Michelle's birthday weekend

Michelle's birthday was a weekend long celebration!

Friday afternoon Josh and Jordan headed to the glen to "camp".

Jana, Danny, and Cohen stopped by to drop off a gift for Michelle before her guests arrived.

They helped out by sampling all the food to make sure it was taste approved.

That night Michelle had her cupcake decorating party with friends.

Saturday we got up early to spend the day shopping!

She got birthday money from us and gramma.

Gramma also gave her two super cute tank tops.

We headed out at a decent time but ran into blocked roads due to the parade trying to get to the bank.

Then ran into a closed road trying to get to the guide due to a power line down.

Took us double the time but we made it to our first stop Rite Aid.

Michelle loves to go there for nail polish.

Then it was on to Wal-mart!

By then we were ready for lunch before we hit Costco.

After a trip through Costco we headed over to TJ Maxx to look at clothes.

She wanted a picture with every outfit!

She ended up getting it all!

She couldn't wait to wear an outfit so before we left she went and put one on.

We then went to Best Buy to buy something for me.

I had two visa gift cards from Christmas and was ready to spend them.

I purchased a Kindle Fire!

I LOVE it!

By now she was down to $20.

She wanted to go to Claire's and Barnes & Noble.

She got earrings and cupcake mirror from Claire's.

At Barnes & Noble she found two books.

By now I was more then ready to head home.

Jana came over for a fashion show.

After Jana left she wanted to curl my hair with her new curler.

She practiced on her self first.

So I took a quick shower.

We grabbed something to eat.

Then Jana came back over for girl time.

We watched Judy Moody while Michelle curled my hair.

Then we painted toes and fingers.

Another fun and busy day together!

Sunday I woke and thought she was still sleeping but she was already up downstairs.

I came down and sang to her which always makes her smile!

Then I made her requested breakfast of eggs and sausage on a biscuit.

After breakfast we did a little clean up but she really wanted to 

straighten my hair and paint my fingernails.

So I put that on hold.

Josh came home soon after and we started prepping 

for a birthday bbq with our families.

We took everything down to a little park near our house and had a great time!

We were really hoping the sun would come out but it never did.

 

We spent the afternoon outside as the sun finally came out.
Then Michelle got to choose somewhere to go for her birthday dinner.
She choose Dickey's Barbecue Pit which we have never tried before but everyone liked it!

Cupcake Party {the party}

Friday night Michelle had a few of her friends over for a cupcake decorating party.

{I am all about less is best} 

espcially at this age when drama is more of a factor.

First I had to get party ready!
I have been party approved by Michelle! 
Only after she straightened my hair, "helped" me with my makeup,
 and I put on a pink areopostale sweatshirt!
{from facebook}

For the first half hour they hovered over the snacks filling up on way to much sugar.

When they were all hyper they decided to sing some karaoke!

We took a mini break from karoake to open gifts.

After wards the girls all wanted to take turn take turns saying memories about Michelle.

The girls decided they wanted to make their cupcakes next!

Each girl decorated 4 cupcakes to take home in a box.

Cupcake Table

Some girls then decided to sing more karaoke while the others painted their fingernails. 

The rest of the party the girls wanted to play rock, paper, scissors {a game they play in P.E.} which I had to play for even teams, then checked out Michelle's room, had the one dramatic friend moment that always seems to happen, and then went outside to run off some energy!

The girls started getting picked up around 9 pm!

All in all it was the best party ever according to Michelle.

The 3 hours flew by and all the girls had a great time!

After the girls left Michelle and I grabbed a chicken sandwich since we didn't have dinner before party. 

We then watched two episodes of America's Got Talent before calling it a night.

We had a big day of shopping to look forward too!

cupcake party {decorations}

I kept the decorations pretty simple for the party!

I made a cupcake liner garland that I absolutely love.

This is really simple to make and doesn't take that long to make.

I went to Micheals and purchased cupcake liners in party colors.

I then used a needle {$ tree} and cord {wal-mart} to string the liners. 

I didn't use any kind of pattern with colors.

Just  randomly strung them.

When finished I draped them above the cupcake table and added balloons on each side.

Also on the table our adorable cupcake boxes I got from Micheals.

They come in packs of three and hold four cupcakes each.

The candles in the front are from the dollar tree and smell heavenly like chocolate!

For the table I just added a table cloth, tied balloons on 

chairs, set out plates, cupcake decorations, and frosting.

I ended up moving the candles in fear of someone catching on fire if reaching across table.

