Prayer-we take out our basket full of 2011 Christmas cards that we just received in December and pick one family to pray for.

Decor-the manners candle.  I saw this on Pinterest and knew I needed it for Asher.  He needs a physical reminder to sit still and eat.  James has to sit by him and practically feed him so he will continually eat, otherwise, he is under the table or hanging off the chair.  The candle stays lit if he is chewing and sitting still.  We just started this in January, so we obviously haven’t had our candle melt down to the bottom yet.  But when it does, we will all go out to ice cream that night!  The candle has been blown out  a few times at the beginning of dinner, so we have a ways to work on this, but I think once Asher succeeds at getting the candle completely melted, he will get it!

Conversation-We start with our Rose and our Thorn (or Touchdown and Turn over for James and Asher).  It’s our high and low of the day.  We also ask what’s their Secret of the day-what is one thing they don’t think they should tell us, but we would want to know.  It’s always pretty interesting what they come up with- “This boy hugged me on the playground” or “so and so told me she won’t be my friend anymore if I don’t give her my bracelet.”  And one important rule about their secret:  they won’t get in trouble for telling us!  (When you send your kids to public school, you gotta do what you gotta do to keep open lines of communication!)  ;)

James and I also use dinnertime to look over their work from school and talk about it.  They get the biggest smiles on their faces when we give them credit for what they are working hard on at school.  And it’s fun to read things like (from Rilyn), “If I found a magic wand I would turn everybody into an Aggie.  I would be in paradise.  Really.  My dad would be so proud of me.”  :)  Or Ella’s paper, When I grow up I want to be a “piss” (princess).  :)

Another part of our conversation is from these cards I found free online and printed!  We pick one to read each night and each take a turn to answer.  There is like 300 cards so make sure you have ink in your printer!

And last, we try to read the Word during dinner.  We have used these great books, The Big Book of Questions and Answers A Family Devotional Guide to the Christian Faith and the simpler version for younger children, My 1st book of Questions and Answers as resources to discuss short topics from the Bible.  Because this is February 1st though, we are starting our Valentine Countdown verses to discuss at dinner!  :)

Asher’s first family portrait-3.9 years old

Ella: Her teacher’s aide came up to me yesterday when I was at school volunteering and told me that Ella made her day when she told her, “I don’t believe in luck, only blessings.”

Here is Ella’s first “book report” in kindergarten. At least she’s honest!

“Because it was short and it was boring.”

Rilyn: She wrote us a chore list recently because she wants to save money to help buy an iPad for her birthday in June. (I guess 8 year olds have iPads these days!) Anyway, so she wants a regular weekly allowance, (currently we pay her by the chore.) We decided that we would pay her $7 a week because she is 7 and we told her to write down some chores that would be good for her to do each week. This is what she gave us:  (of course my favorite is #8!)  ;)

Writing prompt:  What rules do you have to follow at your house?  ”I have to do the laundry and the dishes.  Boring!  I also have to do my homework right away.  We can not murder.  I can not be guilty of adultery.  I can not steal.”  (This one cracks me up!  She knows her Ten Commandments, doesn’t she?  I wonder what her teacher was thinking when he read this?!)

Writing prompt:  What do you like about your style?  ”I like my style because I think I look cool.  I have a lot of make-up at home.  But there’s something else more important, my belief in God.  Now that’s important.”

Writing prompt:  What do you like best about your appearance?  ”I like my appearance.  I think I look good.  But God cares about the inside of your heart.”

A Christmas Poem by Rilyn

“Under this tree are presents you know

But the real Christmas is real without a doubt

It’s about a little boy you see that came down from heaven

He’s the King of Kings

See the star up top?

That represents Jesus.

There’s a clue.”

Love this girl’s heart for Jesus!

And just because it’s cute to remember:

I was checking her spelling homework and one of her words was “recall”. The sentence she wrote was “We called him and he didn’t answer, so we recalled him.”  :)

She had to write a sentence for “focus”, her sentence was, “I focus on my testes.” That extra “e” can really change things, dear…

contemplating what mommy is telling him to do

And he’s off!

air Asher!

splash down!

up

DOWN!!

so happy!

When I was tired of the people in cars driving by staring at me for being the crazy woman who was taking pictures of her son soaking wet in the freezing cold, we moved to the backyard!

it was a tad bit more muddy

which meant even more fun!

KA-BOOM

I’m pretty sure this one soaked Asher’s face and we were done.

Welcome to my party!

The decoration above actually came about because as I was opening Ella’s Barbie Rapunzel tower from the box, I noticed that the packing material they used looked like Rapunzel’s hair. But I thought, it’s brown so I can’t use it. Then I remembered the 90 foot gold ribbon I bought last year for Ella’s golden birthday and thought I could wrap it around and make it look more yellow and like it was in a braid!    I thought it turned out pretty cute!

