Lexi's 19th Birthday

Several weeks ago, our family enjoyed celebrating our first-born's

19th birthday.  Say what?!

As our children age, they make their own plans for their birthdays now.

I kinda like that.  Way less work and planning for the Mom.

But it makes it harder for the rest of us to catch them

in time to do our own celebrating with them.

We were able to talk this girl into going out to lunch with us
as a family before she drove off for an afternoon of fun with her friends!

Garrett's 10th birthday

Garrett's birthday fell on the Monday after Lexi's graduation weekend.

It was also the first day of summer vacation.

We were pretty much partied out and broke!

But we did have a couple fun things in our back pocket to make this

a fun day for this guy!!

We made a donut run for breakfast.....

........and got to continue our annual tradition of going to our favorite friends' pool

for the first swim of the season on Garrett's birthday.

We followed this up with a family cook-out on our back patio!!

Happy 10th Birthday, Garrett!!!

Grant's 14th Birthday

Our family celebrates a lot of birthdays in the month of April.

Our oldest son turned 14 this year.

One thing I have noticed as my children are growing up is that they

aren't as high maintenance when it comes to celebrating their birthdays.

In fact, this guy really didn't want to do much at all.

My husband and I had just returned home from our anniversary trip two days before

his birthday, and a very dear friend of mine passed away rather suddenly only the day before.

My mind really wasn't able to plan an elaborate shin-dig for him, but he seemed rather relieved.

Historically, when our girls turn 11, I take them for a special overnight

to talk to them about "growing up," how their bodies will be changing,

and why those things are an inevitable part of our lives.

I give them a lot of important, sensitive information so I

take them away from listening ears of younger siblings.

This year, my husband and I felt that our oldest son was ready to handle

some of that information.

We really want to be the ones to give our children an understanding of God's

design for our bodies and relationships with the opposite gender before

their friends or the media give them a skewed view of Biblical marriage.

So, for Grant's birthday this year, he got a special overnight with his Dad.

They talked about the things they needed to and also spent some time

at a Texas Rangers baseball game.

Just Dad and his son.

Raising children with a Biblical worldview is no easy task.

Not in today's media crazed age.

It takes time and planning, but the end result is so worth it!!!

Sweet Sixteen

Where has the time gone with this little precious?

 Our second born celebrated her 16th birthday this year!!

What?  WHAT?!?

She didn't really want a big birthday extravaganza like her sisters did this year,

so we kept it low key.

We had so very much going on this week that we just couldn't squeeze

another thing in.  So after school is out and things settle down for the summer,

we are planning on a little afternoon get-together with her friends to celebrate

this important life event!!

Happy birthday, sweet girl!!!

Spring break fun: Celebrating another birthday

Our sweet Abby turned 12 years old the same week that my husband and I

left for 3 days for our couples retreat!

On her actual birthday we celebrated her quietly as a family.

But this year, this tweeny-girl asked if she could have a sleepover party

with some of her friends.

She rarely asks for anything for herself, so I knew that this was something she

had been thinking about for awhile and really desired to happen.

The earliest time we could schedule it was the week after her birthday

during spring break.

She is always cost conscious and didn't want us to have to spend a lot

of money, so she planned a fun evening of dinner at Cici's Pizza......

shopping......

........pigging out on fun movie theater type snacks....

......and watching movies crashed out on the living room floor!

We watched "Max" which we gave 5 stars!!!!

These girls were so sweet and quiet and aware that Abby's Daddy had 

to go to sleep early and leave very early for his shift at the police department!

They all got along beautifully and we had a blast!!

Our first birthday of the season: Cupcake Wars!!

{Warning:  Lots of adorable pictures ahead!}

Our first family birthday of the year comes in on the heels of Christmas,

so I'm not usually well-prepared for a complicated hurrah!
This year our youngest mentioned she really wanted a party this year for her 8th birthday,

so I knew I was going to have to kick things into gear right away!

 We tossed around several ideas and I began pricing out the different birthday venues that

are available in our area.