The candles were vanilla candles from dollar tree tied with ribbon.

The snacks I just set up on our center island.

The snacks set out were chocolate pretzels, funfetti cake batter buddies, cake batter rice krispies, pixie sticks, ring pops, and a simple punch.

You can find pictures and recipes of snacks here!

Up next pictures of the Party!

Cupcake Party {the snacks}

For Michelle's 11th birthday party she had cupcake decorating party!

For snacks ideas I went straight to pinterest!

I found lots of yummy treats.

Cake Batter Rice Krispie Treats Recipe

{recipe from Six Sister's Stuff}

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp. butter

1 (10 oz.) bag of mini-marshmallows

1/3 cup Funfetti cake mix (you could also use yellow cake mix) 

6 cups crispy rice cereal

1 (1.75 oz.) container of sprinkles

1.  Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat and add marshmallows. 

2.  Stir until they begin to melt, adding in (dry) cake mix one spoonful at a time so its combined. 

3.  Stir in cereal so it is completely coated with marshmallow mixture.

 Sprinkle in half of the sprinkles and mix. 

4.  Press into a baking dish (any size will do) and top with remaining sprinkles.

5.  Let sit for about 30 minutes before cutting.

Chex Funfetti Cake Batter Buddies

{recipe from Six Sister's Stuff}

Ingredients:

5 cups Chex cereal (I used Rice Chex, but Corn Chex would work great!)

10 oz (5 squares) vanilla flavored Almond Bark

1 1/2 cups Funfetti cake mix (any kind of cake mix would work)

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vegetable shortening

Directions:

1. Melt Almond Bark according to the package directions, adding vegetable shortening to thin (I heard that you can make it without the shortening, but it worked great for me to use it).

2. Pour the cereal into a large bowl and drizzle the melted Almond Bark over the cereal. Mix gently with a large spoon or spatula.

3. Dump the cake mix and powdered sugar onto the cereal and mix gently with large spoon until all the cereal is evenly coated.

Hershey Kiss Pretzels

Ingredients:

hershey kisses

{i used chocolate and cookies 'n cream}

pretzels

m & m's

Directions:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees

Places above items on cookie sheet except m & m's

Melt until soft.

Press m & m's on top 

Place in freezer to cool

Cupcakes {from a box} to decorate in
strawberry, funfetti, and chocolate with crushed oreos!
I also had bowls of toppings out!

I also made a punch that the girls loved and was SUPER easy!

I just made Smucker's Strawberry Lemonade in a punch bowl

 and added raspberry sherbet to it!

Up next....decorations!

Fun in the Sun

Every summer for the past few years I have been making
a list of fun things I want to do with the kids. 

The last few years I have not been very good at doing a lot of the activities.

Well this is the summer we are going to do everything on the list.

No excuses!!
{well maybe time, $, and every day life}

If anyone sees something on the list they would love to do with us let me know.

I love having company!

Here are my ideas!

Suncadia Resort  in Cle Elum for Josh's work summer regional 

Go to Birch Bay! We will play, explore, and have a picnic lunch!
Take kids to Miniature World Mini-Golf in Birch bay for mini golf and go carts

pool in the yard with slide going into it 

Day trip to Forest Park

Weekend "camping" trips to the Glen

the museum of Flight in Seattle 

Picnic lunches in the yard 

layout in the yard and read a book 

Summer $1 movies with Regal Cinemas

Jump Around Fun Zone 

{when you bring in your movie ticket stub the same day, 

get admission to Jump Around for just $5!}

Go to local parks old and new 

Water slides at Birch bay 

Eat lots and lots ice cream!! 

Swimming at Homestead

evening bike rides 

BBQ 

Day trip to the zoo

mini day camp at NCCTK {Jordan} 

U pick strawberries 

Day trip to aquarium 

Bowling at Mt. Baker lanes with Kids bowl free

Day trip to Jetty Island

Wave Pool

RELAX, RELAX, & RELAX 

Enjoy my children 

Lemonade stand 

3rd annual 4th of July block party

Michelle, Cohen, and Jordan's BIRTHDAYS 

treasure hunt around the neighborhood 

Northwest Washington Fair 

camping in the backyard complete with tent, cooking hot dogs over a fire, and roasting s'mores 

swim lessons {Jordan}

Clean and gut the house

Slip n slide

Swimming in Gramma's pool

Cultus Lake Water Park

A night of real camping in a tent at a campsite
have a pj day complete with sleepover in living room and watch movies all day {rainy day}
Go on a photo scavenger hunt