Cadence & Lorien's Luau Birthday Party

This year the girls decided to have a combined birthday party since they both go to the same school & have the same friends.  That worked great for me so we planned one really big LUAU for them & all their friends.  Because February was SO insane this year, we opted to do their party EARLY on January 28th even though Cadence's birthday isn't until February 6th & Lo's is February 21st.

They each got to choose a cake for their party.  Cadence chose a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  I added a little pink & some Hawaiian flowers to it to make it fit the Luau theme.

Lorien wanted to try a pineapple upside down cake for her cake which was a new one for me, but it turned out really pretty & absolutely delicious.

I also made some adorable flip flops out of nutter butters.

The girls were SO excited for this party.  It's been a while since we've done an evening party.  But it was nice & we got to serve dinner too which was fun.

My friend Nancy helped send some decorations & fun things that fit the luau theme.  I had a blast searching pintrest for luau food & snack ideas.

I had some luau style decorations from Lorien's Disneyland birthday party last year (tiki room) so they worked out perfectly for this one.

And I was able to find some lei's for all the guests . . . even the boys.

We first let all the kids (there were 18 of them) all go get some energy out by playing "Fish Out Of Water" at the park.

We also brought our flying shark & nemo to the park too so we could race them, but the wind was too strong, so we raced them at home instead.

The kids liked the shark. 

The lifesaver gummies were disappearing way too quickly so I decided to keep my eye on them to see why.  This is what I found.  Little stinker.

And his face when he realized he'd been caught.  ha ha ha ha ha ha.

After an hour of playing we had dinner.  Hawaiian Haystacks.  They were absolutely delicious.

After dinner, the kids broke up into groups.  Some jumped on the trampoline while others played board games in the living room or sang karaoke.  Lorien got the Moana karaoke cd which worked perfect for the luau theme.

While they played I made pina coladas (with sprite) for everyone.  I think the umbrellas were their favorite part.

After an hour of games, it was time for cake & ice cream.

And the girls got some super fun things from their friends.

It was an amazing party & everyone had a ton of fun.  It was a really fun party to do too.  I loved it.

Happy Birthday Cadence & Lorien.  I love you.

Trek's 38th Birthday

Well, it's that time of year again. . . birthday season at the Potter house.  We have 4 birthdays in one month's time span so it gets kind of partish & fun for most of February.  

Trek's birthday is first . . . on January 25th.

For his birthday breakfast I made him some biscuits & gravy, bacon, & the Potter birthday cupcake.

Happy birthday sweet husband of mine!

He was very good at figuring out a way to hold up 38 fingers so that everybody got a chance to hold up a few.  The kids love helping on the birthday finger pictures.

Lorien bought Trek a TARDIS license plate holder for his little car.  She's always so sweet.

Justin & Cari got him some new accessories for his apple watch.

The kids got him a new Wii game & I got him some $$ to go towards a pair of the new apple wireless earbuds.  (He's been saving up money for a while now so now he can buy them.)  He's like a little kid at Christmas.  He's SO excited.

Mimi & Baba got him the funnest boardgame I've ever played.  It's called Battle For Hogwarts & it's amazing.

For Trek's birthday dinner he requested my homemade chicken nuggets.  (Of course the he'd pick the hardest thing in the world to make.)  Ha ha ha.  They were delicious though.

And I always get Trek a Cold Stone ice cream cake for his birthday every year.  This year he got one called Peanut Butter Playground & it was AMAZING.

Happy Birthday Trek.  I love you.

100 Days of School

Can you believe we're already 100 days into the school year?  This year is flying by way too fast.

For Craiger's Kindergarten class, they had to make a 100 day project by creating a picture or sculpture with 100 things on it.

Craiger decided he wanted to build a Minecraft castle out of 100 sugar cubes.  We let him count out all 100 cubes & then we made a plan on how to build it.  Craiger learned how to pipe frosting all by himself & he built this amazing little sugar cube castle.

He's such a cool kid.

"Major" News

We knew Trek was up for his next promotion in the military (to Major), but we didn't know if he'd actually get it or not.  And even if he did, he wouldn't actually put on the rank for another year so we didn't think much about it.  Well, we found out in November that he did indeed make Major.  Yay Trek.

We wouldn't know his "number' until later & that number would determine when he'd actually put the rank on his uniform.  In December we found out he was number 235 out of a few thousand Majors which was a big deal.  And not only that, but he was also selected for a school position which less than 20% of Majors actually get.  All of this was wonderful & exciting new for Trek.

Since his number was so low (the lower your number is, the sooner you put on rank . . . the higher ranked Major you are), we thought he'd maybe put his rank on in February or March.  Much to our surprise, his rank went live on January 1st, 2017.  We didn't even know!!!  Someone had to tell Trek & boy were we excited.

So of course we had a Major pinning ceremony mid-January to celebrate with the family & with the people his works with.  We bought Chick-Fil-A for his whole office for lunch & then had the ceremony after the kids got home from school.

I always love seeing Trek in full uniform.  He's been spoiled here because he doesn't have to wear a uniform here at this base.  But he looks SO nice when he does wear it.

The kids got to take off his Captain bars & put on his Major leaves on his hat & shoulder lapels.

And then of course he had to be sworn in.

Afterwards, we had his office break open a piñata.  (Usually for these sort of parties there is a lot of alcohol & adult things happening, but Trek is different.  We don't drink so we brought Chick-Fil-A instead & since the only partying we're use to in our family involves kids, we brought a piñata.)  The office thought it was hilarious & had a blast.

The kids kept most of the loot from the piñata.

Look at that cute face.

So

  CONGRATULATIONS TO MAJOR POTTER!

We are SO proud of you.

Love Notes

Sometimes your kids do things that just totally make your day.

