Halle's 13th Birthday Party

Her birthday party was in July, y'all.  I know, I'm so behind.  Oopsie!  Halle had a blast at her 13th birthday party.  She planned it herself, so all I had to do was buy what she needed, and make the cake.

She had a pool party sleepover party with five of her friends.  These girls are fun and goofy and they all had a great time.

Why is Jenna wearing a swim cap you might ask. 

They played some pool games.  Two games in particular had us rolling.  One game was a frozen t-shirt game.  Beforehand, Halle froze two large t-shirts, each one in a gallon size ziplock bag full of water.  The girls divided into two teams.  Each team had to get the t-shirt out of the bag of rock solid ice and have a team member put it on.  It. Was. Hilarious!  Originally I thought it was going to be a fast game and not that hard to get the t-shirt out.  I thought they would just melt the ice in the pool and the t-shirt would be free.  WRONG.  It took about 20 minutes to free the shirts!  The girls were cracking us up trying to get the shirts out.  They were slamming the solid ice onto the concrete around the pool.  Olivia is a softball player and was slamming it really hard.  I was certain she was going to break the concrete!

Finally it was free after like a thousand tries of breaking the ice and soaking it in the pool water!  Once the shirts were free, they were holy as all get out.  (They were brand new t-shirts before this.)  The girls destroyed them!

this shirt is so destroyed that Jenna has her head through a hole

the other teams shirt.  That's Olivia, by the way, the softball player with major slamming power.  Their team won.

As you can tell, the girls look like zombies with all of their smeared mascara.  That was another game.  They put on as much black mascara as they could and then jumped in the water to make them look as zombie-ish as possible.  Ha!  I remember at that age asking my friends, "is my mascara running?" and freaking out if it was.  Twenty years later they are owning the whole runny mascara thing.  :)

The other game that was really fun to watch was the watermelon game.  We lubed, and I mean really lubed, up a large watermelon with Vaseline.  Then I threw it into the pool.  Each girl was on their own. They each tried to secure the watermelon and get it over the side of the pool.  Bwhahahahahhahahaa!  It was like a cat fight.  The watermelon floats, so it bobs up and down when someone tries to get it.  Also, it was super greasy so they couldn't get a good hold on it.  Once one girl got a hold of it, the other girls would tackle her and knock it away. They were in the deep end which made it that much harder.  One time, the watermelon came loose, and someone ended up grabbing Jenna's head instead (her hair was in a swim cap so it kind of looked like the watermelon in the dark.)  I was dying watching these girls play this game!  I tried to get pics, but they were so dark and blurry from all the commotion they didn't come out.

These are pictures of Jack from a completely different game.  The girls were diving for poker chips that JAck and I threw in the pool for them.  Here he is trying to help the girls out by pointing out the chip.

those dark things in the water are the girls diving for the chips. 

Halle requested that I make the most chocolaty cake I could make.  She also requested strawberry cupcakes.

this was the cake and I think I nailed the chocolaty part.  It was really good!

she got some sweet gifts from her friends.  Jenna, one of oldest friends, brought a picture of them when they were in second grade.

Olivia and Kaitlyn made a collage with many of the goofy pictures they have taken.

We gave her money, but I gave it to her in fun ways.  Brian felt really awkward going to bank and requesting so much money in one dollar bills!  lol
 

I made her a crown, bracelet and ring.

and bills shaped into her name

and a looong strip of bills taped together that she had to pull out of a bag.

it was 60 bills long, I believe, so it kept going and going.  

Colorado Trip- Part Cinco

The last two days were spent in Denver and at a National Wildlife Park.

We went to the Coors Brewing.  The tour line, however, was ridiculously long so we just went to the tasting area instead.

Arden and Jack loving each other.  Don't worry, they had Sprite.

I don't remember why I took this picture, but I'm sure it had something to do with Jack and his obsession with trains.

Cheers!  The Coors Light was on tap at 28 degrees!  It was honestly the best beer I've ever had.

We also toured Hammond's Candy Factory

We saw how they make taffy and lollipops.

like kids in a candy store....

Random, but the Denver Air Show was going on one day.  We pulled over on the side of the road to watch a bit of it.

The last day of our trip we headed to a Wildlife Reserve.  It was an enormous amount of land that was sectioned off for different animals.  Sometimes you had to have binoculars to see the animals.  We were on a sky-walk, for lack of a better term, which allowed us to see over the whole reserve.  

taking a cat nap.

The last day we had to say goodbye to our very close family members, Adam and Sarah.  We headed to the airport.  This was Jack's very first plane ride.  Boy, was he excited!

"I got it."  He's such a little man.  He is always trying to handle things by himself, pulling his own weight.

Arden doesn't remember her first plane ride at 19 months old, so this was a big deal for her, too!

Colorado Trip Part IV

This day of our trip was our favorite.  We drove north to Estes Park.  It was BEAUTIFUL!!!  We spent the day hiking and driving through the mountains.

