Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Birthday Lunch with Cadence

Cadence is in 6th grade now so she can't do the whole "bring a treat for the class" anymore, but it doesn't mean I can't go & spend some one on one time with her for lunch.

We had a wonderful lunch together just Cadence, Canyon, Craiger, & I.  Craiger LOVES eating school lunch like a big boy.  (I wasn't a huge fan of the mystery taco meat).

It was a great bonding time for us.  It was a wonderful afternoon.



100th Day of School

Bladen just hit his 100th day of school.  He had to dress like he was 100 years old so this is what we did.

Isn't he just the cutest 100 year old you've ever seen?  I just want to kiss those cheeks off.



Cadence's 12th Birthday Party - Minecraft

When Cadence told me she wanted a Minecraft birthday party I got a little excited. . . 
until I realized there's absolutely NO Minecraft birthday supplies anywhere.  I panicked.  I was going to have to get creative for this one.

Etsy is my new best friend.  Between Etsy & Pintrest I had a thousand great ideas for this party & it ended up being REALLY fun.

I bought a template on Etsy for these cute birthday invites & just printed them out.
Here is the company I purchased from.  They have great stuff!
On the back had all the information for the party.  I just threw them on some cheap lanyards I had & it made a super cool birthday invitation.  So go check out Etsy for some fabulous invite ideas.



For Cadence's birthday cake I thought of several different fun ways we could incorporate her Minecraft theme.  She looked at me & said, "I just want a Minecraft cake!"  "Yeah, I'm giving you ideas on how to do a Minecraft cake!"  "NO MOM!  I want my cake to look like the cake you make in Minecraft."  Oh.  I'm dumb.  I guess there's a cake in the game that you make out of sugar cane & wheat.  It's basically a square box with brown on the bottom & white on the top with red boxes as sprinkles.  Easy peasy!


  For the party itself I decorated in Minecraft greens & browns & Enderman purples & blacks.  Cadence loved it.



I decorated square tissue boxes like Creepers.



And I decorated green paper bags like Creepers as well.


My friend had a Minecraft party for her son a few years back so she let me borrow some of her creations like this Crafting Table & and Ender Dragon.



The kids LOVED the Ender Dragon


Cadence was very excited for her friends to arrive so we could play Minecraft style. 



She even built her new Minecraft lego set & used it as a decoration.



The kids kept putting on the Steve & Creeper box hats & would run around the house like bobble heads.  It was HILARIOUS.




Once Cadence's friends started to arrive, we let them start the party out by creating a Minecraft server so they could all play together on the same world.  The internet is best in my girls' room so we set the servers up in there.  They had an absolute blast just playing the game for 30 minutes.


Even Canyon got in on the Minecraft fun.


Once we played for a bit, we brought them back into the living room where everyone created their own minecraft character mask.  The kids got SO creative.  We had unicorns, animals, zombies, & people.  I love to see creativity at work.








Next we played a couple minute to win it games.  The square Creeper tissue boxes became our first game.  We gave them one minute to pull out as many tissues as they could using one hand only.  JT totally beat them.  Our living room looked like a big fluffy blanket after that game.





Then we strapped a tissue box around their waists with a belt & put 10 ping pong balls inside.  They had to wiggle & jiggle & do everything they could to wiggle those ping pong balls out.



They had a blast.  Finally it was time for cake & ice cream.






and then presents of course.







After presents we had about 30 minutes left before parents came so the kids made paper pixel crafts & played Minecraft together for the rest of the time.

It was a very simple, but fun party.  I'm glad Cadence enjoyed it.  I enjoyed doing it with her.  She's got the best friends in the world.  Such a great group of kiddos.  

Happy Birthday Cadence!

Cadence's 12th Birthday Breakfast & Dinner

I absolutely cannot believe I have a 12 year old.  How does that even happen?  Where does the time go?  I remember when she was a teeny tiny little curly blonde cutie that would talk & talk & talk & talk & talk.  When did she become such a lovely young lady?  Sometimes I wish we could somehow stop our kids from growing up, but I must admit that I'm loving every new year & new phase of life that my kids explore.  I think I just wish it would happen a little more slowly.


For her Birthday Breakfast, Cadence wanted homemade blueberry & apple cinnamon muffins, orange slices, & bacon. . . oh & of course a ding dong!  We can't forget the ding dong. 



She was so sweet that morning.  Cadence is such a beautiful happy girl.  She was SO excited it was her special day.



She even let all of her siblings hold up 12 fingers instead of doing it herself.  She loves her family SO much.  12 years old.  (Wow, I'm way too young to have a 12 year old right?)


She looked beautiful when she got ready for school.



The day didn't go exactly as planned.  I picked her up from school for a 12 year old physical with her doctor & wound up stuck in the hospital for 6 1/2 hours because Canyon wound up with pneumonia, but Cadence was such a good sport & helped me take care of her two brothers.

Even after a very eventful day filled with doctors, medicine, & puke, she had a wonderful birthday.  After daddy got home from work & the kids got home from school we let her open her presents.

Nancy sent some clothes, an overnight bag,
socks, some stationary, & a raw cut amethyst. 

Lorien bought Cadence an Enderman stuffed
toy & some combs.

Mamoo sent her $10

Grandma Kinsfather also sent $10

Opa & Oma know how much Cadence loves
Legos so they sent her the new Lego Friends
lighthouse set.

And Auntie Cari & Uncle Justin sent her a
new book series that she's been wanting to read
for ages!

The rest of the kiddos got her the third book in the book series
so she gets to read the entire set.

And Trek & I got her the new Frozen Lego
set.  She was so excited that she made it
right after dinner.


Mimi & Baba gave her the new Minecraft
Lego set.  She's all about Minecraft right now
so she loved it.

For her birthday dinner, I made one of her favorites:
Chicken Cordon Bleu, Kiwis, & Caesar Salad.


She was a very happy young lady.


Happy Birthday Cadence.  Thank you for being so wonderful.  We love you so much.