It's official... I'm planning the coolest birthday ever!

Mikayla and I were in deep discussions Saturday... Very very important matter we were discussing??

What would you like for your birthday party missy!

We've done a Luau (4), baseball (5), Hannah Montana(6), and Fairy Festival(7) so what can top it all for our 8th birthday???

We brainstormed in the car and talked about crafts, ocean (disecting a fish was the topic, I saved you from that one), and suddenly she remembered a very cool science experiement we saw on tv and the idea was born!

We're having a Science party! but not just any science party, everything will center around chemical reactions! boring right?

nope.

I've brainstormed with a few of you already but am putting this out there for help. I plan on having 3 -4 stations with a different experiement on each, the kids will rotate, we'll have cake and then we'll take them outside to do this:

Here's my current ideas for the stations:

1. make silly putty

2. make slime

3. make ice cream in individual ziplocks

I have some ideas for the treat bags too (poprocks are a must) and punch is taken care of (dry ice is AWESOME) but would love ideas, decor, a learning scavenger hunt? ways to teach at the stations, etc.

ALL HELP WELCOME!

Snoqualmie Falls

Snoqualmie Falls you never dissapoint. Even with the dad letting his little kid pee on the sidewalk we still had a good time!

Sunday on our way home from Yakima we road tripped! We stopped at the Cle Elum Bakery and had apple fritters and donuts and then to Salmon La Sac and then after a traffic jam on the pass, Snoqualmie Falls!

Keith and Mikayla jumping into the crowd to take a better look!

This was our fathers day as we'll be leaving the big man on his own this next weekend as we go camping without him. I think we did a pretty good job of spoiling him!

Salmon La Sac - new and improved?

Welcome to my 2nd favorite campground of all times. Salmon La Sac just outside of Roslyn, Wa.

I grew up going to SLS with my Mom's side of the family and have very fond memories of my Grandpa taking a leap off the bridge into the deep frigid river that runs through the front gates of camp.

We haven't been in a few years, some because of the campground being flooded and rebuilt, some because all of us kids are too busy getting married, having kids, etc. just busy! but the first reason (the flooding) was what I wanted to check out. We knew they had reopened but no one had been to check it out.
Here's my report.
1. There's NO water in camp. they have pit potties now (not that gross except nothing to even wash your hands with (purell needed!) you also have to bring in any water you may need. being 30 minutes from town this is a bit of a hassle. I'd like to have checked out Wish Poosh on the way to see if they have water?
2. the lake on the way to camp (that I don't even remember) is HUGE! it's covering trees and amazing. We'll have to check this out further. it looked like wish poosh was right there?
3. Camp - new pavement throughout but the sites look beat up. there's lots of rocks exposed and the sites look pretty uneven.
4. I did notice LOTS of new stone hearths? they look pretty cool!

And for all you Grahams, look close at these pics, I went to the old combined site and that's what we took shots of. hope you like em!

Sally got married! (oh yeah, I guess Joel was there too!)

On Saturday we had the pleasure of heading over to Yakima for my cousin Sally's big day! The weather was great the trip was great (except for Mikayla asking in Issaquah if we were there yet) and we had a GREAT time with the fam!

Oh yeah and Sally was the most beautiful bride of all times and she made me cry, I in fact cried through most of the wedding. like an idiot.

And the pastor (Mr. Starr) gave the most wonderful wedding sermon I think I've ever heard. he based it on Phillipians 2:1-4

1 Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others

This exact passage was a theme of my Awana/Sunday School 4th grade girls this year too so I perked right up.

How hard is it in life to "do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others better than yourself"

I'm still learning this!

Mikayla and Keith watching the service. SO CUTE!

My office transformation!

When I first arrived here this was my office space, it's a remodeled closet that I share with my office mate. I have cube in the way of the window and I got the bug... let's make it cute!


Before above and after below

It really did all begin with my love for black and white. I started at Christmas with the black and white paper over the cube wall to decorate for the annual holiday cube decorating, I had BIG glitter red snowflakes and a red tree. But for after Christmas my love for poppies (see my cute purse that I've had now for 3 years!) took over!

Michaels had these really cute rub ons of poppies and I made my pencil cup first, then I went to Goodwill and happened on the rectangle and square frames, they were gold at the time and under 50 cents each so I got black lacquer paint and painted them, took water color paper and affixed the poppies and then stuck them up on the wall with 3m removable tack.pretty good for under 8$ for the whole project. Oh and the black and white paper was a roll of table cloth from Ikea that I got for 3$.

My pencil cup with only black pencils and our cow mascot!

On this particular day I headed down to pike place market and found a bouquet of poppies for 5$ they died the next day but the pictures made it worth it all!

Hope you enjoyed the tour of my office! aka home away from home!

The table is FINALLY gone...

I'll have to say I'm a little sad. After a year of trying to sell this table (really took long because my schedule is so brutal) I finally sold it on craigslist to a really nice family in Snohomish!

Goodbye my faithful set!

but I NEVER have to move it again! wohoo!

Dad's 70th! chocolate cherry cream cakes!

What a fun reason to use my tiered cake platters (thanks again Mrs. Spaid for the awesome wedding present!) don't the cakes look amazing!

Didn't they come out great! reminder, do this one again!

FREE CHOCOLATE FRIDAY!

https://aws.realchocolate.com/

so I hate chocolate but the rest of my family ADORES it! and I know alot of you do too! M&M Mars is giving out free chocolate to 250,000 people every friday, here's the link, you do the rest!

weigh in on this one...Mothers day for you or your Mom? or HIS Mom?

While hanging out with a bunch of my girlfriends a topic came up that I wondered if all of you had an opinion on? What is your ideal thing to do on Mothers day? take a hot bath, watch some chick flicks, get breakfast in bed, get pampered and spoiled all day, or are you a weirdo like me who just wants to spend some time with my Mom and then play some softball. I don't need a present but it would be nice to be acknowledged for the hard work I do as a step mom, but truthfully, Keith does a pretty good job of the acknowlegement all the time so the one "holiday" a year doesn't matter too much to me.

Do you have a Mother in law or Mom that live close? do you celebrate them while not really getting a day for yourself? or do you wish you Mom was still around to celebrate?

I know people in alot of these camps.

Tomorrow my Mom and I are hitting the road to head to Yakima for my cousins shower and we're very excited to go to the cemetery and visit with my Grandma (Mom's Mom) on Mothers day weekend. She was an amazing lady, Mom and Grandma and it just seems to be a perfect Mothers day trip for us.

Sunday Keith works so Mikayla, Mom and I are going to do lunch with Dad but there's nothing big planned. We have two softball games in the evening so...

So what about you? what are you doing? is there someone you'd like to celebrate? someone you wish you didn't have to celebrate with?

oh and Happy Mothers day to Joyce, Kristina, Niki and all the other Momma's I know. Thanks for loving your kiddos!

game postponed

Hey real quick, Jordan's game has been postponed, I'll update as soon as I hear.