Grace is a 9 year old Rock Star!!!

I really wanted to not have to have a party at our house. It's a lot of work and clean up on my part. But, Grace wanted a party and the parties on location are just so expensive. So, Aunt Joni came up with the idea for a Rock Star party. Grace loved it! They made signs for every room, like "Green Room" for the kitchen, "Dressing Room" for her bedroom, "Make-up Room" for the bathroom, "Recording Room" for the stage area, etc. They made a big "Girls Rock" sign for the stage and "Rock Concert Tonight" sign for the front door. We decorated with foil streamers, balloons, gold stars and even a couple disco balls that I borrowed. We had a red carpet coming up to the front door and Reesi's new karaoke machine that Santa brought this year. Joni provided the fun music. We ordered pizza and I made cupcakes in a cone that looked like (or were supposed to) microphones. I froze strawberry Fanta in ice cube trays to drop in the Sprite for something special to drink. They all dressed like Rock Stars and put make-up on, glow in the dark nail polish and Rock Star tattoos. They danced and sang and ran all over the place all night long! We had two separate sessions of walking the red carpet. Joni played the part of announce with her echo microphone and announced each girl on the carpet. I played the part of paparazzi and snapped pictures. I kept watching the neighbors windows to see if they were looking out to see what was going on. The girls were really wild and really loud! We started the movie "High School Musical" around 9:45pm to try and calm them down. It didn't work exactly as I had planned but a few did sit and watch it. We have 4 girls spend the night. I finally sat on the floor and kept them quiet until they fell asleep around 12:30am. They had a blast. I was exhausted and spent a LONG time cleaning up the next day. Poor Jingle Bell was played with the entire night and next morning but she was a trooper and didn't get mad and bite anyone, thank goodness. She slept on the couch the next day from about 10am to 1:30pm when I had to put her in her crate because we were going somewhere.

This little notebook was a gift from that night. Grace wrote a diary entry in it the next day. This makes all the effort and work worth it. I'm so glad she had a good party!

Sleepover

A couple of weeks ago I got a text on Thursday morning asking if Grace wanted to spend the night with a friend on Friday. Before I could get an answer back to her another mom texted asking if Grace would spend the night with them. They are all friends with each other so I invited them both over to spend the night at our house rather than choose one friend over the other. So, the impromptu sleepover started on Friday afternoon. They were all very excited. They had pizza and breadsticks for dinner but then decided they wanted to have a tea party. We did a tea party birthday for Grace when she turned 6 years old so I have a bunch of tea cups and tea pots and things perfect for a tea party. They didn't care for the tea though so they ended up drinking sprite from the tea cups. The next morning they had another "tea party" with pancakes and OJ for breakfast. They had a great time.

She pulled it herself

Grace does not like to lose teeth. She's always afraid it will hurt even though after each one she says it's didn't hurt. Well, she had a tooth she couldn't deny anymore. After a few nights of worrying about it she wanted it out but it was already time for bed. I told her if she would hurry up and pull it I would take them to get ice cream the next day. I didn't think she would really do it! But she did! So, here are the pictures from us at Tasti Delite. Joni and Elye and Mimi were with us. Elye wouldn't stop eating her bowl of toppings long enough to take a picture. You can't really see where she is missing a tooth. It is the one right next to her two front teeth on the top.

Justice

Grace was given a gift card from Justice for Christmas from her aunt Angela. Here is a picture of her choices. She bought this cute hat and fun clip with feathers.

Our newest addition

Our sweet Rebel passed away the Thursday after Halloween 2011. He had turned 13 years old on October 17. He had a heart condition and we knew the time was coming but I really thought we would take him to the vet to be put asleep. But, his heart gave out that morning and I found him in our room right before I was leaving to take the girls to school and go to work. It was a not a fun morning. But the girls quickly started asking if they could get a puppy. So, they asked Santa for a puppy and we woke up Christmas morning to find a puppy. They finally decided to call her Jingle Bell. She is a Maltese shihtzu. She is cute but bites on everybody and everything! Here are a few pictures from Christmas morning.

Giving it another go...

This year one of my new year's resolutions is to blog again. To be honest, I am glad 2011 is over. Last year was hard and it kept me from blogging at all. I regret it so much. I took pictures but I have no words to go with them. My blog books are among my favorite possessions and I really want to have one from every year. I will still try to make one for 2011 but I'm sure there will be much less wording along with the pictures. So, I will try my best to blog so that I don't forget the daily events and adventures of my two crazy girls!

Lyla at 6yrs old

Here is another post I never actually posted but wrote in August.

Lyla at 6 years old:

*has a terrific smile

*is fearless and will try anything

*can climb a tree really well

*has tons of energy

*won't wear anything remotely girly, basically lives in vbs tshirts

*still says her "r" like a "w"

*still loves Scooby doo

*still loves Carnation Instant Breakfast every morning as hot chocolate

*still loves to ride bikes, run fast, climb everything, and basically be wild

*still likes to play cars, pirates, and construction worker

*draws a little more than she used to but not very much

*weighs 41 pounds (25%) and is 45.5 inches tall (52%)

*loves to explore the river

*is turning into a picky eater

*when you ask her "What's up?" she says "good" every time

*is a red belt in karate, the highest ranking belt for her age group

*played softball for the first time and like it

*she bats right handed even though she's left handed

*still prefers to play with boys

*still loves her friend Ford

*is a good swimmer and loves the ocean and will "ride" the big waves

*is still NOT a morning person

*hasn't lost any teeth and doesn't even have a loose tooth yet (Aug.)

*likes to take pictures with my camera

*will eat peanut butter and jelly every day

*loves to have us come eat lunch with her at school

*cries when she's mad or her feelings are hurt, not when she's physically hurt