Birthday Dinner & Dessert

My family flew in on Thursday night for Cadence's baptism weekend & the PGA Pebble Beach tournament here in Monterey. (We planned her baptism around the tournament so they'd only have to make one trip!) That night we celebrated both Trek & Justin's birthday by going out to eat at a yummy seafood restaurant on Cannery Row here in Monterey.

Everyone loved how beautiful the ocean was. The weather was perfect in every way & we had a blast.

Dinner was great. I'm not a huge seafood lover, but their food was pretty good. Then after dinner I sent Trek & Justin (since they were the birthday boys) to my favorite Bakery downtown for some cake. I warned them that there would be lots to choose from, but 3 pieces would do us just fine because the slices were so enormous! But you know grown men. . . they came home with 6 pieces!!!

And the sad part was that we ate every last bit of it. They brought home 3 pieces of cake & 3 pieces of pie. (Kit Kat Cake, Reese's Peanut Butter Cake, Cookies & Cream Cake, Key Lime Pie, Peanut Butter Pie, & Snickers Pie)

Yup, they were huge! They were SOOOOOOOOOOOOO good too! My favorite is the Reese's cake, but that peanut butter pie was to die for too. I must have a thing for peanut butter. I love Rosine's though. They have by far the best desserts in town!

Homemade Pin Cushion

Speaking of the homemade pin cushion project. . . I forgot to put up pictures of it. This was the project for February (to take all of February to accomplish), but I had so much fun when I got my new sewing machine that I whipped that puppy out in one day.

It turned out adorable. The actual pin cushion is on top with a middle piece to put your hand-sewing needles. Then a fun separated bag is sewn to the pin cushion to hold your scissors, seam ripper, ruler, etc. And off of that is a detachable bag to throw all your strings or scrap fabric as you sew so they don't get all over the place. SUPER FUN & very practical as well.

Homemade Burp Cloths

So at my sewing class I finished my pin cushion so fast that I had to come up with another project to work on during class time. So I found a cute pattern online for burp cloths that I thought I'd try since Craiger is coming soon & you always need burp cloths. They were super simple to make & I finished them in less than 2 hours. You just cut out the pieces in flannel & lightweight cotton batting & then sew them together with a decorative stitch. Then you clip around the edges with scissors & wash them a couple times to make a frayed edge. Super cute & super easy! I love them.

Taya's Playdate

Thank heavens for best friends. Taya has finally found a best friend that she wants to be around 24/7. Ady is in her joy school & lives fairly close to us, so when her friend asked if she could come over for a play date, I couldn't say NO! They had SO MUCH FUN together. They watched their favorite Barbie movie together & ate some yummy popcorn. It was perfect. Now I'm SUPER excited because Ady's mom has offered to take Taya when I go into labor so I know she'll be well taken care of & will have a blast the entire time. Taya keeps asking if Craiger can come out so she can sleepover at Ady's house. I love it.

Cupcakes for Cadence's Class

After the crazy weekend with Cadence's birthday party, I got the chance to bring in cupcakes to her class during lunch the following Monday. I just did simple cupcakes this time around since it's hard to be on my feet much anymore with the pregnancy, but they still turned out adorable & the kids were SO excited to eat homemade cupcakes with their lunch.

Of course I didn't take a single picture of the actual cupcakes (duh!), but I did snap a really cute one of Cadence cuddling up with Bladen. I sure love having kids. They bring so much joy into life!

Cadence's New Bike

After all the girls left, Trek & I decided it would be good to give her her present from us on Saturday rather than Sunday so she could actually play with it. So we blindfolded her & sat her on the couch while Daddy went to get her present.

When she took off the blindfold, she saw her brand new 20" bike (with NO training wheels). We've been trying to get those training wheels off FOREVER & she really needed a new bike so we got her a bike that didn't even have training wheels as an option. Now she's FORCED to learn how to ride! She LOVES her new Mongoose bike. She looks great on it!

We spent the rest of the afternoon teaching her how to ride a bike with no training wheels. It's so funny how something that seems so easy to us really is VERY difficult to someone just learning. But she did great. Daddy had to help her get started, but she can go straight really well without falling off. However, we need to work on the "dismount" because she literally jumps off the bike & lets the bike fall, ha ha ha. I guess we all start somewhere & learn in our own ways. I'm glad she likes her new gift.

Once Cadence started riding without training wheels it inspired Lorien to try (which we were secretly hoping would happen). Lorien took to it SUPER fast!! She not only can start on her own, but she can go straight & turn all the way around by herself. We are still working on the "stopping" part, but she's doing fantastic as well. I'm so proud of both of my girls.

Cadence's Birthday Breakfast!

Since I didn't go to bed, I got up really early & got ready before the girls got up. Then I went downstairs to start Cadence's Birthday Breakfast. She wanted to have birthday breakfast with her friends this year so I thought that would be really fun. I made bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, all sorts of fruit, & pancakes. But I think the girls' favorite part was the "Ding Dong" with a lit candle in it. They were SO excited to eat a chocolate cupcake for breakfast & for the fact that they got to blow out a candle just like the birthday girl.

