Murder Party for Marissa's Birthday

We had talked about doing a murder party for Marissa and her friends for a couple of years, but we never found the right date to do it.  Since this was going to be her last birthday in high school, I talked her into doing it.  Her friends were super excited about it, too.

 The opening, when Annie ("Sarah Social") welcomes everyone to the party and gives some directions.

Andrew ("Alan Algebra") won the prize for best dressed.  He did a great job of dressing up like a math nerd.

Alisha and Marissa.

Some of the girls get into acting.

"Bobby Backer" was the murder victim.

Trent (Peter Prez), Alicia (Gabby Backer) & Annie (Sarah Social) won the awards for best acting.

This is the 2nd party that I've done from this company and in 2 parties Rob is the only one that has guessed who the "murderer" was.  When he agreed to play, his objective was that he was going to figure out the murderer and he was completely convinced that he had done it.  I was glad that he was right!

The party was a definite success.  Marissa got many comments afterwards from her friends saying how much fun it was!

Marissa's 18th Birthday

For Marissa's birthday, the family went out to dinner.  The waitress took the drink orders and then she brought everyone back their drinks.  All of the kids drinks were in kids cups, including Marissa's. Marissa just started laughing and then she told the waitress that she was laughing because she got a kid's cup on her 18th birthday.  The waitress was really embarrassed and insisted on bringing her out a regular sized cup.  Marissa is a good sport about being treated like she is much younger than she is.

 The birthday cake.

 Getting ready to blow out the candles.  I

Rob watches to see if she can blow out all the candles on the first try.

Halftime Dancing

The high school dance team did a clinic where they taught the girls a dance to do during half time at the high school basketball game.  Reagan, Maddie, and Morgan were excited to participate.  It made it extra fun for them since Marissa's friend, Megan, was on the dance team.

 Reagan performs with the younger girls.  She did a good job of smiling.

 The ending pose.  Reagan does look like she know what she is doing.

 Maddie with her group.

Maddie did a really good job of smiling, too.

Morgan was in the middle school group.  The other 2 clinic participants were both 8th graders and they were much bigger than Morgan.  When Morgan performed with her group, it looked like a little kid participating with some of the dance team members.  Morgan was really animated and they had her do some tumbling.  When Morgan was doing the dance, one of Marissa's friends came running over to Marissa saying "I knew that had to be your sister, because she looks just like you!"

A pyramid with Morgan on top.  Morgan had a really great time and I had quite a few people come up to me and tell me that Morgan was the star of the show!

Valentines

The night before the parties, we got out some conversation hearts and let the kids practice stacking hearts so I could figure out what would work best for the party.  The kids were happy to help me with this project.

 Morgan stacking some hearts.

 A heart pyramid which Marissa made.

 At our school, the kindergarteners always do a Royal Banquet for the Valentines party.  I didn't get many pictures because I was too busy running the party.  I did get this picture of Reagan before she ate.

 The table is set for the Royal Banquet.

 Maddie stacking hearts.

 We did a relay where team members had to help dress the "model".  These boys were the models and they LOVED it!!  This game was definitely the biggest hit of the party.

 Some of the kids really struggled with this apple relay, but Maddie was really good at it.

Having fun with the Valentines loot after the parties.

Walk-a-thon

The elementary did a walk-a-thon for a fundraiser this year for the first time.  I went and helped most of the day and so Reagan and Nancy got to spend most of the day at the school as well.

Reagan and Nancy walking around the gym for fun.

The kindergarten program was last night and the risers were still up.  The girls had fun doing some of their program songs again.  The girls weren't even complaining that I was taking away their play time because they got to play at the school.

The kids had to walk in the halls so many of them were really excited to run fast when they got to the gym.  Maddie was definitely a runner.

In the afternoon, I didn't have as much help marking cards so it was harder for me to take pictures.   I did get this picture, though, of Reagan eating her snack.

Reagan's School Program

Reagan's school program was in the gym at the elementary school.

 Reagan is quite the ham.  She must have realized that I was taking her picture.

 Reagan did a great job of singing and doing the actions.

 Having a good time!!

It seems like she is a bit more animated then those around here, but it is probably because most of them are boys.

Making Valentines

Yesterday I was pretty sure that today was going to be a snow day so I got prepared. I got all of the supplies needed for these Valentines projects.

Reagan's kindergarten class is doing a Royal Banquet so I made wrist corsages for the girls and boutineers for the boys.
Reagan did these lip and moustache Valentines for the kids in her class. (I made them & Reagan signed them). Maddie took a poll in her class to see what kinds of Valentines her classmates would like. All of the boys wanted moustaches so we made moustaches for them. This was an idea we found on the internet.
We did these hearts for the girls. I found this idea on the internet as well. We copied the hearts onto regular paper and then filled them up with M&Ms and stapled around them. Maddie & Marissa made these.
Maddie demonstrates how you would open the Valentine and be a "heartbreaker"!

