Elia's 9th Birthday!

Elia turned 9 on Monday, October 17 and we celebrated with her party at the roller skating rink! It happened to be fall break which made it nice and not very crowded at the skating rink. We almost had the entire place to ourselves.

We started the day sleeping in and then we let her open her presents from us. She got a Smokey Pillow pet, a Tennessee sweatsuit, Super Mario Wii game, a Barbie she wanted, and a sister necklace from Ava.





Elia was so excited about turning 9 because that meant she could ride in the car without a carseat! I think she thought that was the best thing about the entire day!

Her party started at 5:00. She had a few friends from school, a few friends who happen to be family, and a few friends from the neighborhood at her party. Here is a picture of some of her friends who were there:


The skating rink had races (which I steered clear of this time) and the limbo. Reed was the Limbo Winner of the night! Go REED!!!


Then it was time to go to the party room. We had pizza:

We had cake:



And we opened presents:


Happy Birthday Elia!!!

October Theme Dinner!

This month's theme dinner was the most fun we have had with our dinners! Since it is Halloween, we did a "spooky" dinner. We started off decorating the kitchen with Halloween decor.

On the menu for dinner tonight included:

* Mummy dogs

* Ghost cookies

* Witches Brew Punch

We started off making the punch. First, we put gummy worms in ice trays. Then we filled them up with water and put them in the freezer to turn into "wormy" ice cubes.

Then we mixed 2 parts fruit punch with 1 part 7-up in a punch bowl. We added rainbow sherbert and our wormy ice cubes to top it off. Ava had fun mixing the punch together.

Here is the Wicthes Brew ready to serve:

Then we got the main course, Mummy Dogs, ready. We got hot dogs and cut them in half. Then we wrapped the dogs with crescent rolls. We baked them according to the crescent roll directions. Then we added ketchup and mustard eyes. Our mummy dogs turned out a little bug eyed but they were still yummy!

For dessert, we made ghost cookies. We started with Nutter Butter cookies, white chocolate almond bark, and mini chocolate chips.

We put the white chocolate in the microwave and stirred every 20 seconds. Then we dipped the cookies in the white chocolate and added the chocolate chips for the ghosts' eyes and nose. They turned out pretty cute!

Miley even had to get in on the act. We dressed her up in her Halloween pajamas!

The girls had so much fun with this theme dinner!

To add to the theme we are heading to the corn maze tonight! It should be lots of fun! Stay tuned for November's theme dinner next month!!!

Fall Favorites!

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. I think I could make a list of 100 reasons why I LOVE fall. Of course, right now my favorite reason would be FALL BREAK!!! At least the break is giving me time to catch up on my blogging.

Here is my top ten list of fall favorites:

#10- Halloween: I am not a fan of the spooky and scary things that comes along with Halloween. However, I do love helping the girls pick out their Halloween costumes. Then of course there is trick-or-treating where you go to every house on the block for free candy. What could be better than that?

#9- Fall colors: Trees are at their prettiest when they have turned those deep yellow, orange, and red fall colors. It reminds me of our powerful and all knowing God and how He is in control of even the little things.

#8- Hooded sweatshirts: I love fall weather! I am definitely cold natured and I am ALWAYS cold. However, the weather during fall is my favorite. I love being able to put on a pair of comfy jeans and a hooded sweatshirt.

#7- Smores: Who doesn't love Smores? One of my favorite things about fall is sitting in the cove with the neighbors on a cool night, pulling the fire pit out, and roasting smores over the open flames! YUMMY!

#6- Maple Pancake Yankee Candle: This is one of the best scents that Yankee Candle makes. The only problem is that it is only sold during the fall. I always have to stock up so they will last me year round. They smell SO good!

#5- White Chocolate Candy Corn M&M's: Enough said!

#4- Black Friday Shopping: Only one more month until I will be out with the crazies at 2am looking for that great deal that I could find online in my warm pajamas in my warm bed. It truly is worth the experience and all the fun stories that are shared throughout the night!

#3- Cuddling: Fall weather means cuddle time with the ones you love. The cooler weather makes me want to pull out the blankets and snuggle up for a good nap with my favorite family members.

#2- Starbucks Pumpkin Scones: I discovered these for the first time this past weekend. Do not let the fall season disappear before you get to your local Starbucks for one of these delicious treats!

#1- And my number one favorite fall item is STARBUCKS PUMPKIN SPICE LATTE of course!!!

Elia's 9th Birthday!

It is still so hard for me to believe that my baby girl turned nine years old today!!! She is growing up in so many ways.

I can remember waiting to bring her home and having her car seat waiting for her in the back of my car. I would strain my neck driving down the road to see that empty car seat waiting for her sweet little self to be in it. Today she turned nine and got to get out of her car seat!

I can remember those big brown eyes staring at me with curiosity when she first came home. Today those brown eyes got big with excitement as she counted the money she saved from her allowance and her birthday gifts!

I can remember dressing her up in smocked dresses, leather patent shoes, and bows to match every day of the week! Today she picked out skinny jeans and an Abercrombie shirt.

I can remember singing all of her favorite nursery rhymes and listening to them in the car as we drove to preschool. Today, she listened to Katy Perry on her MP3 player as we drove to the skating rink.

I can remember holding her hand when she was first learning to walk. Today she let go of my hand as she skated off with friends at her birthday party.

Today she may have turned 9, but she will ALWAYS be my baby girl! I love you El!!!!!! Happy Birthday!!!!

Here are some pictures to show how much she has grown over the past nine years. This picture is when Elia was only 6 months old and we went to Guatemala for our 1st visit trip:

This picture is Elia in Kindergarten:

I always take the girls' pictures by the same stop sign on the first day of school. (I have actual photographs of her stop sign picture in preschool and kindergarten. I guess that was before the digital age started.) Here is Elia on the first day of 1st grade:

Here she is on the first day of 2nd grade:

And the first day of 3rd grade:

Here is Elia today on her ninth birthday:

September Theme Dinner

September has come and gone, but we did have our September theme dinner about a month ago. We decided on a Tennessee Vols theme this month since it was the start of football season! Ok, so I could really care less about the Vols or anything football related. However, I live with 2 people who love the Vols- Kevin and Elia. They are big fans so it was time to think ORANGE!

I tried to think of a "Tennessee" dinner and here is what was on the menu:

* BBQ chicken

* Baked Beans

* pineapples

* cupcakes with orange icing

* Orange Big K

I am not much of a cook at all, and I have lots of issues with raw chicken. However, I found a great recipe on a crockpot website and I was able to cook it without ever touching the chicken!

I started with chicken breasts, BBQ sauce, and a few other ingredients in the crockpot for most of the day.

Then I shredded the chicken and put it back in the crockpot to cook for one more hour.

I dumped the beans out of a can into a saucepan and heated them up. I dumped the pineapples out of a can too and dinner was served!

You can't forget about the orange drink we had with dinner- Big K orange drink!

The dessert was the fun part! We started with white cream cheese icing.

Then we added red and yellow food coloring to make a UT orange color.

Next we iced our cupcakes!

Last it was time for a yummy dessert which everyone loved!!!

I am sure there was a Tennessee football game that weekend too, but I wouldn't know it! You will have to ask Kevin or Elia about that one. I am definitely not the sport enthusiast.

Stay tuned for the October theme dinner! It is going to be a lot of fun!!!