Thursday, May 19, 2011

Happy 7th Birthday Kylie!

Last Friday the 13th, Kylie turned 7 years old!

My parents and Jonathan's mom were able to come into town to celebrate.  Jonathan's dad had to work.  :(  Jonathan took the day off and we did some work to get ready for her party!

Our theme was Wizard of Oz, so for breakfast, she got "Monkey Bread"-get it, the flying monkeys?! 


To keep the present commotion down come party time, she opened her gifts from Nama and Bopa.  Nama sewed her a dress, and crocheted her a swimsuit cover up and a matching bag to hold her pool supplies...including a new towel.


We took everyone to Red Robin for lunch, but didn't get any pictures.

Her friends arrived in the afternoon.  This was our first organized kid party with just a few friends and I told all the moms they could drop their kids off and go do whatever they wanted for the next couple of hours.  In the past, we've had big parties with kids and parents, and as fun as that is, this was WAY more intimate and less overwhelming - and I thought a lot more fun for Kylie (and me!).

 When the kids arrived, they did a maze to help Toto find his bone.

 The table scape.  The kids had Glinda's PB&J wands, apples with dip (remember the mean apple trees?), rainbow gold fish and animal crackers (Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!)

This was definitely the hit-rainbow fruit kabobs!

Of course we had to play Twister...get it?  "Its a twister!"

The cake made by daddy.  He was very proud of his work!


 
When the kids arrived, they saw that our doorbell didn't work, and that our house landed on the wicked witch!  We also had the cyclone song playing by the front door.  Near our drive way, "Munchkin Land" was playing out the window.  Sorry neighbors-hope it wasn't annoying!

Playing "Pin the Heart on the Tin Man".  Jonathan also made the tin man.

 
Playing Oz memory.  Once it got going, they were excited to find pairs and had a hard time keeping quiet when they knew where a match was but it wasn't their turn to pick.  They all got very excited for each other and there were no poor sports.  Everyone got at least one match too.

 Onto Oz bingo.  This was super fun too.  It was so cute to see the bigger kids help out the little kids find words.

 My pretty baby.

All 8 kids squeezed on our kid table-it really DOES hold 8 kids!

K cups

Of course they had to run off all that sugar energy.


 Kylie gave all her friends big hugs after she opened their gifts.

 Micaela
 Alyssa
 Lauren
 Sissies

Grammy and Grandka gave her an art table.  I tell you what-we've had this thing for less than a week and it is AWESOME!!!  They LOVE it!


Cake time!

 
 Everyone singing.


 Micaela takes piano lessons with the same teacher as Kylie.  She played part of "Heart & Soul" as well as "Happy Birthday" for Kylie.



~Family photo ops~

Bopa and Nama.

 Both grandmas.

 Grammy and Kylie

 Kylie with us.  She's so BIG!!!

Later that night she opened her presents from Uncle Jeffery. He always has great thought to his gifts, and I think most all of them have been ordered online while he's been deployed overseas.  He got Kylie "Chose Your Own Adventure" books-which is a joke on Jonathan too because he loved these growing up.  He also got her Monopoly Jr., which in the Kassebaum family, you DO NOT play Monopoly with the boys.  I learned that mistake many years ago.  They are brutal and ruthless!  He also got her an interactive world map-very cool!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful, smart, silly, reserved yet adventurous, helpful, inquisitive, sensitive, brave and sassy daughter.  I love you Kylie!!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Daddy date-Ava

This last Friday it was Ava's turn to go out on a date with daddy.  She picked out a sparkly pink dress and white strappy shoes as her ensemble for the evening.  They went out for Thai food, and turns out Ava really liked pad thai!  Then daddy had round two of "Rio".



 I just noticed Jonathan wore the same thing for his date!  Maybe I should have gotten him something new.

 While Ava and daddy were out, we played make-up!  Kylie did some good work us Juliet and I.

Juliet's Ballet Recital

Juliet finished up her ballet class this week with a recital at an assisted living home in town.  For the past 4 months, our Tuesday afternoon has consisted of us going to the home of a home schooled girl who is a senior in high school, and one way she raised some money for bible college was to teach ballet to little girls.  This was a great (and inexpensive) introduction to an activity for Juliet and she really loved it.

Waiting to start! She was very exited and even happier daddy took a bit of time off work to come watch her dance.

 Sorry the pix are a little fuzzy.  We were standing really far away and the lighting wasn't all that great.

Being goofy before starting. She kept looking over at us and waving and smiling.

Showing off her best dance moves.

She had a smile on her face the whole time.  Not an ounce of nervousness!

I too had a smile on my face the whole time and was almost brought to tears watching my cuteness dance her little heart out!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Daddy date-Kylie

A couple nights ago, Jonathan took Kylie on a date.  After getting dolled up in her new dress and heels, she was properly escorted to dinner at Brio and a movie to see Rio.




Ava is going this upcoming Friday, and Juliet knows she has to wait until she's a bit older.