Girl's Night Out with Cadence

The last thing I did for Cadence's birthday was take her out for a

Girl's Night Out,

just the two of us. She got a Chili's gift certificate for her birthday from her teacher, so off to Chili's we went.

We got burgers & rice & then I treated her to some ice cream with hot fudge.

After dinner I surprised her with a trip to the beauty salon for a pedicure. She's always wanted one but thought she'd never get one in a thousand years. She started bawling hysterically the minute we walked through the door. She kept asking me if it was for real. It was the sweetest little surprise EVER.

She was giggling most of the time, but it was cute. We talked about school, church, & Harry Potter. I loved this one on one time with her. Trek & I are making this a birthday tradition for the kids. . . (a night out with mom or dad.)

She chose a beautiful red glitter for her hands & feet for Valentine's Day.

And the lady even painted a little flower on her toes. She felt SO SPECIAL.

It was definitely a night to remember. We came home & she didn't say a single word to her sisters about it. She knows I'm taking Lorien to do the same thing in 2 weeks for her birthday & she didn't want to ruin the surprise of it. What a sweet sister.

I love my girls.

Cadence's Family Birthday Party

To finish off Cadence's special day, I cooked her her favorite dinner:

Cheese Ravioli with Garlic Bread & Corn on the Cob.

Then it was time to open presents from the family.

Lorien spent all the allowance money she had been saving up to buy Cadence a cute little fabric craft kit. I thought it was SO SWEET she used her hard earned money to do something for her sister. I hope they are close like this their whole lives.

Thank you to all the family who sent Cadence such wonderful gifts. She appreciates them & loves them SO MUCH. We miss & love you all.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart.

Cadence's 3rd Grade Birthday Celebration

For Cadence's 9th birthday, her teacher asked if I would be willing to make a treat for the class for Cadence to hand out during her birthday celebration. I decided to make something other than cupcakes this time around. Cadence wanted cake pops so that's what I did. She wanted white cake & cream cheese frosting, dipped in PINK chocolate, & covered in SPRINKLES.

She got to wear the silly birthday hat the entire day. She was a good sport about it.

She was SO EXCITED to pass out the cake pops. Most of the kids had never seen them before. It was such a treat for both them & for me to see them enjoy them for the first time.

I laughed & took lots of pictures while the entire class sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY to her. She was SO embarrassed, but SO CUTE.

It was a fun little celebration. I'm SO grateful for good teachers who allow kids to have fun & celebrate in the middle of learning. It makes SCHOOL so much more enjoyable for everyone.

Happy Birthday Sweetie.

Cadence's Birthday Breakfast!

Cadence is so funny. If you ask any of my other 4 kids what they want for birthday breakfast, they'd say pancakes & that's it. Not Cadence. She's my breakfast loving girl! She begged me for a "Mini Volcano" (a dish from her favorite restaurant here in Monterey, Black Bear Diner). So, I woke up at the crack of dawn so I could make pancakes, bacon, sausage, & a fried egg for her special day. She ate every last crumb. . . including her birthday cupcake.

I still can't believe I have a 9 year old now. I'm getting OLD. ha ha ha.

Happy Birthday Cadence Dear.

Cadence's 9th Backwards Birthday Party

Happy 9th birthday to my sweet little angel, Cadence. This year she wanted to have a BACKWARDS BIRTHDAY PARTY

with all her friends. That proved to be a little harder than your standard princess party which is what she always wants so I had to put my thinking cap on & come up with something creative.

The invites were upside down & backwards. They opened from the left side & all the writing was mirrored so you could only read it in the mirror. All the info, date, time, etc. was on the outside of the card, & the "You're Invited" part was on the inside with an upside down cake. VERY CONFUSING, but cute.

I baked several pretty pink cupcakes, frosted them, added sprinkles, & then turned them upside down on their plates with candles coming out the BOTTOM of the cupcake liner.