The prices nearly took my breath away.

THAT  much money for only two hours of time AND I can't bring my own food?!

When I realized there was literally nothing that would fit our budget,

I turned to my old friend, Pinterest.

There I found the inspiration for a Cupcake Wars themed party

that would be perfect for our family!!!
My girls love to watch DIY craft videos and Food Network challenges,

and I already had a ton of things at home I could use,
so we sprang into action to pull it all together!!

First, I sent out Evite invitations because it was going to be faster.

I contacted the Pastor/Principal of our little homeschool co-op for permission to

use that church's fellowship hall as our venue.

A couple weeks before, I began shopping my house for repurposed decorations,

and I began making cupcakes and tossing them into the freezer.

Lots of cupcakes.

There wouldn't be time or resources for the girls to make their own cupcakes,

so Ashlyn and I spent a couple days making several dozen a day from a box mix.

We made chocolate, funfetti, strawberry, and lemon flavors.

Fortunately, there were lots of Christmas cake mixes and decorating supplies 

on clearance in the grocery stores,

 so I snatched up as many I thought we would need!!

On the night before the party, my younger girls helped me set everything up!!

Aryn appropriately had 8 friends come to her party and I decided ahead of time who would be on which team together.

We had three teams of 3 girls, and I paired an older sister and Grandma 

with each team as the "Team Coach."

The judge's took their seats......

and we were ready to begin.

I acted the part of the "Host" and gave them their first challenge:

Challenge One

The first competition is a challenge of “taste”. You can pick from one of the four cupcake flavors on the table - they are chocolate, funfetti, strawberry, or lemon. Your job is to create a delicious cupcake topping that goes along with which ever flavor of cupcake you choose. Judges will be determining the best cupcake based only taste, not on how it looks. Remember- you can put icing on your cupcake, you can use candy, sprinkles, and other topping, and you can also put some filling inside of your cupcake. The choice is yours. But here’s the catch- you have to use at least three of the ingredients from The “Aryn Table” which you think will best describe her personality.  So teams you have 10 minutes! Start brainstorming your ideas and let’s get started! ”

When their time was up, each team chose a "team spokesperson" for 

that challenge who brought their cupcake up

 to the judge's table for judging.

They had to explain what they had decorated their cupcake with, 

and why they thought those components best represented the birthday girl!

Challenge Two

 “This time around the judges will be choosing the best cupcake based 50% on how it tastes and 50% on how it looks. So it’s time to make sure that our cupcakes look as delicious as they taste. Here you will pick two different cake bases and we are going to allow teams to take turns choosing which type of cupcake you want to use. So Team 3 since you won the first round you will get to pick first. You have 15 minutes to create two delicious cupcakes. And they better be beautiful to look at and “wow” the judges! Ready? Go!”

Lunch Break

The girls were definitely ready to eat lunch by this time, but my person

 who was picking up the pizza was running late.

So we sang happy birthday and ate our cupcakes first.

Aryn opened her presents and got a picture with each of her friends as well.

After eating, drinking some water, laughing, and running around,

we were ready for the.......

Final Challenge

“In our final round, you will have a chance to perfect your cupcakes from round 2. Based on the suggestions from the judges- you’ll want to improve your cupcakes from round 2, and in round 3 you have to decorate ALL of the cupcakes in your flavor. Each team will pick a cupcake stand, and you will be judged on overall presentation. Today’s theme is: Aryn’s 8^th birthday party! You’ll need all 12 of your decorated cupcakes presented in a way that fits that theme. You’ll have 20 minutes for this challenge! Go!”

After all the judging, we awarded  prize bags to each team in one of the following categories:

Most Creative

Most Delicious

Most Beautiful

Final Award Presentations

Each girl got to choose two of the their favorite cupcakes 

from anywhere in the room

to package up and put in their prize bags!

Everyone had an absolute blast and went home happy and full!!

Happy 8th Birthday, Aryn!!!

We love you!!