flower's 6th birthday::family party!

sunday, april 3rd we had flower's family party at the clubhouse.
sandee took these next two pictures and for the life of me i can't get them to rotate.

i was shocked that everyone was able to come so we had a good group of people. flower is so loved. we started the party off with a good selection of salads. everyone brought one and there was jello, fruit, green, yogurt and quinoa. all of them delicious!
flower then opened her gifts. she was spoiled as usual.






a few that i remember are:
-2 t-shirts from river
-money from grandparents
-tangled from grandma and grandpa madison
-tangled doll from kris and jer
-princess stuff and stickers from sandee and the kids
-really cute swim suit from ryan and amanda and lorelai
-princess stuff from roger and family
-princess dress, sleeping beauty ballet tickets, shoes, and sweater from us
thank you everyone!

we then put candles in her ice cream of choice and sang happy birthday.

she chose to have an ice cream sundae bar for dessert.
she always picks chocolate and adds chocolate chips. she loves her chocolate!
it was a lot of fun. she wanted to serve chocolate, mint chocolate chip, cookies and cream and strawberry ice cream. we had m&m's, mini chocolate chips, maraschino cherries, nuts, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce and whipped cream for toppings!



those in attendance were:
grandparents, ken and laura
uncle erik and erina
uncle justin and his friend and two kids
uncle ryan
grandparents, doug and opal
uncle roger, aunt alyse, lauren, torta, royal, zach
aunt sandee, spencer, kas
uncle ryan, aunt amanda, lorelai
john, lisa, josh, isaac, topher
great grandparents, carol and gordon
great grandma,mary jo
kris and jerry

thank you so much to everyone who came and showered flower with love!

girl's room redecorated.

back in january we made our first visit to kohl's. i had a gift card that my parents gave me for my birthday in august. we stumbled upon some cute vinyl wall stickers and that made me want to redo the decor in the girls room. they sat on a shelf until april 2nd. i got home from work at 5:00, got in bed and didn't have any desire to move. the girls were going crazy once kg left for work and, fearing one of us wouldn't make it out alive, i finally got a wild hair up my bahookie and got up at 10:00 pm and decided it was time to redecorate! the girls handed me stickers and played on the floor beneath me. i think we finally got done around midnight. i loved how it turned out.
i had these two canvases just waiting to hang. they fit perfectly over the window.
in the one on the left flower is 4, river is 6 months(mother's day 2009). in the one on the right, flower is 5 and river is 2(valentine's day 2011)
i had to arrange the owls, birds, branches and leaves myself, one at a time, while standing on a toy chest and it wasn't easy. :) but i love it.
i put the letter stickers up in alphabetical order. love all the colors.


with the left over letters, flower chose some words for her bed.
i also finally hung these 'i am a child of god' mirrors that kg's parents gave the girls for christmas. they hang over each of their pillows. i love them. you can kind of see them both in the above photo and a close up below.
peek-a-boo
the girls are so thrilled with it and it got me out of my funk for the night. yay!
and finally we all slept in my bed peacefully. :)

nighty night.

welcome to april

flower's hand print calendar welcomes the month.

rain

the rain spills down
upon the town
like water
from a cup.
the thing i just
can't understand
is how the rain
gets up!

and this my friends, is the best way to start any month! waking up, seeing them all in bed with me, so sweetly sleeping. i was able to read blogs on my phone silently in bed for almost 30 minutes and enjoy this scene before any of them stirred. love. and just to note, our bed runs the other way, so i was sleeping properly at their feet and somehow they all ended up turned the wrong way. :)
and this cute and colorful display is our fireplace mantle for the month! yay spring!

hope april brings good things.