting more. :)

How We Entertain Ourselves on Road Trips

Okay, I finally got the list of crazy rockstar baby names that Emily, Chad, Aaron and I came up with on our long radio-free trip to Blanding over spring break.  Here they are, A to Z.

Girl  / Boy
Aspen / Ajax
Bubbles / Big Chief
Cameo / Chaos
Drama / Death Lee
Ecstacy / Energy
Fidelity / Felony
Giggle / Greenpeace
Heaven / Hershey
Intimacy / Indigo
Jailbait / Juniper
Kismet / Kix
Luxury / Liberty
Moxy / Mercury
Neptune  / Nascar
Opal / Onyx
Panama / Panther
Query / Quest
Rainbow / Rendezvous
Savory / Shredder
Travesty / Trip
Unity / Urine
Vendetta / Villainy
Wisteria / Wolf
Yesterday / Yaz
Zephyr / Zen

Now if only we could find the list of romance novel heros and heroines.  We came up some true classics in that one.

Denver

Chad and I went on another road trip this weekend to the Southwest Classic AAU Basketball Tournament in Thornton, Colorado.  I was a little bit worried when Chad was running a high fever two nights before the trip was scheduled, but he dragged himself from his deathbed to take one for the team (and because he was just a little bit excited about his first out of town tournament).  I promised Chad that we would find a non-chain restaurant to eat lunch at.  Sam always makes him eat at Subway or Taco Bell when they travel together but we were feeling much too adventurous to eat somewhere that boring.  So, here he is in Pueblo at Auntie Bev's Cafe waiting for a hamburger that was really quite awesome.  If you're driving through the Pueblo historic district, we highly recommend it.

And here Chad is in one of his uniforms.  He is quite proud of it, I must say.  I think he even stroked the fabric when he first got it.  The team played four games and lost all of them.  (You would not believe the skill level of some of the teams who come to these tournaments.)  But I didn't really care, because I was so mad at Chad's coach for only letting him play about 1 minute per half during the first couple of games.  I had a mini-melt down after game #2 and went to the bathroom to cry.  It was terribly embarrassing, especially because one of the other moms saw me.  Luckily, she sympathized and said she was about to murder the coach herself if he did not keep forcing half of the team to warm the bench for the majority of the game while trying to give the other half cardiac arrest.  What's the point of having 12 boys on your team if you're only going to play 6 of them, I ask you?  When the third game came along, Chad was furious by the time he went into the game.  Lucikly, that tends to make him quite aggressive so he went in, took a charge and made two baskets in quick succession - thus, ensuring himself a bit more time on the court for the rest of that game and the next.  But, in case you're wondering, I'm still mad.

And here is Chad at the Old Spaghetti Factory.  We'd never gone before but the rest of the team was going together so we decided to give it a try.  I loved the decorations and ambience.  I felt like I'd gone straight back into the early 1900's.  If only we hadn't had to park in downtown Denver.  Holy Cow, that is one seriously sprawling city.  We liked it though and I especially liked seeing Lyssa and her family in their fabulous 1912 home.  What a fun tour I got.  Thanks, Lyss!

Little Stinker

"I just needed a granola bar, Mom."