Kaleigh's 9th Birthday

FUN IN THE SUMMER SUN!

Kaleigh's invitations for her party.

We put an otter pop in each one with this saying...

I'd OTTERly love it if you

could POP on by for some fun,

summer birthday fun.

She was so excited to be able to have a friend party this year and we came up with "summer fun in the sun," as our theme.

She loves being 9 and is having a blast!

We love her so much and we're glad she is a part of our family. She is so bubbly and can give smack like no other. She fits right in and really can dish it out just like her daddy.

I've been procrastinating this post because it turned out horrible for her and for me to see my 9 year old in tears sitting on our grass. She invited 7 of her good friends and she was excited to play all the games we came up with. We had a balloon catching game, silly string tag, tug-of-war over the filled kiddie pool, water sponge ball game, and of course her cake and cupcakes. It all came to a screaming halt about 20 minutes into her party time.

I hadn't received any RSVP's but just thought people just would show up. Insert my BIGGEST pet peeve-no one RSVPing whether coming or not. Well not one of her friends showed up. Picture that cute, bubbly girl, balling on the grass. Heart-breaking!!! We called up some cousins to see if they could quickly come over and a couple of neighborhood kids who weren't doing anything and our very upset lit'l girl was once again happy.


These were our party favors. I didn't want to just give trinkets that would break in about 5 minutes, nor did I want to give them a ton of candy. Insert the dollar tree, I found these cute beach buckets, bubbles, water, silly string, and chalk. I made 8 of them and the total worked out to be only $3 per kid. Not bad if I say so myself. Love that Dollar Tree store.
We added the leis at the last minute(I got them awhile ago at Walmart in the clearance section)and the candy was left over after making the cake and cupcakes. I fancied up the water and bubbles with some cute paper to tie into her theme. Each kid got to pick the colors of sponge strips to make their own sponge ball and then they got to take them home.

I love these little waters, perfect size for the kiddos.

The beachy, ocean cupcakes. Kaleigh loved them and so did all the kiddos.

I made a surfboard to serve the cupcakes on. I know the fin goes on the bottom, but K wanted a pic of herself on it. The birthday girl gets what she wants on her party day.

Here it is with all the cupcakes on it. The kids were thrilled to find out they each could have TWO!! Wanna make kids' day... give them more cake to eat. They'll love ya for it!!!

I like to make a little cake for the kids at their friend party. Kaleigh absolutely loves sharks, so I made this one for her especially. The cake was rainbow too, which she also loves.

It was windy outside, so the second we lit the candle it blew out. We sang "Happy Birthday" to her and she dug in and ate the shark right away.

Friends and Family enjoying their good eats.

We gave her our presents we had for her and she was over the moon when she saw them. I made 2 hair clips for her, one was a flower and the other one was a corker ribbon bow. I used them in place of a bow and it turned out really cute.

This is one outfit we gave her. It came with some guitar leggings and a skirt. She also got a new pair of pants and a bop it game. Alexis has one and Kaleigh has been wanting one ever since.

Here are the leggings that go with the shirt. She loves them and put them on first thing Monday morning. Glad I could make her happy and I was very glad we could find some friends and cousins to attend the party. I was afraid she was going to hate this birthday. In the end we found out that it just so happened that all her friends she had invited all had other family plans that day. It would have been nice if the parents had RSVPed, but oh well. I think however, if it ever happens again with another friend party I will not be doing them anymore. I just don't want to see my kiddos so upset again.

Craftin', Bakin', and Pluckin' the garden, make this woman VERY satisfied!

I love being busy! And man, have I've been busy with tons of stuff and it's only getting busier for me and my bunch. You would think summer was our busy time, but nope, come August, we don't stop until the end of January. I guess that's what ya get when you have four birthday children within 2 months. Then we have the 3 major holidays and closely followed by the oldster's birthday(and it's a big one, she'll be 12 ya know-insert tears welling up). Anywho, I love creating new things out of old and trying my hand at new things. I also LOVE, LOVE, LOVE finding treasures at the D.I. I found this lovely beauty... It used to be a cork message board, but the cork was all scratched(knifed up is what the hubs called it) and it had drawings and some sticky stuff on it. I saw its great potential and for only $8 it was a steal! It is really big and thick and I had to have it for our new craft room.

So began the transformation. I took it all apart so I could cover it with fabric and spray paint the frame. The frame was in really good condition, It just didn't match the decor in the room.
Here's the piece all covered and ribbon on it to make it my new message board. I love the birdie fabric. I love it because Bella says "birdie" everytime she sees it.
And here it is all done. We hung it up on the wall in the dining/new craft room. I love it and can't wait until the room is all done!

I also made up some stuff for Kaleigh's party. We were going for some summer water fun. What's better than buckets of water and throwing homemade sponge balls. This was so simple, but the kids LOVED it so much. I just went to the $ store and bought a pack of sponges.

You cut each sponge into 3 long strips

Then you stack 9 strips together and tie with twine and VOILA...a homemade sponge ball! I let the kids pick their colors so each one was unique and it was a craft project for them at the same time. I just did this one to show them how they would look.

I have also feel in love with the corker hairbows that we see everywhere. However, they start to add up when you have 3 girls who love hairstuff. These bows are sold in boutiques and at kid to kid, but cost about $5 for one. Way too rich for my blood these days, so i decided to try making them myself-guess what, they are super easy!

You just wrap your ribbon on dowels and bake them!