Then I made THIS MONSTER. ha ha ha. I couldn't possibly do it with cake; it would have crumbled into a million pieces. So I made it out of Rice Krispie treats & fondant. It's not the prettiest cake I've ever done, but it served it's purpose & Cadence LOVED it which was what was most important to me. So here is her UPSIDE DOWN CAKE.

The decor turned out WAY CUTE. I hung several balloons from the ceiling (upside down of course), & then I set up the eating area UNDER the table. We used PILLOWS to sit on instead of chairs & everything was done up cute in pink & white.

Cadence helped me put together the goodie bags. The color theme was pink & white so everything inside was pink or white. There were all sorts of pretty candies including some sugar crystal candy in the white bags, & there were sunglasses, lip glosses, nail polish, & lots of fun girly things in the pink one.

Cadence was SO EXCITED for her backwards party to begin. . .

All the kids (minus baby who was taking a nap) put their clothes on backwards. They thought it was SO FUNNY.

Even Daddy put his clothes on backwards.

And yes, my clothes were backwards too. Do you know how hard it is to button up pants backwards? I was surprised at how difficult it was.

Me & my little birthday girl.

Cadence waited ever so patiently for her guests to arrive. Then she made sure to say "Good-bye" as they each arrived on our doorstep.

The first thing we did was dig into cake & ice cream. After all, this is a BACKWARDS PARTY.

We all sang "You to Birthday, Happy" to Cadence. Then she blew out her candle.

Then we dug into our fun cupcakes. The kids loved eating the sugar FIRST instead of LAST.

After overdosing on sugary goodness, we had the girls sit down on the floor for a

Backwards Puzzle Race.

Basically, they put together puzzles upside down as fast as they could. It was SO HARD. They were laughing the whole time.

After doing puzzles, we had each girl draw a signed birthday portrait of Cadence BLINDFOLDED. Everybody was laughing SO HARD at the silly pictures they could hardly breathe. Cadence was laughing hardest because they were drawing her with blue, purple, & green hair. All the faces looked Picaso-ish & their bodies were no where near the head. It was a fun activity for everyone.

After lots of laughter & smiles, we headed back to our "table on the floor" for a

BACKWARDS DINNER.

We ate Pizza Sandwiches, Apple Fries with Peanut Butter Ketchup, Backwards Hot-Dogs, & upside down Sodas.

The backwards hot-dogs were fun. Just put the hot-dogs on the OUTSIDE of the bun. It makes a MESS, but it's hilarious.

Also, when you stab a hole in the bottom of a soda can, it EXPLODES. (We didn't know that.) But it was still fun. The girls loved drinking out of the bottom of the cans.

I think the favorite activity of the night was the

BACKWARDS PINATA.

All of the candy was on the OUTSIDE of the piñata. They got a kick out of that. (It's just taped on so it will fall off easily when it's hit.)

Trek held it up with a mop pole, then we blindfolded the kids BACKWARDS & made them hold the WRONG SIDE of the bat. The best part? Trek made sure the PINATA HIT THEM a few times before they could hit it. (ha ha ha)

After the piñata, we had another fun game in store. For a NORMAL birthday party, the guests give the birthday girl presents. Well, at this BACKWARDS PARTY, Cadence gave each of her guests a PRESENT.

We put the numbers 1-10 in a shoe (not a hat because it's backwards). Each girl drew a number. Whoever drew the #10 got to pick her present first. Then #9 got to choose whether to steal the first girls gift or open her own & so forth until #1 got to steal from anyone or open her own. They LOVED this. I think they were having more fun stealing from each other than opening their own thing. Girls are SO funny. It turned out to be a lot of fun.

We all had a lot of fun wearing our clothes backwards, eating crazy things, & just being silly.

The night ended with the REAL PRESENTS. I was going to make Cadence open the gifts with her feet, but there wasn't enough time left & I wanted to make sure everyone got to see the presents opened. She got a lot of fun craft things from her friends. They know her well. Everything was perfect for her. We had a blast!

Happy Birthday my sweet little Angel Girl. I hope your day was as WONDERFUL as you are.