As co-leader of Anna's Girl Scout troop it's my job to help with the activities. Once again anything to do with a party and I'm all in. The objective was for each of the girls to make their own individual pies. I set up a table with everything they needed and let them create their own sugary confection.

The girls had the choice of apple or cherry pie fillings.

They also had could top their pie with a flat surface or a lattice. The girls really enjoyed dusting, filling, rolling and putting together their pies.

The finished products were perfect.

Ok here is one picture from another Girl Scout party we had. It was a garden themed ice sundae party.I hope our leader comes up with another party for us to plan.

Luke turned 5 and it blows my mind. No way, he's five. My baby boy is so growing up and I just wish he'd stay 4 cause he's so stink'in cute and fun and awesome and loveable and thoughtful and loud and wild and sincere and all BOY!

This year he was obsessed with Lego's, specifically Ninjago's. So I set out to create the best party for him.
There was lot's of eating.Lot's of treats.Lot's of silly faces.The kids played lego bingo, created lego building and I even had a friends son come over and perform a "Ninja" demonstration. The kids loved it.The children were great students.

Luke loved his party and I love Luke. That means it was a total success!

When Luke get's an idea in his head there is no talking him out of it. This year he was obsessed with Lego's, specifically Ninjago's. What that now means is that I have to plan a party that lives up to his obsession. I think I look forward to birthday's because it means I get to unleash my creativity and party plan. My most favorite thing EVER!

It all started with personalized invitations.The entry table was housed the party favors, lego bingo, fortune cookies and candy.I think personalizing is such an important detail. The bags each had a personalized tag as well as each place setting.
Each party bag was filled with lego man crayons, a coloring book, treat and a Ninjago sticker. Many hours were spent making the crayons but it was so worth it.Lots of little Lego men. Luke spent lot's of time creating these little guys.I covered a 'party in a box' pinata with crepe paper and some cardstock.Party food details.Still deciding if these look like Ninjago's or Angry Birds.
Rice crispy sushi. Chocolate cupcakes and chocolate Lego bricks. Again, is it a Lego brick or a piece of cheese? Liv say's "piece of cheese." Note to self: Never make seriously awesome chocolaty cupcakes for five year olds. They will take one bit and throw the rest away. Make the $1.50 box kind!It was great party and I loved planning every moment of it for my Lukie.

Christmas Eve this year was spent eating, dancing, giving and laughing.

Cousins

Almost bed time.

Santa was very good to everyone.Anna gave everyone a handmade card and paper craft. The gifts were so thoughtful.Luke gave each of us dirty socks full of spare change. It was the cutest thing ever! And I mean EVER! I had no idea what the gift was until I opened it. Grandma and Grandpa Evans sent this over for the kids.Until next year...

After only 6 months of lessons Anna had her very first piano recital. I can't even begin to express how proud we are of her. She amazes us with her knowledge and dedication to learning and practicing. The month of November and December she practiced 5 songs from her Christmas book diligently. She could almost play them from memory. When it came time for her recital and she was told she only needed to play one of the five she was so disappointed. Good thing her teacher allowed her to play two. Anna played with such confidence. We are looking forward to next years recital.

We had cute and scary costumes. Anna was a tight rope walker, costume made by me. Luke was a spider and Liv was Little Miss Muffet. I hope the years of matching costumes lasts for a few more years.Melissa and Sarah were the SCARY!All together now.

The weekend started off great.

Anna got a new hair cut on Saturday.On Sunday we had our Back to School dinner. All of Anna's favorites, salmon, rice and heart shaped brownies. Chris then gave Anna a fathers blessing, getting her ready for her big day at school.Monday morning she woke up bright and early and was excited about
school. She got dressed in her new school outfit and was excited about her new backpack. Took a couple of the traditional First day of School pictures, in the front yard.Taxi MomRight after Anna took this picture it all went bad. We got out of the car and Anna had decided to she wanted to ride her scooter. She took a hill a little to fast and fell off the scooter. My heart sank, I knew it was gonna happen as soon as I saw the front wheel begin to shake. It was awful, there was nothing I could do but watch it happen and run to her as soon as she fell. I picked her up and she was bledding and scraped up all over. After a getting her to the nurses office for some clean up and band aids, she decided she wanted to go home and not go to class. I didn't try to talk her out of that decision because I could tell she was in no shape for school.
This was the walk back to the car after the fall. As we were walking I said "Well Anna, at least you didn't ruin your clothes." Her tearful response was "I wish I had ruined my clothes and not my body!"We went home and couple of hours later Anna decided she wanted to go to school. Three hours late, but we made. Despite the bad start, she had a great day.