Then you unwrap them after 25 minutes of baking and this is what I had. I cut each strip into 3 pieces(4 inches) and just sewed a bunch together.

Then I wrapped an alligator clip with ribbon and hot glued the corker bow on top and voila... the cutest little hair bows ever. I love making things that my kids wear and I'm getting really good at it. The hubs says I should sell them because I like making them so much.

Oh how i love fresh garden veggies. Aren't these gorgeous! Unfortunately, the rest of the garden didn't turn out so well, but we did get about 10 lovely zucchinis. Maybe it'll go better next year when I have more time to help with the garden. Poor hubs, he was so frustrated with the garden that he nuked it a week ago with weed killer. Oh well, we'll just try again!

I have also been trying out my new recipe concoctions. I've had this one in my head and wanted to try it out. I think I have finally come up with the best blueberry muffins! I've been trying at this for awhile now. They have been either too dry or too sweet, but this one is so YUMMY!

Blueberry Crumb Muffins

3 c flour 2/3 c oil

1 1/2 c sugar 2eggs

1 tsp. salt 2/3 c whole milk

4 tsp. baking powder 3 c fresh blueberries(Costco's are great)

Topping

1 c sugar 1/2 c butter 2/3 c flour 3 tsp cinnamon

Mix sugar, eggs, milk and oil together. Add salt, flour, baking powder, into the wet ingredients. Fold blueberries in. Drop into cupcake liners and fill about half way. Mix the topping ingredients together until crumbly and sprinkle some over each muffin. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Eat and Enjoy!

This is one yummy, easy dessert that is quick too.

Ice Cream Cake

24 ice cream sandwiches

16 oz tub of cool whip

whole bottle of magic shell

In a 9 X 13 pan lay out 12 of the sandwiches(unwrapped in case ya didn't know), you need to kinda of squish them so they all fit. Then spread half of the cool whip over the top, then layer the next 12 sandwiches on top. Spread the remaining cool whip on top and then pour the magic shell on top. Put it in the freezer for at least an hour. Slice and serve. People will be amazed at how easy and DELISH this is. There are so many flavors of ice cream sandwiches, you can make all kinds of cake. This one was Neapolitan layer and a vanilla layer with heath topping.

Eat and Enjoy!

Leapin' Lizards!!!

Well, it's finally over and man alive, are we ever so pooped! We had a blast doing "Annie," but it was time consuming and a lot harder for me juggling things than I thought it would be. Mental note: don't do a play while still nursing a baby, it makes it extremely stressful when rehearsals last 7 hours the last week before the play. Other than that, the girls and I enjoyed ourselves so much we are thinking of the next play we can do. It's loads of fun, and life needs to have a load or two of fun in it!Cute lit'l sister orphans. They made tons of new friends and managed to stay on top of school work too!

Here we all are dressed in our parts. This costume was extremely hot up on stage, however, it could have been the fact they forgot to turn on the a.c. during our performances. Oh well, the show MUST go on =)!
I'll be posting more pics of rehearsals and our last show later. If you missed it, you really did miss a very cute show. The orphans stole the show. So cute, we had 70 orphans and they did a WONDERFUL, AMAZING job. It was a fun cast and crew to work with and we will DEFINITELY be doing next year's BAAB's play. The hubs may even join in on the fun. He misses the theater, I mean stage. Can't let it out of the bag that he has a love of theater now can we. Until we meet again our lovely audience. We bid you farewell! =)

And through it all...I Still Got You Babe

Can I just say how grateful I am that God knew so well what life would/could throw at us he gave us all the opportunity to experience it with a helpmeet(aka a wonderful spouse). I love my hubby more and more every day, but lately I've come to love him more than I ever thought possible. I know, crap this post is another personal/mushy love fest for the hubs. I just wanted to write down some thoughts about life and the ever so much hard times that are made bearable by having him in my life. We have experience many hardships and have had a lot more to deal with as of late, spinning my life upside down as I know it, but it has been made easier knowing I have my love of my life spinning with me. The world is a scary, stressful entity right know for our bunch, and at times I have wanted to just throw in the towel, but then I look at the hubs gorgeous, Hazel eyes and I know I CAN'T just give up. I would lose him, our seven children that we share and our wonderful promise that we will be eternally together. Now, why on earth would I ever want to lose us. He makes me laugh and giggle when all I want to do is roll up in a ball and cry, he reminds me that we have always come out of our trials stronger, and that we have/and still are surviving the greatest loss anyone can experience in this life-and doing it ever so slowly, but with strength. He lifts me up when I have fallen into the deep pit of I'm-feeling-sorry-for-myself hole, and he rarely ever loses it when he has every gosh darn right to. I love this man who has been my Mr. Hansen for a lovely almost 13 years. I try to be the best I can and the best I know I am, but when I'm not he reminds me of who and what I am. He has more confidence in me than I do at times and he makes me believe I can do whatever I want, because I am great! You gotta love having a partner like that live with you through not only the good, but the bad, ugly, and the oh -man- I -don't- think -we- are- in -Kansas- anymore- moments! Man, I love that man of mine. I know that with him and with God in my court, I can get through anything that is thrown my way. Life may not always be roses, and it hasn't been much in our 13 years, but the bad makes me stronger and it makes me grow and realize that I am lucky to be married to such an amazing man. Here's to the hubs, may we always keep our chins up even when the world is spinning out of control around us.