Of course we had to get our traditional "how many years old" picture. Cadence held up 8 fingers while all her friends crowded around her at the breakfast table.

And we had to do a silly one. . . because we HAD to!

After breakfast, I sat down with each of the girls & painted each of their fingernails. I even put little white flowers with diamonds on their thumbs to give added oomph! They LOVED it! While we took turns doing fingernails, I had each of them make a slumber party picture frame craft which they loved as well. I love how little girls LOVE crafts. I don't know what I'm going to do when my boys start having parties. . . climb trees? ha ha ha.

At 10:00, all the parents came & picked their girls up. I was completely exhausted! But what a FUN party!!! I'm so glad we were able to pull it off! Happy 8th Birthday Cadence! I love you!

The SLEEPOVER!

After presents we got all 12 girls into their pajamas (talk about a circus!) & got them downstairs to watch the new Tinkerbell movie. They were all SUPER cute sprawled out across the living room. I popped a TON of popcorn & they were in heaven.

After the movie I gave each girl their own diary & they each took about 5 minutes to write in it. Then we passed the diaries around in a circle & each girl got to write a nice message in each of the diaries. After everyone signed each other's they sat & read them & hugged each other. I love seeing how loving these girls were.

Then it was off to bed. They all wanted to sleep in the same room so we crammed them into the toy room. 12 sleeping bags in one of our rooms is nearly impossible, but they asked for it. It was CRAZY! (By the morning a few of them had wandered into the hallway so they could stretch out a little bit.)

I will admit, the night was insane. I didn't get any sleep whatsoever, but it was fun. (Can you imagine how many bathroom breaks there were during the night with 12 little girls?) In the morning I was completely exhausted, but I was so glad the sleepover ended up being a complete success for Cadence.

Cadence's Birthday Party

For Cadence's 8th birthday party, I promised her a BIG party including a sleepover. (I know, what was I thinking?) We wanted to invite her 4 favorite friends from church, but I let her talk me into inviting all the girls in her class at school too. She knows I'm a total pushover when it comes to parties! I figured some wouldn't be able to come so it should be fine right? EVERY SINGLE PERSON WE INVITED CAME!! We had 12 little girls over. Yes, I'm crazy & yes, my VERY pregnant body wasn't too thrilled with it, but we had SO MUCH FUN!!!!

So we started out at 5:30 on Friday night with a big pizza dinner. We had Costco pizza (the best!) & root beer with all our favorite veggies! The pizza was a hit, the veggies. . . not so much. I think my kids are the only kids in the world that love fruit & vegetables.

While I cleaned up after dinner (which Bladen got to. . . he spilled every one of their drinks all over the floor! Boys!!!!!), I put the girls in the living room with a craft. Each girl made a cute bracelet to wear. They LOVED it.

Then we all piled back into the newly cleaned kitchen for cake & ice cream. Cake is always Cadence's favorite part. . . which cracks me up since she doesn't even like cake. She just likes to blow out candles. ha ha ha.

Since she's 8 now, we let her cut her own piece of cake first. She felt like such a BIG girl doing that.

After cake, we piled back into the living room & opened presents. This is always the favorite part of EVERYONE that comes. They love to see the look on Cadence's face when she opens what they gave her. She got some really fun things including LOTS of different artistic craft kits which are her favorite things in the world.

Cadence was happy all her friends could come, but she has a special place in her heart for her two very best friends: Csepke & Hailey. They are in her school class & in her class at church. We call them the 3 musketeers. They are inseparable.

Well, so far so good! Now let's try getting 12 eight year olds to go to sleep. . .

Cadence's Birthday Cake

With me being as pregnant as I am, I'm surprised I even got a cake done this year. ha ha ha. Cadence's 8th birthday was her first sleepover with all her friends, so I wanted to make her a sleepover themed cake. So I made a basic rectangle cake & edged it in purple frosting. Then using marshmallows as pillows & bodies, I made 3 little girls in the center of the cake. I used fruit roll ups as blankets, vanilla wafers as heads, conversation hearts as little lips, & frosting for everything else. They turned out like 3 cute little girls sleeping in beds.

About 30 minutes after I finished the cake, (as I was decorating the table), I turned around only to find Bladen LEANING on my cake (smashing the frosting on the top) & with his finger in the side. Little imp!!! I was so mad I wanted to cry. I called my mom & she started laughing. I guess she stopped making our cakes as soon as my brother turned 2 because he just couldn't stay out of her cakes. That made me laugh because that's right where Bladen is right now. I refrosted the side & made do with what I could. It still was cute for the party.

Cadence loved the cake. She was SO excited to have a sleepover that the cake could have been made of spaghetti & she still would have loved it. I love her so much!