27.7.11

What the heck are Phineus and Ferb talking about???

"There's 104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end it..."
or so the song goes...
but today I was thinking about it and with our school starting back up next week...
summer vacation for us was really only 60 days or so.
So where are the other 44 days?
What a ripoff.
Needless to say...we are back from our Canadian cool down and I have to say...it was nice:)
Sure it rained almost everyday...at least for 10 minutes...and I liked it.
I wore the same pair of jeans probably 15 of the 21 days we were there
(yes I washed them...at least once:)
But it was lovely.
However, I just realized today why my air conditioning bill is always highest in August.
Yes it is hot as you know what in August in Phoenix...but it is also because we get back from 
Calgary, directly into this oven we call home and I am used to spending the last couple weeks in comfort so the last thing I want to do is sweat it out. 
Thus...I seem to set the a/c a good 5 degrees below what I was sitting in BEFORE our trip.
Make sense?  Maybe not...but it made perfect sense in my head.

Ok...here are a few pictures from the trip.
Nothing spectacular (unless you count my sister's new house which is indeed spectacular).
Since there is absolutely no rhyme nor reason to these photos...I will just bore you with pics.

First...Peyton (the animal lover) got her fill of doggies with my mom's two.
As you can see...they are quite fond of her as well.

 We spent alot of time at the park with the girl's cousins.
Mainly because of these swings...which are very cool.




 Ainsley was attached at the hip to her little cousin Kendall.




Isn't she cute!

Another fun climby thing at the park.

Here is a rare photo of the girls and I.
As you can see I got all dressed up for it.
Or maybe it was totally unplanned...ya...that is more like it.
I then had my hair colored crazy a couple days later.
Of course you cannot go to Canada without spotting some wildlife.
Thanks to a great facebooker Shannon...she posted this link on the paperlili page and
I was then inspired to make Ainsley an instant armload of fabulousness.

I was most addicted to making the friendship bracelets to which I can now whip them out pretty quickly. I think I made about 15 of them while watching trash tv at night with my mom:)
 Hmmm..what else (told you I would bore you)
How about some candid shots of chickie.





And then...my sister's new house that she has been building for almost 2 years I guess.
Crazy.
Unfortunately they are moving in this weekend and so I missed it being completely finished by 4 days!
That sucks.
Another thing that sucks is that I had the completely wrong lens on my camera when I went to check it out...so you cannot even almost grasp
A. how huge this place is 
and
B. how fabulous it is
but...here are a couple highlights
the row of lanterns in her mud room
this is the sink in the mud room...how cool is it!
just a totally fabulous light in one of the hallways
Princess Kendall's irridescent purple shower tiles in her bathroom
the master bathtub...which is just a fraction of the gigantic master bathroom
the coolest fridge ever
which is in the best kitchen ever...also the largest kitchen I have 
ever seen in a house...I will post photos when she moves in and has it finished...you will die
and then my favorite part of the house...the mouse hole in the kids playroom


I have disappointed myself because these photos do a disservice to how perfect this house is...
but...you get the idea.

And then to finish off my photo tour...gotta share just a couple things that I bought.
I didn't actually buy much there...yet I still had to bring back an extra suitcase and I have no idea why.
But...first...I found these...I loved these...I had to have them and I can't explain why except
that they make me happy.
Yup... a totally missmatched set of cutlery.
Random I know...but...like I said, they make me happy:)

And then...my little miss mugs.
I adore little miss and mr. men.
I get so irritated when I see the little miss tees all over the place.
Overkill.  I was super excited 6 years ago when they started coming back because they
take me right back to being a kid...but people are still churning out the Little Miss Giggles tees and 
I don't like oversaturation:(
Never the less...that did not stop me from buying these mugs...which again...just make me happy:)

Now, you can't tell me that those fingerprints on your cup of coffee wouldn't make you smile too:)

3.7.11

Roller Girl turns 11

Today my girl turned 11.
Strange birthday with her dad not here to help decorate.
Also strange birthday because I think this is the first birthday that we have not had at home.
Any birthday party has always been a home sorta deal.
Sure we have had bouncy castles and water slides etc...but it has always come to us.
So this year...we went to the party place.
A skeezy roller rink to be exact.
The employees are nice enough...in fact they are super nice.
It just isn't the fanciest place in the world.
Not that roller rinks are.
But...in my head...I could open a super cute one lol.
All retro.
Anyways. I digress. Sorry.
So Peyton turned 11.
With 11 of her best friends.
It was cute.
They were exhausted and sweaty and bruised by the end of the 3 hours.
3 hours of rolling around in one circle.
Hmmm...I thought it was a good idea until I just read that actually.

The day went off without a hitch.
The only issue other than my 6'2" helper missing was the fact that I took Peyton's camera at the last second.  Never again.  Not that indoor/rollerrink photos can be cute.
But I am most certain they can be alot cuter than what I caught.

So here is a brief breakdown of the fun.
I suck because I totally forgot to take some very important photos.
Whatever. You get the gist.

The birthday girl
Her outfit she put together.

Taylor Swift shirt...with what wrapped in it?
Tickets of course.
Some more funky-ness.
These bracelets are called Braced-lets.
Get them here.

Just a shot of sister who wanted her hair curled and who will eventually realize that her hair doesn't actually want to do anything other than wave.
The feather in her hair still makes me think of a lizard tail...ew.

Ok...so here is where it gets bad.
A. I forgot to take a photo of my party table:(
So if you want to have a rollerskating party...these all worked out well for me.
I had blinking bracelets/necklaces for the kids...which made it easier to spot who was in our group when they were out on the floor.
I also had led cups and star decorations.
Get them here.


And glow in the dark balloons.
The glow stuff was cute.

The table...I bought some fabric for a table cloth.
(this was the same "table cloth" they had in Lemonade Mouth the movie. Peyton liked it...so a simple google search and I found it. Now I have 5 yards of crazy fabric")
Here was the scene in the movie:)
Here is my table.
This of course is at the end of the party when we took all my cute food/decorations down:(
So since it is the end of the party table.
Here is what the kids got to take home.
If you were a kid in the 80's...you might have had a slush mug.
I did. And I loved mine.
Hours we would spend trying to turn a half a cup of coke into a slush...good times.
They each got a super cute cookie from this etsy chick.
I am not totally sure what they taste like...but I am going to go eat one now and I am sure they are as yummy as they are cute:)
Here was one of the table decorations. 
I just wrapped a big styrofoam square and shoved them all in it.
It worked.
The 11 was from this etsy chickie.
Hey look.  I totally forgot to take a photo of my big cookie cake with the rainbow Peyton decoration in the middle...but check it out:)
This was it.
I just iced it onto the middle of a giant cookie.

As you can see...no method to my madness.
No real theme. 
Just color. Glitter. Glow. Fun.
And as for the cake...well...I made these yesterday and it cut down on the entire messy 
"cut the cake" situation.
No messy plates needed...and the kids just took the rest of their cake home:)

And just like that...the day is done.
Oh it pains me how terrible these photos are:( 
But oh well...still a cute group of great kids.
I am thinking Peyton must have told them to wear crazy socks.
Maybe not.
Now I am tired.
But I am glad we she had a fun day.
Except for the huge bruise on her hip from flying through the air and landing on her bones.