My mother in law and sister in law made this beautiful 17 foot Rapunzel tower for the backyard!  I was completely surprised at how elaborate it came out!!  They are so talented!  If you are interested in something so elaborate or crafty for your next special event, please visit my sister in law’s etsy store and message her and I promise she can make it happen!

And this is Ella when we let her see the tower for the first time!

wow!!!!

My sister in law also made this beautiful table centerpiece!

My best friend, Jen, discovered she has a cupcake decorating passion and did these beautiful Rapunzel tower cupcakes for me that we found on Pinterest! All the directions are here.

For the “pin the frying pan on Flynn” game, I printed these pans and just drew Flynn myself on poster board using Google images of the wanted poster from the movie.  (Growing up, I used to draw all my siblings “pin the tail” game posters, so I really enjoy it!)

To see all the party games, etc. from this party, click here.

James put his video talents to use and made a 2 minute montage video of Ella’s party!  It’s really cute!

the cupcakes were Rapunzel towers!

The first activity we did (while the princesses were arriving) was “decorate your own Rapunzel braid with fun foam flowers”! I made all these braids with yellow yarn. Super easy, but if you want to do it, I would suggest starting several weeks in advance as it is time consuming. I started in November, so I could make one a night in my free time!

decorating their braids!

Ella’s braid was the longest because she was the birthday girl! We attached the braids with bobby pins and a rubber band, but you could use anything.

fancy!

After all the princesses arrived, we made them close their eyes and walk to the backyard to unveil the tower!

wow!

And who was in the tower, but the birthday girl Ella!

Next, we had each girl paint a small paper lantern with their own set of watercolors (given as party favors)!

During that time, we let each girl “climb the tower” (or walk upstairs!) and get a picture in the tower window with the long hair (which were 5 plastic yellow tablecloths taped together that I bought at the dollar store.)
After they painted their lanterns, we played a Tangled game where each girl got a partner and they had to tangle their partner in yellow crepe paper in the allotted time! The judges decided which girl was the most Tangled and then they switched and let the other partner get Tangled!

I think Rilyn was letting out some sister frustration here!

all Tangled up!

The next game we played was “Pin the Pan on Flynn’s nose”!

Then it was time for cupcakes! I bought a sparkler instead of candles for the first time and I think Ella was surprised, don’t you?

what is this?

She tried to blow it out, but sparklers don’t “blow” out!

“Just hold it and watch the sparks” we told her…she looked a little nervous though!

am I going to get burned?!?

Enjoying the treats!

Then it was present time! I think Ella liked getting a Flynn doll!

And the last game we played was “throw Pascal into the frying pan”. I bought a 10 pack of sticky lizards and made the girls stand behind a line to see how many each girl could throw into the pan.

I guess it was a pretty exciting game from Cinderella’s face!  Do you see the blue Pascal flying through the air?

In the evening, we let her pick one friend, Anna, and we took them to Gattiland for dinner!

I’m six!

whooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

They were all finally tall enough to drive bumper cars!  This was their favorite by far!

This next picture concerns me, because if I wasn’t so busy trying to get a good picture, I would of realized what a dangerous situation having that baby in the carrier so close to the crazy bowler next door! Ella’s balls were flying everywhere! Thank goodness, no one got hurt!

daddy helps Ella score big points!

Ella was the “score keeper” for Rilyn and Anna. She loved cheering them on!

After Gattiland, we went home to open her “big present”. (Can you tell I like to spread the birthday fun through the whole day?)

This was an empty box. We had set it up upstairs so I told Ella wait until I got upstairs and then she could come up and see her new Tangled Barbie tower!

wow!

Who knew that Rilyn would be even more excited than Ella?!? Having sisters close in age means their presents are your presents too!

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

love the clip on hair extension for Rapunzel Barbie!

The tower opens up to reveal three rooms to play in.

play time!

Can’t wait for Ella’s Tangled party!!

trying to wake up…!

still trying…

blowing out her six candles!

Then our kids get to bust through lots of crepe paper to get to the kitchen to eat their breakfast treat!

At breakfast, the kids get to read their birthday cards from me and James and open a couple presents. I don’t remember when, but somehow, (I just can’t imagine why?!?) James and I turned making homemade birthday cards for our kids into a competition. This year, I’m pretty sure I won.  I might have spent some extra time on the crafting blogs and found a super fun idea! So, here are our cards…(mine is the super cute one…okay, they are both cute, but mine is the bigger one and bigger is always better, right?!)  We both chose Tangled cards because Ella will be having a Tangled party on Saturday!

Now here is why mine is so fun: I found this blog where it showed how to make a “scratch off card”. So easy too! I made the windows on the tower scratch-offs for Ella to use a coin and see who is in each window!

scratching, scratching, scratching…

Look who is in the tower!

“I love mommy’s card best!”  jk, she didn’t say that, but she might of been thinking it.  ;)

Ella with one of her presents!

here’s to hoping I didn’t just give Ella a future of cavities!