Brynn is Sweet 16

Somehow this little girl decided that turning 16 years old was the thing to do.

And so she did.

Brynn's Party. And Evidence That I Need a Craft Room.

To wrap up Brynn's birthday posts:

All that girl wanted for a party was to have some friends over, popcorn, smoothies, and a movie.

The popcorn and smoothies went off with out a hitch, but those girls had no intentions of sitting down and watching a movie.

Brynn designed her cake and I helped her with it, but she did a lot of the work herself.  I think it turned out pretty good.

Brynn's bff, Hannah, gave Brynn, of all things... a fish.  A beta to be more exact, which Brynn promptly named Aqua Jay (maybe she can keep a named fish alive better than I can? (Here)) and which oddly I don't have a picture of.  I was too busy trying to get things set up before kids showed up (after having worked all day) and I had to keep moving that fish out of the way.  At first it was on the kitchen counter but I didn't want it to get knocked over in the chaos of the party.  Also, I had plans of creating a wedding gift on the counter while Brynn ran around crazy with her friends so I needed the fish out of the way.  So Brynn took the fish downstairs to what I had assumed would be her room.  A few minutes later I went down to check on something and found the fish on the floor of the basement great room, and looking somewhat wobbly on the cushy carpet. With a huff and a shake of my head, and with Brynn no where in sight, I grabbed that guy up and put him squarely on her dresser.  At this rate, I don't know how long he's going to last.  Also, he's a "he" simply because he's blue.

The signs of a successful party.  Happy girls trailed away home late into the night, and by late into the night I mean 10:30, but when girls show up at 7:00 and stay, screaming with pure delight, until 10:30, it begins to feel like late into the night indeed.

Check off another birthday success at our house.

All the while I was working on this puppy:

A subway sign for a wedding gift, which I will explain and show you the finished details, as well as the wedding, tomorrow.  Exciting, no?

Also, exhibit number one as to why I need to have a craft room.

I completely render the kitchen unusable when I start a project.  The Circus can only hope it doesn't take me longer than a day to finish it.

Brynn Turns the Big 1-2. Happy Birthday B.

My phone is being stinky and won't let me email myself my pics of yesterday, so I'm going to have to add those later, when my phone has an attitude adjustment.

Brynn turned the big 1-2.

This means she gets to go to Young Women's now.

We followed the birthday rules with Brynn, the same as we followed them with Sean the day before.  Rule #1: no chores.  Which meant the dishes didn't get done.
Rule #2: Lunch on Mom and Dad.  But because Brynn is in middle school this is a little harder to do then with the kids who are in elementary school.  I decided last year with Cas that lunch would just have to be left in their lockers as a surprise for them to find when their lunch time comes.

All Brynn wanted left in her locker for lunch was a Jamba Juice.

So I did.

And then I decorated the outside of her locker with spiral ribbons and a happy birthday sign.

Classes changed while I was there (Brynn showed up right as I opened her locker to put the Jamba inside) and as kids darted off to class I began taping ribbons to the outside of Brynn's locker.  The hall emptied and the tardy bell rang.  I was just about done when a boy walked down the hall, staring at me.

"We're not supposed to decorate the outside of our lockers," he informed me.

What I wanted to say was, "dude, you're late for class, get going."  But what I actually said was, "it's okay, she can take it down later."

Brynn had only one thing on her wish list for a birthday present.  An iPod touch.  She refused to give me any other options because she didn't want the chance of getting something other than the iPod.  That's all she wanted.

When we asked Sean what he wanted for his birthday, and told him not video games, he came up with a zipline from his bedroom window to the treehouse...

Given that we had nothing at all to work with from Sean, and only one option to work with from Brynn, we decided to get them both an iPod.

We wrapped them up  in different sized boxes and on Sean's birthday West presented the wrapped boxes to the two of them and said, "either present would work for both of you, they're something you would both like, so you guys pick which box should be whose."

When Sean opened his present on Wednesday and Brynn saw what it was she was beyond excited to open her own present.  It didn't matter that it was a different size, she was certain, she hoped, that it too would be an iPod.

We were "mean" and made her wait until after school and work oh her own birthday to open her present.  Even though she now knew what it was, the anticipation and excitement of opening it was as good as if she had not known and wondered what it was.

For Brynn and Sean's birthday dinner family met us at Olive Garden where the birthday kids got free mini desserts with candles in them.

Grandpa Dick, Canyon, Ayden, Garrett, Ella, Asher, McKell, Jayme's head

Brynn, who is the popcorn queen, will be having friends over tonight for a movie and some popcorn from her fancy popcorn machine.

Easy enough.

Pajama parties are fun.

And it motivates Brynn to clean up the toys in the basement :).

Birthday Bash at Airborne

We've had a birthday whirlwind of a week.

 

We came back in town from Moab (here) on Monday.