Snow Day #5

Wow, I never thought I'd see the day that some of my kids would be complaining about another snow day. If we have any more snow days, the kids may have to attend some make-up days. This was the last free snow day. It was very cold and snowed a ton. Mark got stuck getting out of the driveway to go to work. I chose to stay home all day and avoid getting stuck. Rob drove to wrestling in the 4 wheel drive truck. Marissa wanted to go to Megan's to play Killer Bunnies while Rob had wrestling so one of her friends came and picked her up in his 4 wheel drive truck.I had seen an idea for snow ice cream on the internet so Maddie is outside gathering snow for the ice cream.
Morgan has been having a great time finding new hairstyles on the internet lately. Morgan is fixing Maddie's hair while she is mixing up the ice cream.
Eating the kids ice cream. The kids liked it o.k. but the process of making it was the funnest. Marissa thought it would be better to just mix Kool-aid or something like that into snow.
Reagan taking a bite of the snow ice cream.
Rob had heard that you could take boiling water and throw it into the air and turn it into snow. The kids had a great time with this. The first time it turned out great. However, the 2nd time Maddie was standing by where Rob was throwing it and got some hot water on her and got some minor burns. It stressed us all out and that was the end of that experiment!

Super Bowl

Most of the time we don't watch tv on Sunday, but we decided today that we would watch the Super Bowl and make it a family event, at least for those of us who were home. Mark and Marissa were on their way back from Utah. I was going to do a post about their trip, but they took NO pictures. They went and did campus visits at BYU and Utah State. They went skiing in Logan, to a basketball game at BYU, to church at BYU and hung out with some friends at BYU. They also went to Mike & Heather's in Logan, spent 2 nights at George's and stopped by the superbowl party at Kim's house. It was a busy few days, but they had lots of fun.I had fun making some fun new recipes for the superbowl. I made 4 different flavors of cookie dough dip which we ate with animal crackers and apples.
M&M sugar cookies with Valentines M & Ms.
Seven layer dip - a recipe that we always make and the kids requested.
Pretzel Bites. I had never made these before and they were a huge hit!! I was excited to let Marissa try them as well, but the kids left them on the ground and Kate licked the remaining ones. I will just have to make them again for Marissa to try!!
The girls playing during the super bowl; not a whole lot of superbowl watching going on. Later in the game, Reagan was sitting by me during a commercial and I asked her to go get her pajamas on. She said, "Wait till the commercial is over and then I'll go".

Reagan's Gymnastics Meet

Reagan was so excited for her first gymnastics meet.I found a cute hairdo on the internet that would keep her hair out of her eyes. I fixed her hair and put curlers in it. Reagan set out all of her gymnastics stuff and then happily went to bed around 9 p.m. even though everyone else was up. She woke up the next morning on her own before 7 when she heard me up. We had to leave for the meet at 7:30 and everyone was ready to go!
Reagan waiting to go on floor.
Reagan and her coach Kathryn looking over at a screeching kid. I was taking a picture of them when the child started screeching so I just happened to catch these great expressions. The child was really loud and the screeching actually made me jump.
Kiera, Reagan and Hallie watching their team mates on floor.
Reagan doing her vault. I love how you can see that all of her team mates are just messing around and no one is paying attention. In the vault at level 2 the kids just do a handstand and plop onto their back. We were sitting just a few feet away from the vault mat and the judge was sitting on the opposite side of the mat. I didn't take a picture of her first vault and I missed a golden photo opportunity. When she finished her vault, she looked over at us and gave us a great big smile before she sat up and saluted to the judge. It was precious!!
Reagan doing her bar routine.
Reagan got 1st place on vault with a 9.75. I love this picture of how all the other kids are saluting and Reagan is waving hi to us. She did her salute right after.
Reagan admiring her medals.
Reagan looked over and gave us a thumbs up when she received her first place all-around trophy. I was so glad I got this picture. She definitely made her brother proud. At this age, the kids don't really care what place they get, but Rob knew that Reagan was pretty good and to Rob life is a competition. He was making a lot bigger deal about winning then I wanted him to. Reagan got a 9.55 on beam, a 9.75 on floor & vault & 9.2 on bars which came out to 38.25 all around. She won every event except bars which she got 2nd on. Her scores on floor, beam and all-around were also the highest scores overall (with all age groups combined).
Her gymnast snow globe was really cool, but unfortunately the dog knocked it off the coffee table and broke it the next day. She was really sad for a few minutes, but at least the water part didn't brake, the gymnast is just floating in the water like she is dead.
Reagan with all of her winnings after the meet. Reagan's team won first place as well and Reagan was the highest scorer on her team on every event except bars.