Fun Filled Weekend

Friday night we had ten little girls over to help Meilani celebrate her birthday. It was a craft par-tay and the invitations read: "Meilani's turning nine, so we thought it would be fine, for you to come on over, to join us for CRAFT TIME!" Catchy no? The girls had a blast and I was shocked at how loud and giggly they were. Apparently Meilani is a pretty typical 9 year old! Ben came down stairs a couple times to check on our progress, but quickly "high tailed" it back upstairs at the first squeal! As I stated before, I spent a great deal of time this past week prepping for the party and Thursday night I went to bed asking myself, why I kill myself on projects like this. After the party however; I was reminded why I add birthday celebrations to my mommy to do list. 1. Kids learn how to give and receive gifts appropriately (thank you notes are now on this week's to do list). 2. They learn social skills like how to be polite and to be a good host (something I thankfully learned from my mommy). 3. I love getting to meet my kids friends and their parents. Meilani's getting older now and so the opportunity to meet her classmates and their parents just isn't there. Being aware and involved with who my kids spend time with is super important to me. 4. They are fun. Meilani even gave me an unsolicited "thank you for the party Mom" after everyone left. Now that's priceless. Alas, let the party planning for Eli's big day begin.

My mom and Meg made a bunch of gourmet cupcakes. The peanut butter cup cupcake with peanut butter frosting "took the cake" . . . pun intended!

Hey, hey the gang's all here. The girls got to take this picture home in the frames they made.

The craft projects I spent all week cutting paper for. We didn't get to one card, so I'll take that to my "big girl" craft night later this month. Multi tasking at it's best.


Saturday my whole family went to Olive Garden for dinner to celebrate Grandmom's birthday. Yummy food. Good company.

Grandmom said she's turning "39" as opposed to the standard "29" because she has to be a bit older than me.

Sylvia (Sammy's girlfriend), Meilani, Sammy, Grandmom, Sean, Sariah, Mom, Meg, Liam, Dad, Jeff (Aunite's beau), Ben, Auntie, Me, Danae, and Eli. Seth was snoozing.

Dad hogging Seth. He, Meg, and Grandmom were fighting over who got to hold him. Since Seth can sense the moment hot food is on the table, I was happily eating in peace.

Auntie Danae, my good buddy from BYU-Hawaii (okay, she's Ben's friend too) came to visit this weekend. She had a conference in San Francisco and extend her trip a couple days so she could come say hello. It was great fun to spend time with her. We stayed up way too late playing games and catching up and I sure miss living close to her.

Danae meeting Seth

The kids treated Danae like she was a jungle gym, climbing all over her, getting piggy back rides etc. They even remembered from her last trip to visit that she let them play games on her phone and itouch (which us meanie parents don't allow). Danae was such a good sport and even occupied the kids during sacrament meeting at church so that I could sit by my honey.

As a side note, Meilani's first molar tooth fell out at church yesterday. No pics though. I was in the nursing lounge and my buddy April came in and announced "your husband is mean!" I thought uh-oh, what'd he do now. Apparently April was in the bathroom when Meilani came in crying because her loose teeth were hurting. April comforted her and asked if we knew about it at which point Ben called into the bathroom for Meilani to come out. As she walked out April heard Meilani say to Ben "don't pull it out Daddy!" To which he replied "I won't, I just want to look at it." You can guess what happend next. He flicked it out of her mouth. Meilani went back into the bathroom crying to clean herself up and sweet April was there to comfort her (I was still MIA nursing Seth). Ben maintains that the tooth was hanging by a thread and Meilani was happy on the way home from church so it all worked out okay.

Best buds, saying goodbye at the airport. In my mind Danae and I are the same height. Pictures always remind me we're not. When Danae and I met at BYU-Hawaii Ben and I had only been married about a week and Danae didn't think we would be friends because I was married, and she was single. It's funny because nearly 12 years later, our lives are still markedly different, yet when we're together we catch up as if no time has passed. I love that distance and varying circumstances hasn't kept our friendship from growing.

All day today we saw rainbows in the sky as we drove. Here's a little one just over the creek near our house. I love rainbows. Little reminders from God that all is well, in his plan, even if not in ours.