Happy 9th Birthday, Briana!

Yesterday was Briana's 9th birthday.  I know!  Nine!  She was just born yesterday, so I'm not quite sure how this happened.  She wanted to open her presents before school, so we got up early and opened presents over some delicious cheese bagels.
 

Since Briana's birthday also happened to be on the last day of school, she got to take in treats for her class on her actual birthday, which has never happened before.  So it was pretty much the best day of school ever.  The girls got out at noon, so we took them out for lunch, and spent the rest of the afternoon playing with Briana's new stuff. 
At one point during the afternoon, Briana went up to her room to play while Sydney and I went outside to work on a craft.  Briana came tearing out the back door screaming "THERE'S A HUGE BEE IN MY ROOM!!!"  So, I ran upstairs with Briana on my heels telling me, "I don't know what it was, but it was huge!  And red!  And it was buzzing!"  I looked all over her room and found nothing so I told her to be on hightened alert and to come and tell me if she heard it again.  Our mysterious red bee didn't reappear until bedtime, in the form of a housefly, this time in Sydney's bedroom.  "There is no way I'm going to be able to sleep in here with a fly!" Sydney told me through tears as we read her bedtime story.  "I'll send Daddy up to get it," I replied, passing the buck. Mike came down about five minutes later, hollering over his shoulder "Well, sleep in the hall then!  I can't find it!"  An hour or so passed, and I was ready to go up to bed myself.  This is what was waiting for me in my room.

Not one, but two girls terrified of a little fly.  Mike picked up Briana and took her back to her bed, and I picked up Sydney to take her back to her bed.  In her sleepy state, she opened her eyes, looked at me and said "did you kill the fly?" and promptly fell right back asleep in my arms. 
Happy Birthday, Briana!!!

Taylor Swift

Saturday night, Shannon and I took our girls to see Taylor Swift.  It was my girls first real concert, and they could hardly wait!  They spent a long time making posters and tshirts to wear to the concert.  I also found this cute setup in Sydney's room a few hours before we left. 

It's Barbie and Ken holding up their Taylor Swift posters, and Sydney's Taylor Swift doll performing.  This was the cutest thing!

Shannon and Savannah came over before the show and we sprayed the girls hair all pink and sparkly.  Can you tell they're excited?

Once we got to the Quest, we got some cute pictures and got in the never ending line for tshirts.

After that, we found our seats and the countdown for Taylor began.

Did I mention that the girls all painted the number 13 on the back of their hands? 

Yep.  Because 13 is Taylor Swift's lucky number, and she also has it on her hand when she's performing! 

Once Taylor did start her performance, the girls were in heaven.  IN HEAVEN.  I don't think I have ever seen Sydney so happy in her entire life. 

The girls held up their hearts just like Taylor does, and they swayed their hands back and forth, singing along to every song.  It was great.

They held their posters up too.

The concert itself was really quite awesome.  There were people dropping down from the ceiling and popping up out of the floor, and every song had cool dancers and actors.  And, Taylor had a lot of outfit changes, and that girl can change her clothes fast! 

Sydney told me right when the show was over that it was the best thing that has ever happened to her!  Then she told me the same thing at least three more times when we got home.  The day after the concert, Briana told me she wished she could go back to yesterday and go to the concert all over again because it was the best day of her life! 

So, I'd say they liked it!

Wildlife Refuge

As I'm sure everyone remembers, we have had quite a lot of wild animals in our back yard.  We've had the usual rabbits (what's left of them anyways), squirrels and birds.  We've also opened our backyard to possums, raccoons, wild turkeys, and several stray dogs and cats.  We've also housed many, many mice. 
Yesterday, I went outside with my two sleepy girls and opened up the big umbrella to give us some shade and a huge wasp flew out.  "Great," I told them, "we're probably going to have a wasps nest in there."
So today we were in the back yard when I noticed what looked like a bunch of mouse droppings on the patio table.  "What the heck it that?" I asked Mike.
"Probably rolled mud for the wasps nest," he replied. 
He proceded to open the umbrella, stuck his head inside expecting to see a wasp.  Or several wasps.  Instead, he saw this.

A BAT!!!  The girls and I dashed into the house, leaving Mike to fend for himself.  He opened the umbrella again, very slowly this time (and took the picture I insisted he get), and the bat flew right out. 
By the way, my guard dog Ellie?  I'm pretty sure she didn't notice a thing.

We survived!!!

Last night, we threw Briana her very first sleepover birthday party.  She decided she wanted to have a movie themed party, and this is what we came up with.We had movie concessions on the kitchen island (the popcorn machine was a huge hit!).

We turned our family room into the movie theater. 

Complete with a ticket booth!

We made a really cute poster for all of Briana's friends to sign for her.  And we had silver and gold balloons.

Anyway, on to the actual slumber party. I had envisioned her friends coming over and quietly watching the movies we picked out.  Maybe staying up till midnight talking (quietly) and that would be that.
Nope. 
The girls were CRAZY!  They screamed and ran around for what seemed like forever.  In fact, my ears were ringing last night from the decibal level in our house.  I don't think I've ever experienced anything like it except for maybe at a concert. 
We did manage to play the games and do the activities we had planned out, but it was all such a whirlwind of activity and screaming! 

Guess what time they went to sleep?  5 a.m.  Guess what time I went to sleep? 4 a.m.    

Happy Birthday, Briana!

Jen Lancaster

Last night, Shannon and I drove down to Kansas City to meet Jen Lancaster!  It was so, so fun.  We went out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory before we went to the book signing.  Even though we have a Cheesecake Factory here, I've never eaten there before, and needed to drive all the way to KC to check it out.  It was really good.  We got martinis called Girl Talk, which were delicious. 

I got a tomato basil pasta for dinner, which was equally as delicious.  After dinner, we walked over to Unity Temple to meet Jen.  She rocked!  She was funny, cute and awesome (a lot like me!).

She did a reading from her book, q & a from the audience (why can't I ever think of something to ask when I go to these things???), and then she signed books. 



And she told me it was nice to meet me! 

So, all in all, a fantastic girls night out.

WINNER!! WINNER!!

A very mysterious package arrived at my front door yesterday.  The return address said it was from Sample Room.  I sign up for a lot of online coupon deals, so I couldn't imagine what would be in this big box.  Cereal samples, maybe?  Nope.  The package didn't turn out to be for me at all. 

It was all Briana's, and it was her Duck Tape Prize Pack!!  From coming in 9th place in the HyVee duck tape contest!!  She was so, so, so excited about it!  It came with a congratulatory letter and everything.

The contents of the box were immediately dumped and sorted. 

And then they were organized by color and design.

Briana was a very good big sister and shared a couple rolls with Sydney!

Yay!!!

Crazy Hair Day