Brody & Ella's Birthday Adventure!

We celebrated the kids birthdays this year as a combined Dora and Diego birthday adventure. I think we ended up with 17 kids plus some parents. I was REALLY happy with the way it turned out - and with that said I am SO glad it is over!Ella's Cake - don't mind that Dora and Diego's skin looks like they're sunburned...I used the exact color that Wilton reccomended. Other than the skin color, I think they look super cute The party room (it is the big media room over our garage that is usually empty) We hung "vines" and "branches" to make it a jungle and then laid out blankets all over the carpet so we could have our picnic in the jungle.
My Big (almost) 5 Year Old! He was super excited all week about this party and having his friends over.
My Three Year Old. The birthday kidos next to the "Pin the Tail on the Swiper" game
Brody checking out where he put swipers tail
Brandon had made a mix CD of Dora and Diego songs and one of the speakers was under the table...I think that is why all the kids were hanging out down there.

We had pizza for lunch and just as the kids were finishing Swiper the Fox ran in and swiped the birthday candles! Swiper swiped them too fast and we weren't able to get a picture...but here are the events that followed:
I had to tell the kids that it was Swiper that had come. We couldn't have birthday cake without the candles, so we had to go and get them. But who do you ask when you don't know which way to go?? The Map! (fyi...this is all Dora and Diego lingo from the TV shows - I don't really speak this corny) A couple of the kids sang the Map song and I pulled out my Map. The Map said we'd have to go to "Puzzle Point" then to "Lolly Pop Forest" and then to the Treasure Chest to find the candles. But before we could go on our adventure we needed to have our Backpacks (like Dora for the girls) and Rescue Packs (like Diego for the boys) The kids got eqipped with their packs and we were off
Meanwhile...Swiper was downstairs helping set up Lolly Pop Forest
Upstairs at "Puzzle Point" the kids had to find all the pieces to a puzzle and then get it put together
The kids worked really well together to get the puzzle assembled. (You can see the backpacks a little better in this photo) I made them and then we did an iron on logo that my sister Stephanie had designed for the invitations. They turned out really cute! All the kids then followed the map down the stairs to Lolly Pop Forest.
The kids took off their backpacks and then had to clean up Lolly Pop Forest by putting the candy in their bags. I think this was the perfect age group for this! They were so excited with each piece they picked up that it actually took them a few minutes before it was all cleaned up. No one "hoarded" or fought over the candy either.
After Lolly Pop Forest was all picked up we followed the map around the corner to find the treasure chest...
But, there was a great big bear sleeping next to it! He was so loud! The kids and I checked our field journals and decided that to wake up a sleeping bear we had to yell "Wake Up!" We did it, but it didn't work the first time, we must not have been loud enough. So we did it again, and this time the bear woke up. We checked the treasure chest and it was locked! We yelled "abre!" to open the treasure chest and find the candles! Horray...We did it!
But wait! Swiper the sneaky fox was back! We hurried and yelled "Swiper No Swiping, Swiper No Swiping, Swiper No Swiping!" to stop him...Swiper responded with his usual "Ah, man!" (I love how you can see some of the kids hands up to make swiper stop)
Since we had the birthday candles back it was now time to cut the cakes! While we were waiting we did have a little photo op with Swiper...I love her face in this one! (Brody's mouth is full of tootsie rolls from Lolly Pop Forest) Swiper & Ashlyn
Swiper & Isabella (she was too smart to actually sit on his lap!) Brody was so excited to get sung too
Ella getting ready to blow out her candle
The kids thoroughly enjoyed the cake! The party crew eating the birthday cakes After the cake this is Brody (our little leader) annoucing that it was time for opening presents
Every gift Brody opened he'd say, "I love it, thank you so so so much!" Such a sweet kid! Ella hugging her new ball. This girl is easily pleased A firehouse lego set from Grandma and Grandpa Burton - this is one lego-loving boy!
A Dora doll - she couldn't have been happier! Until there was more!
The kids were so fun this year! They know what birthdays are and that is all about them. It was a lot of fun for me to plan the party for them, but I am sure glad it is over! One last photo with Swiper the Fox at the end of the party. It was a fun afternoon!

A big shout out to all our friends for coming and having fun with us and an even bigger shout out to Aunt Stephanie (a.k.a. Swiper) and our Sleeping Bear (a.k.a. Grandpa Burton) for making the party a huge hit!

Happy Birthday Ella

Miss Ella turned 3 today! I don't know where the time has gone! Ella is a fun, energetic, mischieveious (as evidenced by previous post) and girly three year old. She is very nurturing and loves to be involved with whatever I'm doing. She loves princesses, dressing up, her dollhouse, Dora and babies. I couldn't get her to tell me what she wanted for dinner, she kept saying grapes, oranges and snow. The grapes and the oranges are definitely her faves, I think the snow was just a fad from yesterdays weather. Her favorite colors are pink and purple. She gets sad when Brody goes to school and she only wants mommy to read her bedtime stories. She sleeps great when she wants too, but she is a night traveller and she comes to our room a lot in the night saying "I need some snuggles" She loves to be tickled and to wrestle. She keeps our lives interesting and we can't imagine our family without her!

