Owl About A Girl

It was Shaylyn's 13th birthday. We had discussed different days for her party and it turned out that her actual birthday was also a great day for a party. We then went about trying to find a theme for her birthday. After not too long, she decided she wanted to go with an 'owl' theme. I didn't mind too much as owls seem to be all the rage these days.

She had a great day at school and was ready to party when she got home. I asked Eric if he wanted me to have Shaylyn wait to open her gifts and he didn't mind too much. So I asked Shaylyn what she'd prefer and I can't honestly remember which way she chose. Either way she opened her gifts.

... A Box of Stuff Wrapped by Ailey...

...Princess Peach Amiibo...

...Minion Duct Tape and an album by Lights...

(I was trying to disquise the fact I got her the CD she wanted)

...Strawberry Socks...

We had a quick dinner of pizza and then we prepped for her party. Because Eric wasn't thrilled at the prospect of spending all night around the craziness of teen girls, and I didn't want to run a party and take care of the little kids needing things - Eric took them all to see Big Hero 6. It was nice to have a little bit of time with just Shaylyn to get everything ready.

The day after Shaylyn decided on a theme, I saw something on my Facebook feed that caught my attention. It was a tutorial on creating these cute little owls.

I really don't sew and really don't know much about it, but these were super simple to do and so I made a prototype of sorts to see just how simple it was and if Shaylyn liked the idea. It was super easy and Shaylyn loved the idea. So we bought some gloves and just used fabric remnants that I had for the wings. You can see the full tutorial here.

The only thing Shaylyn really wanted to do was something that took me a bit by surprise. I had taken her with me to The Wood Connection a few weeks earlier to get stuff for me, but she had her eyes on other things. They had a super cute owl set that Shaylyn thought would be a perfect for her friends to make during her party. It wasn't too expensive either and I knew it would take up time, so I was all for it. Thankfully the store had just enough big owls and I grabbed a couple little owls thinking I might make one during the night, or if Ailey was around she could make one.

The girls Shaylyn invited all seemed okay at the thought of doing a craft. It was fun to just hang around them and listen to the conversations they were having.

The 'cake' didn't work so great for me. Shaylyn wanted the ice cream cone looking cupcakes. Well I learned quickly that you DO NOT use waffle cones. I made do the best I could and thankfully, Shaylyn was okay with the overall look. 

Then came present time....

...Yes, they are wearing the same shirt. Yes, they did it on purpose. It's what BBF's do...

...I hate to admit it, but she got that look from me...

While the owls were drying, they decided to play Just Dance 2015. While all of it was fun, the most fun part came when they did the 'Tetris' song on it. If you haven't seen it watch the video below. It is an interesting dance and one I've yet to be able to do all the way through...mostly because you can't help but laugh and after 6 kids moving and laughing don't always go well together.

I wasn't going to take pictures while they danced, but when they were doing this song - it was just too hard to pass up.

And then I tried to get pictures of the completed owls, but with silly teenage girls around I got lots of photobombs instead.

It really was a pretty fun night. Shaylyn invited girls that don't have issues with each other and so there was no drama and these girls all got along really well. It really was fun to just sit back and listen to them and remember when I was young. 

Eric and the kids got home just as the party was ending and so the night was pretty much perfect. Although, I still can't believe I'm old enough to have 2 teenagers!

What Happens Next...

For The Love of Science

It was once again time for my favorite thing about 5th grade: The Science Fair.

Now to be fair, the teachers gave us about a month's notice - of course, that meant they sent home information the day before Christmas break. HELLO?!?!?! There's enough going on at that time of the year that keeping track of Science Fair information isn't going to happen in this house.

So I put the information aside and figured we'd deal with it after Christmas. Well Christmas came and went and so did all remembering of a Science Fair happening. Then, as it's happened before - Facebook posts reminded me that the Science Fair was quickly coming up.

I was getting stressed with everything else going on in life and told Eric (not so nicely) that I was tired of always being the one that had to do the school projects with the kids. So Eric came up with Lex's project for this year and even took Lex to the store for supplies.

They decided to expound on the whole Diet Coke and Mentos experiment. Lex wanted to know how other soda's would react and if they reacted differently with regular flavored Mentos than with fruit flavored Mentos.

So one early Saturday afternoon we took to the backyard and watched a show. We had everyone outside watching, even the dogs. We got a few surprises and we really had a nice day. And YES, we were in the backyard, IN JANUARY, IN UTAH with NO SNOW! Crazy.

And here's a look at all the reactions all rolled up into one quick video for your viewing pleasure. And sorry about the vertical video. I wanted to make sure I got the height for each experiment...Probably didn't need to do it that way, however...

The next couple days, Lex and worked on his report and his poster. We got it all together and he took it to school. When I went to go view his project at school, I was right behind the teacher that was 'grading' his project. I was glad to see he got 80/100. Not too bad for procrastination.

Another project down for another 5th grader. Now I've got 4 years to think about the next project.

What Happens Next...

Random December

Here's a look at the random events that happened in December.

We start with a shopping trip that proved to be too much for Ailey. I went shopping with Eric's mom looking for a few things and after a short time in the 2nd store, Ailey decided she had had enough.

We made sure we hurried and finished our trip and then took the poor girl to get some lunch. 

SIDE STORY: On the way to meet up with Eric's mom the song Santa Baby came on and Ailey said something like, "This song is stupid. Santa IS NOT a baby." I had to explain to her what the song was really saying and left it at that.

At lunch another version of Santa Baby was playing to which Ailey said, "UGH! Not this song again! I HATE this song."

She makes me laugh.

Next up we have Jace's first experience with Oreo cookies. We were at Eric's mom's house and she gave Jace his first Oreo. This smart little bugger knew the correct way to eat Oreo's without any previous experience...crazy!

I think Jace really likes Oreo's. What do you think?

In our house, real life happens. Or I may have gotten a little sidetracked by a Jimmy Fallon video while Jace was eating lunch. I blame Eric. He does distracting things when he works from home. Anyway, after viewing the video Eric wanted me to see, I came back to this....

 

Guess he was done with his food and all ready for his nap! Thankfully he stayed asleep when I moved him from the high chair to his bed.

And what happens when you let a pre-teen get puff paint with extra Christmas money? She decorates her and her sisters shoes...

So I didn't much care that she decorated her shoes. I bought them for 4 bucks at the DI, so Tanis had shoes for the Renaissance Festival a few years ago. Somehow she ended up with them. I was a little bothered when she started decorating Ailey's shoes though, but she did the bat signal for Batman on one shoe and one for Batgirl on the other. She got major props for creativity and Ailey loved it when all was said and done, so no harm - no foul.

What Happens Next...