Today I went to get into my car after the kids took off for the school bus & found little love notes on my car windows.

I love my kids.  Being a mom is the best.

MVHS Band Bash

When I found out that Cadence had to go to 3 different meetings at the high school in January to prepare for high school registration, I couldn't help but groan.  Sometimes I just dread school meetings.  I've been a little on edge about Cadence being a Freshman in high school next year.  It's made me feel old (which is dumb, I know), makes me reflect on how fast life flies by, & just made me anxious about her being at such a big school with such older kids.  Are we really at that point already?

Anyway, the first meeting was just a "this is how you work the registration software" meeting which was indeed, not very exciting, but needed.  I think I got that one down pretty fast.  

The second meeting was a whole lot more fun for both Cadence & for me.  It was a Band Bash at the high school where all the incoming Freshman were invited to spend 5 hours at the high school with the current high school band students.  5 hours seemed like a long time, but Cadence had a blast!  They did 5 things that night.

#1. Made high school friends.  That is SO important.  It's scary going to the big school & being the freshman.  Band was always a place where I felt like I belonged & where most of my friends were.  Meeting other band students was just what Cadence needed.

#2. Practiced three songs.  They were all given 3 pieces of music & spent an hour practicing with the high school band students.  And let me tell you. . . they were hard.  I was thrilled to see the level of difficulty they were playing.  The entire band that night was about 250 students.

#3. Learned about the different bands offered at the high school.  They have several music groups at the high school.  Marching Band (early morning . . . oboes don't march so Cadence won't be doing that), Jazz Band (early morning. . . a possibility for Cadence to play piano), Symphonic Band (basically High School Band), Woodwind Ensemble (the advanced band), & pep band (for sports games & school events). . . . & that's just the bands.  They have orchestra groups for strings as well.  And the best one of all . . . . Symphonic Orchestra which mixes band & orchestra instruments (after school once a week).  Those were always my favorite groups to play with so I'm absolutely thrilled they offer that at the high school.  Cadence will definitely be playing in that class.

#4. Ate Dinner.  The band booster club provided & served dinner to all 250 students there that night.  What a fun opportunity to mingle & make friendships with these other students.

#5. Performed a concert for the parents.  My favorite part was the part where I got to go & listen to the entire band play.  Cadence was thrilled to be one of three oboes in the group.  She's never gotten to play with other oboists before & it was a great learning experience for her.  They played beautifully.  (Once I get the videos uploaded to youtube I'll post it on here because they were seriously amazing for only practicing for one hour.)

I was all of a sudden REALLY excited for Cadence to start high school here.  Thank you MVHS for putting this parent's anxious nerves to rest.  Best music program EVER.

The 3rd meeting we had at the high school was the orientation for registration where the kids got to tour the school & make the final decisions on what classes they will be taking next year.

While we were there, we went over to the music department to talk to the band teachers again to figure out which bands to sign Cadence up for.  They have 2 band teachers & I love both of them.  They are wonderful.  When we walked in, they both remembered Cadence (it's hard to forget an oboe) & as we were asking about the classes, the symphonic band schedule in particular, Mr. Kneebone invited Cadence to be a part of the Symphonic Orchestra effective immediately.  Cadence's jaw almost hit the floor.  They only had 1 oboist & needed someone for the 2nd oboe part so now I take Cadence every Monday afternoon to the high school to be in that particular class.  She gets high school credit for it (even though she's just in 8th grade), & she's making all sorts of friends there.  They are playing Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony in it's 50 minute entirety.  Incredible.  Difficult.  Amazing.  What an opportunity.

Did I mention I LOVE THIS SCHOOL.

Cadence is officially a Mountain View High School student.  Yay!

Shark Attack

Trek's sister Tarrish gave the kids the most amazing gift ever for Christmas.  Seriously, it's the coolest thing you've ever seen.

She sent life size flying fish.  One is a great white shark & the other is a huge clown fish that looks like Nemo.  You fill them up with helium & assemble them (they take about an hour each to assemble), then you hook up the remote controll & let them fly.  They are so cool.

The remote controls the tail & as it swishes back & forth, the shark/fish goes forward, up, & down just like a real fish in water.  We turned the Jaws theme song on & let the shark swim around the kids.  It was hilarious.  The kids love these things.

Thank you Tarrish for the best presents ever.

A Very Nancy Christmas

Most of you know I have a very dear friend named Nancy who is like a Fairy Godmother to my family.  I met Nancy on a plane ride home from working for Disney as an Imagineer.  We talked the entire plane ride, exchanged numbers, & we've been best of friends ever since.  

Nancy really is our fairy Godmother.  She has no children of her own so she basically adopted our family as hers.  Every year for the kids' birthdays & for Christmas she sends us the most amazing gifts & surprises.  She loves it & we just adore her.  She is SO sweet & does so many things for so many people.  We are blessed to have her in our life.

When we got home from our Utah trip, we had our Nancy presents waiting for us.  Nancy usually sends clothes for everyone for Christmas & birthdays & we just love her for it.  The kids all got new shoes & new clothes for the new year.  They were thrilled.

I got a bunch of clothes, shoes, & some fun little miscellaneous things.

Trek got some new shirts, hot cocoa, a new nutcracker (she sends him one for Christmas every year) & a few other fun things.

His new night watchman nutcracker looks great with his collection.  Nancy has sent him ALL of these nutcrackers over the years.  It's quite the collection now.

Instead of buying a bunch of presents for the kids this year, they got our trip to Universal & a new trampoline.  We figured they'd have more fun with those two things anyway & we were right.  As soon as we got home, Trek set it up & they've been jumping every day ever since.  Best purchase EVER.

And Christmas vacation was over just like that!  What fun we had though.  It was wonderful seeing both sides of the family & just relaxing for a couple of weeks.