Our Color Vibe day in pictures.  If you haven't done one before and don't have asthma, I would highly recommend giving it a try.  It's not timed and you can walk, run or dance your way through the 5K.

Before the run...

After the run.

During the run.  Don't smile when you run through the color cloud or your teeth will turn blue!

Our team - The Rusty Runners

Her shoe fell off, so she just walked the rest of the way to the car with one shoe on and one off...

Each year around this time, I help plan and execute a vacation Bible school at my church.  We call it Kids Club.  Each year, I am given a theme and my creative partner and I attempt to bring the theme to life.


With the help of another church member (a retired carpenter who built the awesome building facade seen below), and a few dedicated volunteers, Susie & I have tried to bring the Rodeo area to life.



When you enter the rodeo, you encounter the check-in.  This is where we break the groups of children into smaller groups of 8-10.  We have punch cards that help us figure out what activities they experienced the day before and which places they still need to visit.  We then send them to one of 8 stations around the room.



Our first station is the racing station.  There are two events that happen at the racing station.  The one shown here is the barrel race.  The children have to use a broom to herd their balloons around the barrels.  We created barrels out of pop-up hampers, yard bags and duct tape.


Our next station is the Prospecting area.  For two days, the kids get to search for a needle in a haystack (yarn needles with no sharp point) and then the last two days, they will pan for gold.


Next is the Saddle Shop, where we are making paper bag vests and God's Eyes throughout the week.


Adjacent to the Saddle Shop is the Lasso Practice Range where the kids can test their aim by throwing horse shoes, doing a rope toss and a jar lid toss.

Why do we call it a slumber party if not much sleep actually occurs during the party? Maybe we should just call it what it is, an unslumber party, a cat-nap party or an insomnia party. Whatever you want to call it, we celebrated Boo's birthday this weekend with one.

We (and by we, I mean I - that sounds funny even if it is grammatically correct!) have a birthday party policy that each kid gets a big party every three years. This is one of Boo's off years but we (again, read this as I) decided she could have a few friends over to spend the night. She invited 3 of her good friends (I drew the line at 3 this time around!). It was exhausting for all but very fun too.

We'll start out with her idea for her cake. Boo wanted cupcakes. Not just any cupcakes, but mint chocolate chip cupcakes. No problem! I found some creme de menthe chips and mixed them in the batter and then sprinkled crushed peppermint on the top of the frosting. The smell of mint during the baking and decorating was enough to clear my sinuses for awhile.


Here's Boo blowing out her candle. We had the cupcakes after our pizza and before our movie began.

After watching The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, catching popcorn thrown up into the air in their mouths, some dress up time and a few board games, the girls got ready for sleeping. (HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!)


I'm guessing that they got about 6 hours of sleep or so. Not too bad but significantly less than most of them regularly get.

In the morning, we watched Santa Buddies while we waited for everyone to wake/get up and breakfast to be made. Boo had requested that her dad make letter pancakes for breakfast. He had fun and took it a step farther making ages as well.


After breakfast and some Mario Kart on the Wii, we packed up the car and headed to the Opry Glow Golf at the mall. While we had to do some refreshing on how to play, the girls quickly got the hang of it and really enjoyed themselves.


We finished golfing and took a quick group shot. No one was a bit tired...


We dropped everyone off on the way home, had some leftover pizza for lunch and hit the sack. After my nap I was able to reflect on all the goofy things the girls did and record some of the fun things they said.

"Go get a life... and use it!"
"I think you have a case of salad-itis"
"Elmo loves you. Will you marry him?"
"We're trying to set a world record for the longest time spent talking about Harry Potter characters. It's been an hour and a half so far."

I'd say a good time was had by all!

Since I have a ton of pictures and ideas to share from Bug's birthday party, I figured I'd divide it up into separate parts. This part is the invitation, gift bags, and decorations for the party.



For the treat bags, I used some small vinyl bags that I purchased on clearance at Hobby Lobby several years ago. We put in a Disney Fairies puzzle, a Tinkerbell pencil, some Tinkerbell fun fruits, a glow stick, and a candy necklace. Each bag was completed with a stamped Thank You tag. I used the Disney Fairies stamp set and the same products listed above to make the fairies pop.


For the entry way decoration, two of my greatest friends stayed up half the night helping me create these cut out fairies! We used the Cricut Fairies cartridge and the Cricut Expression to create these 11 inch fairies. All I can say is, thank God for friends like mine!











This centerpiece was also created with the help of a Cricut machine and the fairies cartridge. One of the previously mentioned friends created this fabulous fairy centerpiece for our party (and for reuse at her daughter's party next weekend!). Have I mentioned that I have wonderful friends?!