Cadence's Sweet Sixteen Surprise Party

I know I said I wasn't going to do any parties this year, but 16 is too important of a birthday to not have a party.

I planned a surprise party for her so that the day she took the ACT test, she'd come home from the test to find all of her friends waiting for her.  SURPRISE.

Well, the surprise was turned on me.  She was sick.  SUPER sick.  She had a fever, a cough, & was SO tired & sick that she could barely get out of bed.  Poor thing.  She still took the ACT (because of the unrefundable $70), but I knew she was too sick to party & I also didn't want to get anyone else sick.  So we cancelled the party she didn't even know about.

A week later, I figured out a way to reschedule the party & still have it be a surprise.  2 of her friends decided to have a "Gal-entine" dinner out the day after Valentine's Day & invited her to come along.  They went out to dinner while I assembled all of Cadence's other friends here at the house.

We all waited patiently for her to come home, & then 

S U R P R I S E!!!

At first she was terrified like she was getting mugged, but then she realized it was all her friends & she couldn't stop laughing.

We had so much fun.

We played all sorts of games like spoons, murder in the dark, laser tag, & many other fun group games.  We even got in a little karaoke as well.

I love Cadence's friends.  They are all such good kids.  I call them all MY kids & love having them over.

Towards the end I made up a cheesecake topping bar & we sang to Cadence.  She loved that I made it so she could top her cheesecake with all of her favorite things.

We had so much fun hanging out with everyone.  Cadence seemed to enjoy herself too.

Happy 16th Cadence.  We love you.

February Happenings

We had a lot of "events" in February, but we also had some fun little things that happened.

You know how much I love to celebrate every little holiday.  Chinese New Year is a fun one.  I got out my fancy Chinese dinneware & made some yummy Chinese food (thanks to my dad's amazing recipes from when he lived in Taiwan).  We drank out of cups representing each of our Chinese Year Animals (I'm a rooster) & we enjoyed chocolate coins & fortune cookies.

For Valentine's Day, the kids requested lots of RED & lots of HEARTS.  I made heart shaped pasta noodles with red sauce, heart strawberries, & heart shaped jello jigglers.  They loved it.

We also met up with one of Trek's best friends from high school in February.  Chris Hagewood drove up from Georgia to meet us here in Alabama for an afernoon of fun, laughter, & great stories.  It was great getting to finally meet him.

Canyon managed to lose a tooth AT SCHOOL.  He was so excited that he made his teacher call me & text me this picture of him.  The tooth fairy even brought him a full dollar that night.

Nobody told me that Alabama was where tornadoes liked to live.  I feel like we've spent the majority of January & February hunkering down (aka hiding) in our bathtubs hoping one doesn't hit our house directly.  We've had SEVERAL scares.  Tornadoes are no joke.  The destruction to the towns around us this year is insane.  I can't wait for the tornado season to be over with.

And in the middle of all the chaos, Trek & I have been trying to get things ready for our move to Germany in June.  The latest requirement: 19 appointments for the kids including doctors, dentists, & school counselor visits for each child & 18 forms (a total of 93 pages) that needed to be filled out, signed, approved, & submitted before we could get our orders.  My poor kids had to be pulled out of school countless times to complete it all.  But they take it in stride.  Canyon loves to just "chill" at the dr. office.  He cracks me up.  But the good news is, all 93 forms are filled out & turned in, & we are all clear to move to Germany.

Sweet Sixteen

I can't believe I have a 16 year old.  Where does the time go?  It seems like yesterday that she was a little tiny baby.

Happy 16th Birthday to my sweet Cadence.

Cadence's Headshot for Pride & Prejudice

For her birthday breakfast, Cadence requested scrambled egg & veggie breakfast burritos, oranges, & of course the Potter Family Ding Dong.

Cadence goes to school at 5:45 every day for Seminary (an hour long church class before school every day), so she opted to do her birthday breakfast over the weekend so the whole family could be awake for it.  What a sweetheart.  She loves her family.

The BIG 16!

For her birthday dinner, Cadence asked for Italian Chicken over egg noodles, raspberries, & sweet rolls.  Yum.

The night of her birthday, our church youth group had a big event for all the young ladies working on goals known as personal progress.  Cadence has been working hard completing all the goals in the Individual Worth section of her goal booklet & was awarded a red ribbon for completing the entire section.  She was pretty excited about it.

Cadence also got her official driver's license ON her birthday.  That's pretty exciting.  Now she can drive her own car to school in the morning, to run errands for me, etc.  It's been a dream.

We decided not to do birthday "parties" this year (stay tuned, I couldn't possibly NOT do a party for her 16th birthday, so she got a surprise party later in the month).  Instead of formal parties, we are going as a family to Disney World.  The kids are all SO excited to go.

But I stilll promised the kids I'd make them a birthday cake & allow 1-2 friends to come over & eat it with us.  I made Cadence a cute chocolate cake with pink frosting for her 16th.  The pink frost looked like a beautiful dress for a cute girl holding the number 16.  It was a super fun cake to make & it turned out beautiful.

Even though we didn't have a "party," we still opened presents from family.  My friend Nancy sent her some shoes, clothes, girly stuff, & a purse.

Mimi & Baba sent her a purse backpack & a new lunchbox.

Opa & Oma sent her a dress & some piano music.

And Grandma K sent her a beautiful card with $10 to spend at Disney World in March.

Happy happy birthday Cadence.  16 beautiful years for such a beautiful girl.  We love you.

Black & Blue

Oh my goodness!  She's alive!  

I'm SO sorry it's taken me SO long to update my blog guys.  This play I'm working on has literally sucked every last second of spare time I've had over the last few months.  I'm having a blast, but it's been very busy.  BUT.  The play opens next week, & I only have a few more costumes to finish small things on (hems, buttons, etc.) so here I am again.  I'll do my best over the next few days to fully update you on everything that happened in February & March including our FABULOUS vacation over Spring Break to Disney World!!!

So here we go. . . 

It never ceases to amaze me how my boys wind up in the funniest predicaments.  Canyon & his best friend somehow wound up running straight into each other during PE during free time & boy did it hurt.

That kid has the prettiest blue eyes I've ever seen.  It made me sad to see him with a swollen black eye from his encounter.  Poor baby.  But his eyes are still blue & beautiful.  Luckily it was only swollen & black for about a week.