It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

This past week is my most favorite week of the whole year! With two birthday celebrations and the Fourth of July, it makes for a jam-packed week-o-fun. This week is waaaay better than Christmas, in my opinion, because it's all the fun and no stress. Not to mention I prefer the warm weather to the snow. Here's a summary of the holiday(s).

SUNDAY
Bailey's 10th Birthday! Her theme for the year is "Pixie Hollow". We found some plates with the Disney fairies on them and they became the inspiration for the cake.


I cut out the marshmallow flowers and then Bailey carefully placed everything on the cake by herself, and I think she did a fabulous job! We share a love for chocolate, so it's chocolate with chocolate pudding inside, mmmmmm.


We sprinked some glitter on the table for the fairy dust too. My family came up to have dinner and celebrate with us.

Horses, fairies, DS games, new clothes, and earrings. Just what she wanted!

For my birthday, my mom surprised me with these great blue glass dishes to add to my collection. Then she told me they belonged to either my grandmother or great-grandmother!! I am so thrilled to have this new/old addition! Thanks, Mom.

For the kids' entertainment, our friend Petey launched his homemade bottle rocket, and soon we had all the neighbor kids over. If you launch it, they will come.

Here's the spectator section. Notice the twinner pants! This doesn't happen very often when there's six years between my girls.

MONDAY

Bailey decided to forego the party this year (yea for me!) and just take a couple of her good friends down to the Discovery Center at the Gateway. I decided to take a couple of my friends too, for my entertainment, so it became a large party anyway with 11 kids.

Bailey is so full of imagination, and loves this place. Especially the barn area and the grocery store. I love that my 10 year old girl is still playing make believe and adores her stuffed animals. Maybe we live in a bubble, but I'm keeping it that way. I'm enjoying watching her blossom into such a beautiful young woman. She's teetering between wanting to be young and wanting to be grown up. And I must say, she is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.

We took a break to play in the fountains and get snow cones.

These little cuties were so fun to watch !

Happy Birthday Bailey, I hope it was everything you dreamed it would be. Thanks to everyone who helped make it so special for her.

Happiness is . . . . . . . . .

having great friends like these!

WEDNESDAY

This is the day I look forward to 364 days out of the year. My birthday! It's 24 hours of doing whatever I want to do, and I wanted to maximize it. So I dragged Dave out of bed at 6 am to go hike the Crimson Trail with me. There were some spectacular views and we sat on this ledge for awhile. Next time I'm taking a lunch and sitting right here.

After the hike, I said goodbye to Dave and the kids for the day, and left to do some power shopping. I had a break at 1:30 for a massage, then back to more shopping! Dave said I needed to come home for a minute because the kids had a surprise for me- they had decorated the whole house with balloons and streamers. They were so proud of themselves!

I opened some gifts, then went to the Olive Garden for dinner. Can this day get any better? I don't think so. Then we came home for some pie (key lime and chocolate truffle) with the Woodruffs. Finished off the night with some sparklers.

To all my great friends and family who sent me birthday wishes and gifts, Thank You. I feel so loved, and lucky. And to my sweet husband, thank you for spoiling me beyond what I deserve. And now this day is over, BOO.

THURSDAY

Wait, the birthday continues! My sister took me out to dinner! Ok, it was really Subway, and we stuffed the sandwiches in our purses because we decided we really wanted to see the movie "My Sister's Keeper" instead of dinner. It was a great movie- bring a box of tissue. Seriously. Thanks for the fun, Nessa!


FRIDAY

Dave took the day off, and the Jensons invited us to go tube the Logan River with them. So fun! It was so c-c-c-cold, but you go numb after about 10 minutes. We live in such a beautiful place.

The Gang.

Then we relaxed all afternoon at First Dam and enjoyed the company. The kids caught a fish in a bread bag, now that's talent! (It was only partially dead, Cade says) After this, we spent the night enjoying Logan's fireworks.

SATURDAY

was our annual Fourth of July picnic with Dave's family. We love this tradition of sitting in the backyard eating and talking, eating and talking. We also played a little croquet . . . .

Ryan said we had to do the "croquet pose" for this picture, which is one foot on top of the other, hand on hip.

Then it's on to the fireworks in Brigham. These fireworks are the BEST, you are so close they practically land on you. And you get the occasional fire.

Waiting for the fireworks to begin. Avery begins to dance to the band and shake her booty. She's really good at this. A little too good. :)

I love summer.