"Let's Glow Crazy!"

 Well I meant to get these edited and up yesterday and today so instead we will just have one LONG post today! 

Buggy chose to have a glow stick party! I had never even heard of such a thing, but she found some decorations with that theme and we went for it. It actually turned out really well! We had the party at 5 so it was very light out, but Boo and I solved that problem by taping black garbage bags on all the windows. It ended up being really dark! 

The main thing was Minute to Win It games, but first up, at the birthday girl's request, was a scavenger hunt! We had 11 guests plus our girls so they divided into three teams and off they went!

It was a fun way to start the party as they were racing all over the house and laughing and giggling. 

I looked up Minute to Win It games on Pinterest and found a bunch of good ones. This one was called Skittle Sort where they had to sort out the colors in a bag of Skittles.

Noni, Mama, and Papa came and helped me set up and decorate for the party and then stayed for a bit to help orchestrate games. 

I was really happy with how much fun they all had and what a good group of girls this was! Especially since it was a blend of a few girls from church, a few from soccer, and a few from dance.  

Cookie Face!

They had to start with the cookie on their forehead and get it to their mouth without using their hands. 

It was pretty funny to watch! 

Cereal box puzzle. 

We just cut up the front covers of cereal boxes. 

Pom Pom Race. 

They had to get 20 pom pom balls off the table with a straw. 

Marshmallow Transfer. 

This one was supposed to use chopsticks but I never found any to buy so we just used tongs. It wasn't as hard as I anticipated so they were all able to do it easily. 

Even Peaches wanted in on the action!

Penny Stack. Whoever got the highest stack for that round got the most points. 

T had been grilling away and dinner was ready at that point so we all headed outside. 

The birthday girl requested hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, potato salad, watermelon, and juice. 

They all ran off to play after eating. 

She had picked out this Costco cake earlier that week. 

We got the candles lit, but by the time we sang happy birthday the wind had blown them all out! 

Haha! 

We were going to do presents outside but it started to sprinkle so we ran back inside. She opened Mama's present before they took off. 

 

And then started on the huge pile from her friends. 

  

She got so many great gifts! Mostly arts and crafts which is perfect for our creative girl! 

Peaches started to get into the presents and was super sad when she was told no.

Noni encouraged her to sit and watch happily. :) 

 She got a cool crime detective Science kit! Looks fun!

We had a few more Minute to Win It games. "Suck it Up" where you have to put M&M's in a cup using a straw.

And Defy Gravity where you have to keep a balloon in the air for a minute. 

And the last was Cup Stack. One by one moving the stack of cups. 

We added up all the points from the Minute to Win It and the top three winners got to pick a prize.

What a fun party!!! 

We had an awesome time celebrating our big 11 year old Buggy girl! It will be hard to top that one!

"Happy Dir-day!"

Peanut taught Peaches to sing Happy Birthday just in time for Bug's birthday. SO cute! 

ELEVEN!

The years continue to fly by and I am constantly amazed by how big these girlies are getting! I cannot believe that our Buggy is ELEVEN! Not just double digits anymore but a full on "tween"! 

 

Buggy has grown up SO much this year! It is so fun to see her maturing and changing. At the start of the school year she needed me by her side for nearly every subject. These days it's not unheard of for her to do every bit of schoolwork on her own and then have me check it, although we do still do Math together most days. I'm so proud of the way she is taking charge of her schoolwork! Especially since she will officially be in "Junior High" next year, WHAT?, and is supposed to be mostly independent of me. She will be moving from one teacher to many and instead of class connects twice a week it will daily meetings with different teachers. It will be an interesting change, but I think she is ready! 

 

Buggy still loves to dance and is having fun in soccer season right now. She started a lot later than most of the girls (I think a lot of these girls start at age 4!), but she's learning and giving it a valiant effort. It's been one of the first things she's ever encountered that she's not one of the best at right away (she's like her Daddy that way) and I'm so proud of her for sticking with it and learning.

Buggy is becoming such a big help around the house. The other day we got home from the grocery store and she unloaded the groceries almost completely on her own AND put them away, all without being asked!!! Another day we were headed up to the hospital to have lunch with Daddy and while I was getting ready she not only got herself ready to go, but also got Peaches socks, shoes, and coat on and took her to the bathroom!!! It's SO nice to have such a great helper! 

