Grant's Carnival

 I love throwing a party, especially for my kids.  This year is Trent's big 3-0 and so I had started planning a big surprise party for him when he told me flat out he didn't want a party.  Bummer.  So I channeled all that party-planning energy into Grant's birthday.  We only do big friend parties for the kids every other year and this was his year so I started planning months ago.  And with the help of Pinterest, I had the perfect party for him.  The invites turned out great.  I had the theme and the goodies and the prizes and the games.  I had this party planned down to the very last detail.
Morning of the party: It hasn't rained all summer but today it decided to be a rainy day.  Good for the firefighters, bad for the party planner.  Just a bump in the road.  Grant woke up with a terrible cold.  I scrambled to get to Wal-Mart to get the balloons and wouldn't you know it, they were out of helium. By noon I was ready to go nuts.  But the show must go on.  So I called and scheduled our clubhouse then ran door to door in the rain knocking on doors telling everyone the party had changed locations.  My sweet Aunt came and got the kids and took them on an adventure while I decorated the cake and by 4:30 we were set with the "new party", just as the clouds cleared and the sun came out.
Long story short, we had a wonderful party for Grant.  Although it didn't go quite as planned, all of his guests showed up, the games were played, the food eaten, the candles blown out, and the boy was happy.  I'd consider that a success, even if it wasn't perfect.  A big thank you to our families for all the help they gave us with games/booths/wrangling children.  Thank you to the kids who came for all the amazing gifts you gave to Grant.  He is all set for like 4 years now!  So generous of you.  And thank you to my unbelievable husband for all he did to make this happen.  Now for the pics!

The Cake

The Ring Toss.  Thanks Cathy!

The Pin Drop.  Thanks Charlene!

The Can Knockdown and the Amazing husband

The Beanbag Toss.  Thanks Mom!

Blowing out the candles.  My bro Zach brought colored flame candles for the cake.  They were awesome!
Thanks!

Face Painting. Thanks Dad! (Thanks for the paints, Amy.  We missed you!)

Opening presents.  The kid got spoiled but look how happy he is! What a cute little tiger!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a very busy Independence Day this year.  My friend Holly and I organized a neighborhood Potluck breakfast at the park.  Who doesn't like a Pancake breakfast on the 4th of July?!?!?  We had a great turn out and Gini Cates decided last minute to make homemade scones freshly fried.  They were to die for!!!  There was so much good food and so many wonderful people. 
After the breakfast, we ran out to Utah Lake to spend time with Trent's family on the lake with the jet skis. It was warm and mostly bug free and the kids loved riding with Aunt Amy and Grandpa.  Grandma Bassett, as usual, brought in an impressive spread for lunch and then we headed home for some much needed R&R. 
After some rest, while Trent was working on homework, the kids and I headed out to get some fireworks and ice cream.  The kids were so excited about the fireworks (especially the tanks, chickens, and snaps).
We grilled up some burgers and then I got to baking Grant's cake for the following day.
That night we went to the park and lit off fireworks with our neighbors.  They brought some impressive ones (not snaps and tanks, but ariels!)By 10:20 pm we were tuckered out so we left (even though they still had loads to go!)

It was a wonderful, yet tiring day!

Pinterest made me do it!

 So I have fallen in love with the website Pinterest.  I have found so many fun things on there!!!  Crafts, garden ideas, recipes,  fun ideas to do with the kids, party ideas, etc.  So over the past several months, I've gotten crafty (with the help of others and their wonderful ideas)  Here are a few of my creations:

Aprons for my Finer Girls to keep food off or husbands on. . .

A Get Well Card. . .With band-aids.  Creative, right? Wish I could take credit.

Jane and Grant's fingerprints in baked clay made into key chains for Mother's Day

A Ninja onesie!!!!

Ninja onesies and dolls to go with an awesome book for my brother and his wife's first baby. 

Dirty Dash 2012

After the blast we had last year, we decided to do the Dirty Dash again this year.    We wanted a later time so we could get muddier and so that we would finish close to the start of the Piglet Plunge.  What we didn't anticipate were the crowds and the traffic.  Man!  We waited in traffic for 30 mins just to get into the parking lot.  We were late for our start time so we just started running when we got there.  They added new obstacles this year.  Lots more. Which was cool other than we had to wait in lines at most of them which made it less like a Dash and more like a  day at Disneyland (without the magic).  But it was fun.  We got WAY muddier than we did last year and that dirt refused to come out, even with Oxyclean. :)
We made our kids do the Piglet Plunge this year.  Mostly because I wanted to do the Slop n' Slide again.  Jane was excited for it but that excitement seemed to dim when she got hit with cold spraying water.  Grant was at first worried about the mud being on him and then he was just mad we were making him hike up the hills.  Oh well.  Someday they will thank us, right :)

 

Class of 2012

 Our little girl has graduated Preschool!!!  We are so proud of her and all that she has learned in the past two years.  We had the great fortune of finding a wonderful preschool close to our home with an amazing teacher, Miss Amee.  Jane has loved every minute of preschool starting even before the first day when I took her to orientation and she screamed when we had to go. :) 

Their little graduation was darling!  Miss Amee had the kids wear their dad's dress shirts backwards and they marched in and sang different songs they had learned throughout the year, some kids got to read books to the crowd, they got to throw their caps in the air (something Jane had been anticipating for weeks), and then we all got to watch a cute slideshow/movie from the year.  I am usually not an emotional person, but I cried several times during Jane's graduation.  It was one of the only times I can remember feeling like an official parent.  Sitting there watching pictures of the kids and listening to them all laugh together about good times...made me realize that my sweet baby girl is growing up and becoming independent and making memories that I'm not in.  *sigh*

Afterwards, we went to get ice cream and Jane got beautiful lilies from her Daddy. 

Jane's Movie Night Party

For Jane's birthday I wanted to have a party but we try to only do big friend parties every other year for the kids and this was her off year.  So I thought maybe we could just do some cake and ice cream in the front yard with some of her neighborhood friends.  Perfect!  Oh but wait!  We could totally borrow my Aunt's projector and watch a movie on the house. . .that would be free. . . and I could make cute little invites. . .PERFECT!  Wait, when did this become a big party?!?!  Oh well.  I had fun :)

So last night we had the neighborhood kids over for movie night.  They started claiming spots on our driveway 3 hours before we were even planning on starting the 'party'!  Trent set up the equipment and "screen" (a white table cloth) and I got the refreshments ready.  While we were waiting for the sun to go down, the kids had a dance party, Jane blew out candles, and we ate ice cream.  We ended up having 5 unexpected guests and it was so great!!  Once it was dark enough to see the movie, we started "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked", handed out more ice cream and some popcorn and then just enjoyed the party ourselves.

For an 'off year birthday' it was spectacular!

Happy 5th Birthday Jane!

5 years ago our sweet baby girl joined our family.  What did we do without this character???  Life definitly got more interesting when she joined us!  Happy 5th Birthday Miss Jane!
What a day!  This morning we had muffins and opened presents and played.  For lunch we went to Old McDonalds and played some more.  Then, since it was such a hot day, Jane and Grant's friends invited us over to run through the sprinklers.  Jane was the only one brave enough to actually run through!  Go Jane!

 Then it was a quick dry off and on to Boondocks with the Grandparents.  Nothing quite compares with pizza and arcade games.  Everyone had a blast! And Jane ended up with so many tickets she was able to get prizes for her and Bubba!  What a day!