Shtuff

I am feeling soooooo lazy these days. It is Hotter than Hades around here lately. My thermometer currently reads 99 degrees.

Yup. 99 degrees. It makes me s.l.o.w and sluggish and gives me a lack in motivation, which, I really need right now. I still haven't replaced the winter clothes in my kids' drawers with summer clothes (I really should be digging those out right now...) and I think Baron is running around outside somewhere with a long sleeved shirt on and some shorts from last summer that are way too small. And I'm sure he's covered in melted popsicle...

Well anyway, here's a little hodgepodge of stuff going on around here. First of all, this cute little dog:
hit her goal weight. If that confuses you, you can read about it HERE. She's healthy as can be now and acts like a puppy entirely too much of the time for my liking. Oh well, we'll keep her. I guess :)

She also just had her 3rd birthday. We gave her a treat cake and she snarfed them up so fast (it's been awhile since she had treats.... her diet, remember? :) that I thought she would puke. Luckily, they didn't make a re-appearance.



Okay, you might need to sit down for this one.... I mean, if you're not already, that would be kind of weird, but just the same.

I planted some flowers.

I'll give you a few seconds to get over your shock....

Are you ready yet? Okay, well then, let me tell the truth. I bought flowers and Andy planted them (that landscaping job 7 years ago did come in handy!)

Alright, back to my flowers :) I had a friend tell me that at Lowe's they have a little "flowers in distress" section (cute way to put it, no?) and all the flowers are 75% off. I have really been wanting to spruce up our yard but it's hard seeing as how we rent and I don't want to waste money on landscaping a place I don't own. Well, I found a bunch of flowers (that didn't seem too bad for being in "distress") and I found a few huge pots, added a couple hanging baskets and a cute place to hang them and voila! A 100% improvement. I really like driving up to my house now and seeing all of the happy, bright colors sitting on my porch and in front of my house. I love flowers.

Cute, right? Okay, well, even if you think they look like pooh, just tell me they're cute :)

And last, but certainly not least, we have this crazy fog. These pictures were taken only a few days ago. Isn't it so weird? I've been getting up at 5:30 to go running (with a friend and also my trusty pup) in the mornings (good thing I pay $65/month for a gym membership....) and last Monday I went out and saw this: It was kinda creepy. It was so thick I could practically chew it. Plus, by the time I finished running, my hair was a huge frizz ball. Yikes.

Not much else has been going on. We've gone swimming a lot since the pool opened. The last day of school is tomorrow and in a week and a half we take off for a looooong vacation to Utah. I can't wait, I am really excited to be lazy and let my mom take care of me :) In other news, Andy's job is going awesome, the kids are just so dang cute and I want to eat them up, and we're all happy and healthy. What a life.... I sure love mine.

A Red Carpet Affair

Laylah turned 8, and we had a party, oh yes, we did!

I have to go back a bit. Ever since I had children, I dreamed about their 8th birthday party (seriously, call me crazy, but I really did). We have a tradition in my family that when you turn 8, you get to have your birthday party at The Lion House. My cousins did it, my sisters did it, and I did it. It was one of my very favorite birthday parties and I have wonderful memories of that special day. Well, as soon as we found out that we'd be moving away from Utah (and The Lion House) one of the first things I thought was, "Oh no! What am I going to do for my kids' 8th birthday parties?!" I know, so silly. But, needless to say, I wanted to do an awesome and memorable birthday party for this special age.

Once again, my dear, party-genius friend Ira helped Laylah and I come up with a great party idea and we were excited to put it all together. We decided on a Hollywood Red Carpet theme. It was so much fun and it all went smashingly.

For the invites, everyone had their "ticket" to get into the Red Carpet Premiere. They also recieved their Hollywood Star with their name on it.

Each invite was full of stars and movie-themed confetti (I'm sure all of the parents just loved when their daughters opened it up ;)

Invites were signed, sealed and delivered


The evening of the party, we were ready for all of the starlets to arrive on the red carpet...

And into Hollywood...


The red carpet continued into the "lounge"

The VIP dining (find instruction on the cute balloon banner HERE)

Place settings along with special tickets for the premiere and concessions later on in the evening


A star-studded event

The craft station

Glam it up!

Our Hollywood cupcakes.... is that popcorn on top? Nope! Check it out HERE how to make these darling cupcakes

Food ready.... little finger sandwiches-ham and cheese on wheat, turkey wraps, and chicken salad on croissants, caesar salad, fruit kabobs with whipped fruit dip, chips and salsa, and sparkling, bubbly, pink lemonade

On the little black table are the goody bags filled with movie theatre treats (popcorn, fun size milk duds, and a big diamond ring.... well, ring pop, that is :)


We added these cute magnet frames to each of the girls goody bags after we added a picture we took at the party, and after they had a chance to dry.

After all the girls arrived, we started off at the craft table. We decorated our cute picture frames and also bejeweled sunglasses. After all, what's a celebrity without their sunglasses?!

When everyone was finished getting their craft on, we moved it to the VIP dining room and ate until we couldn't eat another bite!


Well, until the cupcakes came out! Then everyone made room for some treats after we sang Happy Birthday to the special girl.

When the cupcakes had disappeared off of everyone's plate we gathered to open gifts

(P.S. You might happen to notice my completely amazing, beautiful TURQUOISE piano in the background.... a post on that to come!)

The girls had a blast opening gifts and admiring Laylah's fun, new stuff.

We then moved it to the Glam Station where we did nails, make-up, and hair to get ready for the Paparazzi! Each girl received a gold and silver beaded necklace as well as a sparkly pink bow in their hair that also went home with them.

Cute girl ready to strut her stuff on the red carpet!

While we waited for the paparazzi to descend on the red carpet we took turns practicing our red carpet walks and poses. These girls are good!

I had several friends come with their cameras to be my paparazzi and the girls came walking down the red carpet and stopped to pose for pictures. They wore their glam,bejeweled glasses, sparkly bows, and lovely necklaces. They all looked fab!

I then took the girls up one by one so I could get a picture of them on their own and put that picture in their frame they had decorated to take home. We printed the pictures out before the party was over and I had just finished putting them all together when the parents arrived to take the girls home. Phew!

After the red carpet walk, it was time to go down to the premiere in the theatre room...


We converted the playroom into our theatre room and the movie of the night was none other then.... "Justin Bieber, Never Say Never" and the girls were thrilled!

Of course we had to have our movie treats:popcorn, soda, and fun size candy bars. Each girl got to add the cute striped (re-usable) straw to their goody bag to take home.

They all eagerly handed over their tickets to get into the movie and receive their goodies!

Completely enthralled with the movie

Ooohhh, cute Justin, nearly life-size in our play-turned-theatre-room :)

While I was upstairs putting the pictures and frames together and attempting to clean up a bit, I heard some shrieking and laughing. I ran downstairs to check on the girls and found them doing this:

Oh, so funny.

When the movie ended, we passed out stuffed to the brim goody bags and sent each decked out, darling diva, read-carpet walker, home with their parents.

It was a wonderfully fun party and Laylah had such a great time. The Hollywood Red Carpet Party was a success!