Buggy still loves to draw and have quiet time, and is also still all about the fun! She loves to laugh, joke, and have fun wherever she goes. She (and the rest) have all been obsessed with handstands and cartwheels since the middle of March and she is getting pretty darn good at them! She would love to take a gymnastics class, but I'm not sure if we can make that happen since we don't have one here in town. 

She still has LOTS of energy, but can also sit and read or draw for hours. She is SO creative and is always making something. The other day she actually made a stuffed animal monkey for Peaches! She used brown fabric and sewed it around an old skein of yarn for the body and then put on ears, arms, legs, tail, eyes, mouth, and nose! I was super impressed! She is always sewing clothes for Barbies or Calico Critters, or making them out of Duct tape. Her creativity knows no bounds and she definitely has an eye for turning trash into treasures. 

Here is her birthday interview:

 

1. Favorite color: light blue

2. Favorite toy: My baby doll

3. Favorite fruit: apples

4. Favorite TV show: Odd Squad

5. Favorite lunch: hamburgers

6. Favorite outfit: this one

7. Favorite game: Tag

8. Favorite snack: granola bar

9. Favorite animal: panda

10. Favorite song: I Am a Child of the One True King

11. Favorite book: Riley Mae and the Shocker Rocker

12. Your best friend: Jesus

13. Favorite Cereal: Honey Nut Cheerios

14. Favorite thing to do outside: Swing on the swings

15. Favorite drink: Snapple Apple

16. Favorite holiday: my birthday

17. Favorite breakfast: strudel

18. What do you like to take to bed: Koala

19. What do you want to be when you grow up: An artist

20. What do you want for your birthday dinner? Hamburgers and hot dogs

Dear Buggy, 

I can't believe you're eleven. You are turning into a little lady right before our very eyes. It is so much fun to watch you grow and change into the girl God has created you to be. I love your spice for life. You bring excitement and laughter to our days. 

You are such a blessing to our family. I love how helpful you can be with your sisters. They adore you. I know sometimes you want to lock yourself in your room and just have some peace and quiet, but they rarely let you. They always want you to play with them! I pray you girls will always be the best of friends throughout your whole life. You're getting a pretty good start on that! 

This will be your last year of VBS, your last year of T&T. I can't believe you're growing up so fast. Some days I love how responsible and mature you are becoming, and some days I can't help missing my little girl. 

I thank God every single day for you and pray that you will use your life, each and every day, for His glory. All your life I've asked Him to give you a heart for Him, and it is evident that He has. I love watching you learn and grow spiritually at Sunday School, church, Awana, even how you help out in the nursery once a month. You are learning to serve Him, and there is no better place to be than that. 

I pray that He will continue to bless you and help you grow into the young lady He wants you to be. Your personality has always been larger than life, and I know He is going to use you to do amazing things for Him. His light is in you. Shine brightly my baby girl. 

Love always, Mommy

Leftover Thursday

Peaches found Peanut's old chair and has been dragging it around all over. She loves to sit down and put Do-do right beside her and watch a "movie". 

 

Or read a book.

 Or just look cute. :)

Daddy was gone for three nights the other day for work and the girls took turns sleeping in my room and in a fort in the living room.

Peaches was awfully quiet one day...I thought she had gone downstairs with her sisters, but later realized she hadn't. When I went to find her she looked like this, "Did you get into your sister's lipstick?" I plead the 5th. :P

Happy Thursday! :)

Wordless Wednesday

Porchless

 Did I post these pictures already?? I could have SWORN I did, but I can't find them. If I did ignore this post. :P 

The other day Grandpa came over to help us out and we got started on the kitchen addition. The first order of business was tearing off the back porch. 

Demo!

That thing was on there! They finally had to saw through a bunch of boards and then wrap a chain around it before pulling it down with the pick up! It's nice to know our house is very sturdy!

Porchless!

We really wanted to open up this whole end of the house which meant putting a huge house-length beam across the whole back end. We didn't have a tractor to put it in place so Grandpa devised a pulley system and they were able to pulley it into place. This thing is HEAVY!

It took a while for them to work it into place but they did it. 

They put a post in the middle so it's nice and supported. 

Here's a before.

And a ...middle. The official "after" will be another month at least! T and Grandpa dug out last weekend and we've been prepping for footings all week. Hopefully the inspection will happen soon so we can get them poured and get on our way to pouring the walls. That 8 extra feet is going to make a big difference in our tiny kitchen! 

 

And at least we were able to cut down on our summer wasp population on the way! 

 

:P