My Princess Hailey is 5

Hailey is finally 5 (as of August 24th, I am late putting it on the blog)! She had waited for her birthday for months, and is already excited for her 6th Birthday but I think that is how it goes with kids.

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She went back and forth between what, and where she wanted her party but a Princess Party finally stuck. She was so excited to invite her cute little Princess, and Pirate, friends.

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As you may know, cakes have became a huge thing in our home. I had her pretty princess cake planned for quite some time and I was really excited to make it. I guess reality and busyness kicked in and it did not turn out anything like I planned. The thing that counts is Hailey loved it and was excited to have princesses on her cake. She was kinda dissappointed that there was not a pirate on the cake holding the princess, but you take what you can get I guess.

Each of the guests had their own royal throne where they did a couple of fun crafts.

Tavis was so excited that he was the only boy and was going to be a pirate. He made this cute eyepatch and colored a pirate.

A pinata was a MUST at the party. Hailey was so excited when she found the pinata and helped me stuff it with their fun goody bags full of fun princess, or pirate toys.

Ashley was in charge of the games. We played pin the apple on the tree, hot crown (like hot potato), 7-11 (a must have at our parties) and freeze dance.

All of our little Princesses, and Pirate, looked wonderful and so cute.

I love you Hailey. You are such a special part of our family!

Girls Under Construction - Stake Activity Day

I have the opportunity of being the Primary Presidency Member that is over the Activity Day Girls in our ward. They are the girls between the ages of 8 and just before they turn 12. Our stake put on their first Stake Activity Day which they named "Girls Under Construction." Hailey and I were chaperone's.

Hailey, Ashley, Ariane Boinay and Lindsay registering for their fun day.
While all of the girls were still showing up they got into their groups and made cute hair ties. Lindsay was the pink group so she made pink hair ties.
Hailey and I went around with the red group. This class was so much fun. The girls learned about modesty in a class they called, "Making Fashion your Style" and had a lot of clothes to make modest outfits out of. The other classes were, "Building a Grateful Heart" where they made thank you cards and learned the importance of having Gratitude. "Being the Best You" where they learned that they are Gods Gift and how to take care of your bodies. They had an adorable paper doll that they were able to play with. The last class was, "Building a Stronger Family." In this class they learned the importance of Family Home Evening.
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Hailey, Lindsay and Ashley enjoying lunch. After lunch they had a huge game of Missionary tag. Each girl received a keepsake book that they could share their thoughts and feelings of the day on it. I was very touched by Ashley's book where she wrote, "I had sooooo much fun today. I met quite a few new friends. The thing that I was touched about was that I have not seen so many girls learning about our Heavenly Father."
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I am so thankful for wonderful programs like this that the church has for our children to learn that they are Daughters of God and that they are Special.

Ward Campout 2009

I absolutely love our ward and I really love our ward camp outs. They are always so much fun for the kids to get together with their friends from church. Mitchell had to work late so he met me at the campsite later that night so the girls and I got to put the tent together by ourselves. I have to say it is one of the most complicating tents to put together so I guess I looked really lost and a couple of our friends came over and put it up for me. :)

For dinner the girls wanted something special other then hot dogs so I marinated beef and we had shish-ka-bobs and I placed corn on the cob in foil and placed it on the hot coals. It was wonderful. One of our friends brought ribs and they were to die for! I later found out that she bought the ribs and reheated them. The cheater :)
For dessert Mitchell decided to roast his Twinkie. I would not recommend it to anyone, it was pretty gross and mushy.

Right behind our campground was a beautiful creek or stream that was not flowing but it was freezing cold. The girls had fun sitting in it and Lindsay was brave enough to try the rope swing.

Bikes were a huge hit also with the girls. It was fun riding around on different trails. Hailey had fun playing at the park.

On the way home from our camp out we stopped at the Tillamook Forest Center.

You can walk down to the creek where the girls found a lot of tadpoles.

Inside Hailey liked to look at an up close view of some bugs.

Lindsay and Ashley did a scavenger hunt and for it they were able to get a prize in the treasure chest.

We had such a great time with friends and just being able to hang out together without cell phone service for a couple of hours.

National Night Out 2009

I absolutely love our National Night Out party that I do each year for our residents. My boss gives me $450.00 and I get to do whatever I want with it and buy what I want for the party. I was so excited for this years since I was going to do a Magician theme. I met Rudy at Out of this World Pizza while he was going around performing magic tricks at the tables and I knew that I had to have him come to our party. I was really happy to see that he was $75 for the night.

To get ready for the party I looked online and found a lot of fun things at Oriental Trading Companies website. I ordered magic tricks, a Black top hat with a rabbit coming out of it pinata, glitter sticky hands, candy wands, magic playing cards and magic party tattoos.

His magic show was a huge hit. The kids loved it and so did the adults. I had a couple of residents tell me that this year was their favorite party yet, and I have put on five. I was excited about that.

Rudy is such a ham. Here he is doing a trick with a shook up can of soda.

Lindsay was lucky enough to be one of his helpers. She is dumping salt out of her shoe that she just took off her foot. How did salt get in there?
We also get the opportunity of having the local law enforcement come and be a part of our party. They bring all sorts of fun toys for the kids like whistles, lights for your bike, magnets, Frisbees, back to school kits and pencils. McGruff is always a hit with the little kids. He even sat and watched some of the magic show.

Rudy also brought some balloons to make for the kids. Hailey got this powerful sword that had to be pink. Lindsay came home with a cute monkey that I did not get a picture of.

Sitting on the motorcycle is always fun. Ashley was able to turn the siren on also.

It is always fun coming up with different fun things for the residents to do. This party makes being a manager all worth it.

Blogging Rut

For some reason I have been in a blogging rut and I am not sure why. I think it has to do with being so busy with summer ending, school starting, soccer, Primary Program reharsals and everything else that I cram into my day. It could also be due to the fact that my computer that has like 1200 pics on it just crashed (smoke came out of my laptop and now I can not turn it on) and I am dumb and did not back it up so everything is gone. Luckily I have a friend that knows how to fix computers but not sure if it will work. I guess I did not learn my lesson when my other computer crashed four years ago.

I promise to soon post pics, if they by some miracle are still on my camera, of 1st day of school, Hailey's 5th Birthday, Ashley's 9th Birthday and more.