Birthday breakfast while sporting her crown
I promised them something fun to do today and was bummed when the museum I wanted to go to was closed. We ended up at McDonalds for Chicken Nuggets (her birthday meal request) and some time in the play place. Notice the lack of hair on the right side??
Brody was wishing her a happy birthday and giving her a birthday kiss

She has been saying for a week or so that she wanted flowers for her birthday. We have to stop by the flowers whenever we are at Walmart so she can look at them. Brandon gave her three red roses and made her day.

For dinner we made and "decorated" pizzas.

The Birthday Girl with the traditional red plate

We got birthday cupcakes toay to celebrate. The kids are having a joint birthday party this weekend and will get their own cakes so we kept tonight simple.

We ended the night with playing Hungry Hungry Hippos and letting Ella open some birthday gifts. She is a sweetheart and we LOVE her lots!

Rapunzel let down your hair

We have been saying this to Ella whenever we brush her hair since seeing Tangled back in November. I love that Ella's hair was getting long.

That darn movie plants ideas in girls heads though.

Sunday night we were at the table eating dinner and I was looking at Ella and I said to Brandon, isn't that funny it looks like she is growing a second layer of hair. Then I glanced at her shirt and it was COVERED with her lovely curly locks of hair. I gasped. There is no other way to describe it. I am SO SO SO sad. She cut most of the right side of her head of hair off above her ear, along with chunks from the back and a little on the left. I later found a pile of ringlets under the table in the play room and Brandon found another pile of clippings behind the couch in the furthest corner of the playroom. I have gathered what I could to put in a baggie for the remembrance of her first EVER haircut.

There isn't a whole lot we can do to fix it. I trimmed up the back a little so the missing chunks aren't quite so obvious. But there will be no pony tails, braids or up dos in our future. It's probably 2 years of growing gone. Its all headbands and barretts for us for a long time.

We asked Ella why she did it and she said she wanted her hair short. Brody then said, "I don't know if I helped her or not" A somewhat questionable statement from a possible accomplice. After further questioning we don't believe he had anything to do with the hacking, but he knows now that it should NEVER happen again. She climbed up onto the desk in the office upstairs and found the kids safety scissors. Grrr. That's all I have to say.

The day before her birthday. Stinker. She is still a pretty girl though (Brandon is reminding her of that over and over again because I'm still mourning the loss of baby ringlet hair) Hopefully it isn't too noticeable to everyone else, but I notice it right away. So sad.

Snow Day

It started snowing just before church started on Sunday and by Sunday School it had stuck on the ground and was beginning to pile up. The wards after us were even sent home early or cancelled all together because of the weather. (I was glad ours wasn't because I gave my first lesson and I wanted to have the experience over with!) I had never driven in snow so I got that experience driving home from church. I was super paranoid and the kids were extra loud talking about how they were going to throw snowballs and build a snow man. They were beyond excited to play outside in the snow when we got home.

We made Brody into a real life snowman

Ella eating the snow...is anyone surprised? I think not.Brody said to me, "Mom, I have even better news then snow in the backyard...there is snow on the playground!" Probably a borderline inappropriate photo for the web, but just too funny! Coppertone girl watch out :)

The Day After...

We went about the morning of the 26th of December like any other except we were waiting to hear if we had a new neice or nephew. When I heard my phone beep with a text I was excited to see what the baby was. Instead of news of a baby it was a request for Brandon and I to come to church early for a meeting...not quite the same reaction as hearing about the new baby. About 10 minutes later we DID learn of the arrival of Liam Daniel Wells.

We went to church early and were greeted by our Bishop at the door. He said the Stake President was waiting for Brandon and he'd meet with me. (At this point my stomach was up in my throat - I get really nervous for some reason) Our ward was split that day and Brandon was made Elder's Quorum President and I was put in the Young Women's program as Mia Maid Advisor. I think I was more nervous about my new calling then Brandon. I probably would have been more sad about the split if my mind wasn't so preoccupied about thinking how much change we'd have in our schedules. It was a big split...we went from 150+ kids in the primary AND probably another 40 on the nursery rolls to having a Primary of 50 and a nursery of 7. The average age of the other ward created is 27 and the average age of our ward is probably 50. It is REALLY different, but I think it is a good change. I think the spirit of our Ward is different and I think it has given people an opportunity to feel more included. We joke around our house that no one can get away without having a "big" calling. I get now when people call it a "ward family" because you really have no choice but to know everyone.

The new callings so far are going good. Brandon is getting used to a lot more phone calls, emails, meetings and assignments...and I am getting more used to hanging out with the girls again and teaching lessons for kids who actually can understand what I'm saying.