Tuesday was Toad Man's birthday (here) and since he'd be spending the evening with his mom, The Man and I stole him from school to take him out to lunch.

 

A new tradition I plan on doing with all the kids.

 

Sean picked Sizzler's for his lunch just so he could order the salad bar and get a giant plate piled high of little ham cubes covered in ranch.

 

That's all.

 

What do you do?

 

 

 That evening was crazy was busy.

 

Tayler and Brynn told me about a Mommy/Daughter book club meeting an hour before it was supposed to happen.

 

I knew they had an Activity Days meeting.

 

I didn't know that it included Moms.

 

So I was rushing about trying to get Casidee's music book for her orchestra class, I had to go pick Cali up from a friend's house because The Man forgot to and now suddenly I had to join Tay and Brynn for Activity Days.

 

Imagine my surprise when we show up 15 minutes late because of all  my other running around, only to discover it was a book club meeting.

 

Needless to say, I didn't read the book...

 

But they had fun activities and fruit and dip.  I loved hanging out with the other moms who were there.  We have super cute families in our neighborhood.

 

Wednesday was Happy Birthday Brynn. (here).

 

The Man wasn't able to make Brynn's birthday lunch because of work, but I picked her up and she chose Chuck-a-rama.

 

Seriously.

 

What is up with my children wanting to eat lunch with the fine senior citizens of our community?

 

But Chuck-a-rama it was.

 

She ate more than just ham and ranch.

 

 

 Since Sean was back with us for Wednesday we had a few of the grandparents over for dinner.  Grandpa Dick and Grandma KC were making a trip up to our neck of the woods anyway, but they extended their visit to come a couple of days earlier so they could be a part of the birthday fun.

Papa Mike and Granny Suzann dropped by and with a couple of extra friends, plus Cas needing to leave for Young Women's, we had complete and utter chaos.

 

And Swedish Pancakes.

 

I currently hold our family record for the number of Swedish Pancakes eaten.

I hold the record at 12 in one sitting.

 

Sean has challenged me and my record, and though we didn't have enough batter to take that battle on Wednesday night, I feel that this should happen next weekend when we have all the kids again.

 

He's so going down.

 

Thursday night was the friend party.

 

I've made a list that uses a general budget.  We've allotted a certain amount of money to be allowed for birthday parties and keeping that in mind, I put a lot of effort into some research for various types of birthday parties.

 

Simpler or cheaper parties like home parties or the dollar movie allow for more friends.

 

More expensive activities might only be for family only, no friends.  Like Boondocks.

 

This way, they can choose, big activity, limited friends, or smaller activity, more friends, all being allowed the same price range.

 

Brynn and Sean both wanted to go to Airborne, which is a two friend party (this is above and beyond our six kids) so we booked the party for them together, which they were cool about.

 



I like doing parties with Airborne.  We went there for Cali's birthday (here) too and we've always had such a good experience with them.

Active jumping and flipping on trampolines + my old point and shoot camera = not such great pictures.  They're really blurry, but it's proof that kids were having crazy fun.
Jayme and Cas on the new zip line:


Brynn:

Tayler:

Jayme:

Brynn:

Cali:

 

Sean:

 



The Dodgeball Pit was a popular attraction for The Circus, The Man included:

At one point a group of older boys gathered to have a turn with the Dodgeball Pit and somehow or other The Man told our kids they should take these boys on, which, of course, The Circus thought was a great idea.  The older boys laughed and jumped in.

You'd think it would be an all out slaughter, but it wasn't.  Our kids hung in there and even beat those boys once. 

I was so impressed with how cool those boys were with playing with our kids.


Jayme, Skyler, Tayler, Tanner, Sean, Cali, Casidee, Hannah, Brynn, Marlie

The kids took it easy on me with cakes this go 'round.
Brynn just wanted purple cupcakes with sprinkles, and Sean wanted an ice cream cake but with nothing on it since they messed it up last time (at the end of this post).

These two birthdays open up our "birthday season."  From here until the end of April, we have one or more birthdays and/or holidays every single month.

It's time to gear up for all the festivities that are coming.

Birthday B

Happy birthday to Brynn, who gets to turn 11 today. 

Gets to.

I guess I'll let her...

Brynn's favorites are:
color: purple
movie: Lilo and Stitch
song: Temporary Home by Carrie Underwood
best friends: Hannah and Mia
thing to do: basketball
food: popcorn.  The girl is obsessed with popcorn.

Brynn wants to be a Veterinarian when she grows up. 

Not to be confused with a vegetarian.

Brynn loves accessories and clothes.  She loves to look nice.
She's always happy.
She's very picky.
Did I mention she's picky?
She doesn't like change.
She's a social butterfly.
She's a master of sarcasm.
She doesn't like long hair.

Brynn doesn't do drama.
What you see is what you get.

Nicknames: B, Brynners

Happy birthday to my baby girl.