Joey's DANCE PARTY Birthday Celebration

Joey and his good friend Cadence are born a week apart. Lindsay (C's mom) and I talked about having a combo Dance Party for the two of them to celebrate their 7th birthday -
Well, we did it!  What a celebration it was!

What do you need to host a dance party? A DANCE FLOOR!
We asked our church and they graciously gave us the use of the basement - a great big open space with a wood floor stage! (For FREE TOO!)

We put a disco ball and some Christmas lights up above the dance floor.
We hung stars, music notes, cardboard guitars and records for decorations.
As each child entered, they recieved a bead necklace and a glow braclet.
There was also the option to get golden glitter sprayed into their hair.

There was a Tatoo station, Rock Star Photo Area, and CD Suncatcher craft. (plus lots of healthy snacks!)

We had fun, kid-friendly music rocking through the speaker system of the church basement. (Thanks to Lindsay for uploading TONS of kids songs onto her laptop!)
We did the chicken dance, electric slide, limbo, and lots of other fun songs to get the kids to participate. There was even a balloon drop! IT WAS AN AWESOME TIME!!!

The balloon drop was fun, but popping the balloons was LOUD!

Blue tongues from the Ring Pops!

The view from the stage after all the sugar kicked in!

Suncatcher CD Craft

What was most memorable though, was that the kids went WILD! after cupcakes, lemonade, ice cream and ring pops....imagine that! Any sense of organized acivities went out the window once the sugar kicked in and their 7 year old instincts took over - balloon battles, kids running all over, dancing was to the extreme with reckless abandon...IT WAS HILARIOUS! (And exhausting!)

Did I mention that we had specifically (and intentionally) invited the entire 1st grade class from the Oaks Academy?  The goal was to bring together not only the kids, but the parents, as well. I hope we did that! :)

34 out of 45 were able to attend and those that weren' had all communicated their deep dismay at missing the fun! That definitely made it worth our effort and time!

These are only a few of the photos. Lindsay also had her camera and captured WAY more "Rock Star" poses than I did! I'll get those on here soon!

Happy Birthday Joey! We love you!

HAPPY EASTER 2012!

What an Easter weekend we had! It started out with our Hot Cross Buns! It's tradition, BUT these were Gluten Free...NOT the same, but kids loved em!

Then, on Saturday, we were invited to our friends' home for an Easter Egg Hunt - it was SO FUN!

On Easter morning, we broke the GF fast with our RESURECTION EGGS (another tradition!) YUM!

We hunted for a few more candy filled eggs and the kids each have a treasure box with scripture quotes added annually, to hunt for.

Than off to church in our Easter Sunday best!

The kids each got a mini kite in their Easter baskets - it was a beautiful and windy enough day to go fly a kite!

We are so blessed!  Happy Easter!

Joey's 7th Birthday!

My how time has flown by....Joey is 7!

His birthday fell over his school's Spring Break this year, so we headed to Warren, Ohio for a few days. We stayed with my dear friend Shelley, which was a blessing.  On Joey's birthday, we gathered family to join us to celebrate in a fun filled way - BOWLING! Good ole Echo Lanes provided a wonderful time - my 87 year old Gram bowled alongside her 7 year old grandson (and a bunch of other kiddos, cousins, and friends!) It was a special time - with pizza from Sunrise too! How great it that!?

Joey's Giraffe Presentation (Oaks 1st grade)

Joey and his entire 1st grade class at the Oaks Academy were required to pick an animal from Africa, research it, and prepare a tri-fold board explaining what they learned. Joey chose the giraffe. We went and researched and observed at our Indianapolis Zoo. (Joey took the photo of the giraffes).

It was his idea to make the background of the board yellow with brown spots (like a giraffe).  ALL the kids helped him paint.

He used photos that Joe and I took while we were in South Africa, photos from his zoo expedition, and photos we scanned from library books.

Sadly, on the day he was to stand up and present in front of the whole class (along with the other kids in his class), he got sick the night before and had to miss school. He was so upset that he could not go to school that day. Luckily, he just presented the next day, but he was bummed to miss everyone else's presentations too. We have his "practice" presentation on video - he spoke about his board to his Bammie and Bampie. It was something to see!