We could only go up the mountain so far because there was too much snow at the top

this was a scenic outlook closer to the top.  It was very cold!

there were lots of chipmunks at this scenic outlook that would come right up to you

Then it started snowing hard!!!!  

We drove back down one of the mountains and took a hiking trail back up.  This was so much fun!  It was a great day for hiking.  We hiked for about 3 hours.  The kids have walking sticks to help them.  It was easy to lose your footing.

We would come to points along the way that have breathtaking scenery.  Of course we had to snap pictures!  The pictures don't do it justice, though.  We had panoramic views in real life and the camera doesn't do a good job showing the depth.

Brian and Jack's "cave"

Adam and the girls holding up a rock so we could pass

so pretty with the huge rocks along water.

The whole fam next to the water.  The water was so cold!

He had a great time throwing rocks

here is the lake!

posing next to the water

sometimes the trail would come very close to the edge.  We had to make sure and hold the littles' hands during these places.  It very a little scary!

Jack did so well with all the hiking!  I was impressed!

one of my favorite pictures.  I love the sun coming through the trees in the background.

After we hiked (and got a little lost), we drove back up the mountain to find Bear Lake.  It was a lake in the mountain which is really cool to me!

the lake was surrounded by snow.  They are freezing at this point!!!  

Jack eating a snow ball

We encountered a lot of wildlife along the way.

not that we had to go far for that, seeing that deer were right there in the back yard!

Happy 13th birthday, Halle!

Y'all.....  I have a teenager.  A TEENAGER!!!!  I can't believe it.


I made Halle promise me when she was about five years old that when she got to be a teenager she wouldn't act like a typical teenager, you know, with all the eye rolling and sighing and moodiness.  LOL.  So far she's kept her promise!  ......Mostly..... She's such a stinkin' sweet kid.

Well happy birthday, my teenage daughter.  You love Pinterest/DIY stuff: making your own face creams, body scrubs, cleansing drinks, pore refiners, basically anything you can concoct out of household materials.  You also love fashion, nail art, and playing with makeup.  You're modest, though, which as a mother,  I absolutely appreciate and LOVE.  Your father appreciates that, too!  Ha!

Your favorite shows this year have been Dr. Who, Heartland, and Once Upon a Time, among others.  You love reading.  Some of the books you've read this year: Paper Towns, The Book Thief, Fault in Our Stars, and Theadore Boone: Kid Lawyer

You are an excellent swimmer.  You have really excelled this past year, being in club swimming.  You are passionate about it, and are constantly trying to improve your technique.  You even watch You Tube videos on ways to tweak your swim strokes.  I love how you love what you're good at.

You love Jesus.  This is evident in how you treat people and seek God's word.  You surround yourself with bible verses and you are humble enough to admit when you've done wrong.  I know God has great plans for you and through you.

You love animals.  You lost one of your best friends this year, Rudi, and you were completely heartbroken.
You have such a big heart for your pets.  You take the time to figure out how your pets need to be loved and what exactly they want/need.  What really cracks me up, though, is you taught our cat Parker, how to do a trick!!!

You and your friends rock at making music videos.  I'm always impressed with your creations.  You and your friends are into playing sports outside like tennis and volleyball.  Y'all also like Minecraft.  You've been to a few fun outings with them, too: Imagine Dragons concert, Dash game, canoeing, to name a few.

You don't shy away from responsibility.  You are always stepping up when it comes to babysitting, helping with dinner, and doing chores.  You're very good at handling your brother and sister when I need help.

Last, but not least, you are fun to hang out with.  You're so nerdy and goofy and witty and punny.  We have laughs together and you get my nerdiness and corny jokes.  You are down to earth and just enjoy things for what they are.  I love you so much!

Happy Birthday Halle Monster!

Colorado Trip- Part C

On Tuesday of our week in Colorado we hit the Denver amusement park!  The park is called Elitch Gardens.  Don't ask me how to pronounce it.  Halle and I are adrenaline junkies so we love amusement parks and roller coasters.

We are waiting in line to get on a roller coaster.  The line was LOOONG.  It was worth it though.

  

This park had a huge kiddie ride section so the littles had a blast.  Arden is tall enough to go on some of the bigger rides, but she's a weenie and is just fine with the smaller rides.

Arden and Jack on a teacup ride.   The last time Arden was on a teacup ride was when she was 19 months old, at Disney World.  (picture below.)  Isn't she cute with those curls?!

Arden and Jack riding swings

and cruising on a bike

ok this was hilarious.  This was bumper cars, but Jack couldn't figure out how to make it go until about the last five seconds of the ride.  It kept spinning in circles and he was so confused.  Once he did, he wanted to go over and over and over.

and obviously, the train was a must for Jack.

truck ride

One of the best parts of the day is when the big guys, Adam and Brian, went on the kiddie coaster with the littles.  So wish I'd snapped some pictures of that.  :)