Mom's 60th Birthday Party

My mom just turned 60 last week and we had a celebration for her. My parents love to dance, in fact they met at a dance in high school and the rest is history. So we had a 50's sock hop type party with dinner and dancing. The gym looked great. The food was excellent. The dancing and entertainment was fun. I wish I had done more to help, but I'm glad you had a wonderful birthday party Mom. You deserve it! You are amazing and I love you!!!!

So here are some pictures for those of you who might have missed the rockin' party.

Joshua, Jacob, and Mike testing out and setting up the punch bowl

Jane and Mikayla in their cute outfits. Mikayla still fit into her skirt from my dad's party 2 years ago. It was a tad shorter, but worked! Jane passed her skirt on to Alice and I bought a new outfit for her.

The birthday girl, Nancy, my dad (Kerry), and my nephew, Jacob

Alice sampling the party favors (Sorry it's a little blurry). I had fun sewing an "A" and a "J" on her and Jane's shirts.

Jane and her friend Sami dancing (kind of)

My mom loves music. She especially loves to sing and harmonize with us. We've been singing since I can remember. And one of the songs I remember singing a lot was "You are my sunshine." In fact when I started to learn the guitar, that was the first song I wanted to learn to play. Come to find out, it is very easy to play (Yay for me!). So I thought it would be neat for Jane and I to sing it for my mom. I practiced singing it with Jane at home and told her we would sing it for Gramma at her birthday party. Jane agreed. So the time came and she was ready. I asked her if she wanted to hold the mic and she said, "Yes!" She did a great job.

Me, Mom, Kim

And here's the video of the song

Last Halloween Pictures I promise!!!

Halloween night we went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. I knew the girls wouldn't last too long, so we only were hitting a few houses. We started with a couple we met a few years ago and they were excited to see the girls. Then we knocked to the end of the street and back to our house. Jane was done. Then Kevin and Jane stayed out front on the porch swing and handed out candy while I gave Alice a bath. We didn't have too many trick or treaters and we were the only ones out at 6:30 in our neighborhood. As it got darker, more people came out. The girls had fun.

Kevin concentrating on getting Alice's nose just right! His makeup was a lot simpler that night.

Kevin and the girls

Me and the girls

Jane's first French braid

Jane and Alice go to gym class every Tuesday morning and one of the things Jane has to do is wear her hair up. Which we all know is a hard thing for Jane. Well this morning she asked me to put her hair in a ponytail before we went to gym class. Amazing! As I was brushing her hair I asked her if I could braid it and she said yes and was all excited about it. I turned on some Qubo and did a really quick French braid. I didn't want to press my luck on taking to long with perfection, but I was ecstatic that she let me do it without a fight. She looked at herself in the mirror and proudly said, "I'm going to show my teacher my braid." Which she did as soon as she saw her teacher. Too funny. I don't think her teacher really understood what she was saying, but I knew and I felt good.

And because I don't know when she'll let me do it again, I documented well. Just thought I'd share. Oh, as soon as we got back in the car after gym class, the braid came out! At least it stayed in for an hour and a half. It's progress and it gives me hope for future hair dressing opportunities.

As a side note for any interested, the reason I'm so excited is because I love to do hair. I was the official basketball team French braider in high school. Whenever I see my little sister Beth, if her hair is long enough, I always braid it at least once. And I used to do all our Barbie's hair too. So I was thrilled to have little girls to do their hair, but for the last 3 years I haven't wasted time battling Jane over doing her hair, so I figured one day she would ask. And finally those days are starting to come. And that is why I am so excited! Plus she looks so cute!

Trunk-or-Treat

This year I was trying to come up with a theme for our costumes. We had so much fun last year as super heroes that I wanted another themed one as long as we can. Once the girls start having an opinion I'll be out of luck. Anyway, I started off thinking we could all be a mother goose character, bo peep, Jack and Jill, Miss Muffett, etc. Then Jane heard my idea and said she wanted to be a lost sheep. I thought for a moment and said, "That could work. I'll be Little Bo Peep, the girls can be the sheep, and Kevin'll be the big bad wolf." And that's what we did.

Jane was excited enough to let me try out her outfit a week in advance. So much easier this year than last. She wouldn't even wear her cape last year! And because of Jane's cooperation, Alice was pretty much on board too! Yay!!!!

Alice the cute little lamb. Kevin said she reminded him of the Pixar short sheep who got sheered and then danced. Too funny.

Kevin did his own makeup. It scared Alice. Everytime he walked by at home Alice would lay down. Then finally she started crying and clung to me for a while. She got used to him by the end of the night though.

My costume was a hodgepodge of a lot of stuff I already had. The only thing I sewed were my bloomers. I put 3 rows of lace on each one. Not too shabby.

The girls ready to get some candy!

The only way to keep Alice from tearing off her ears was to keep a lollipop in her mouth. She was wired by the end of the evening and very sticky.

Family picture

Tasting the goodies. Alice also tried some root beer, which spilled all down the front of her.

Jane busy passing out the candy. She made me say "Trick-or-Treat" to get some candy.

The Big Bad Wolf

Attacking one of the lambs. Jane thought it was pretty funny.

Ready for bed and happy!

Hanging out with the Family

Jane got to sing in our Primary Program last week, so all the family came to Sacrament meeting. It was a nice treat. I had tons of help during Sacrament meeting for a change! After dinner at our house, Kevin and Steve took the RC cars for a spin in the street.

Kyle and Alice looking on

Jane with the car and Kyle wondering what's going on

Alice watching the car zoom by

Papa Terry reading with Alice. It was such a cute picture. Thank you Grandma and Papa Terry, Steve, Valerie and Kyle for visiting. We had a great time and miss you tons. Come again soon! We love you!!!!