If you were looking for inspiration to throw a spring party, check out this blog.

Ahhhh....hold on while I catch my breath.

Our Spring Break STAY-cation!

Last week, Cade said, "Mom, let's not go to California again. Let's go someplace different for Spring Break." I'm not sure that he meant Phoenix and Camp Verde, but that worked for us!

On Monday afternoon, Casey and I loaded up our stuff (including our kids) and headed southwest to The Arizona Grand Resort for 2 days of watersliding and lazy-river floating. On the way, we stopped at the theater to see...

And after the movie, we checked into the resort and spent the rest of the evening at the pools, followed by pizza in bed while watching back to back Ultimate Cake Challenges on TV.

The next morning, we ate breakfast at the resort cafe, went on a walk around the grounds, and then went back for more of this...

When the kids had had their fill of sun and water, we packed up and headed to lunch at the Farm at South Mountain, just around the corner. If you haven't been...run, don't walk. I have been there several times, but this was Casey and the kids' first time. They were sold. Cade- on the egg salad, Casey- on the carrot cake!

That was Tuesday. On Wednesday, we woke up bright and early, packed a picnic lunch (including green chips, green grapes, and green Oreos to celebrate St. Patrick's Day), and picked up Grandpa Peterson for the drive up to Out of Africa in Camp Verde...well worth the drive! The kids were loving how close they were to such amazing animals, like tigers, grizzlies, giraffes, and Boom Boom the Rhino. They even got to pet a 4-foot monitor lizard!
Sofia, my own Dr. Doolittle, was in animal heaven.

 

 

I was even able to convince Casey to fork out a little extra dough so that we could do this...

(Can you see the strings of slobber connecting his tongue to my hand? Lovely.)

All in all, our Staycation was a success.
Now, what do I do with these kids all summer?!

It's never too late to plan a party, right?!

I just ran across the most adorable, FREE printables to throw your very own Oscar party. Thank goodness for the uber-creative and generous minds that blog! To print your own, go here and here.

My ballots are printed and ready to go.

Rag-nasty!!

We made it!

After 29 hours and 204 miles of racing through the Arizona desert, team Haulin' Asphalt is no worse for the wear, and it feels SO good.

Not that we didn't have our challenges...

The night before the run, Aimee, my favorite Texan, got the flu and had to give up her spot to our AMAZING alternate runner, Brenda. If we learned one thing, it was to ALWAYS have a backup plan.
So, Friday morning, van 1 (Brittny, Melissa, Brook, Kelly, Brenda and Heidi) took off to be in Prescott for our 9:30 start time.
We slept in:)

We (van 2) left at 10AM for Kirkland where we picked up our first legs. That's when we got the news that Heidi had tweaked her knee just a couple of miles into her first run and had to pull out. Again, thank goodness for Brenda who jumped out and finished Heidi's leg.

So, now we're down 2 of our teammates:(

Fortunately, the rest of the day was amazing. Our van ran Sandi,

then, Sara,

then, Summer,

then, me,

then, Lisa,

then, Cheryl.

 

And at about 8PM, we retired to the Wickenburg Super 8 for some Subway, showers and sleep...until midnight. And then we were back on the road to relieve the other van.
Sandi began her long 8 mile run. She was a machine, but sheer will can't get you all the way through a race if your body doesn't cooperate and at mile 7, her knee, too, had other plans. But she pushed through to the end! However, she had to be done.

That's, 3 teammates gone.

That's when we got the news that at the very next exchange, an 18 year old runner had been struck by a car and they were closing down the highway. Race officials ordered us to go straight to exchange 24 where we all were assigned new start times to finish the race. Ours was 6:10AM. But we had skipped Sara, Summer and my second legs of the race. And, then...we found out that Brittny had gotten food poisoning and was DEFINATELY not able to run her last leg.

Are you still counting? That's 4.

So, we went back to the drawing board.
After switching around some runs and fueling up with Denny's, we were pumped and ready to finish off strong. And we did!

And after all of that, some might ask why we would ever do it again. To that I say...
"Where do I sign up?"

 

Double Digits!

It's your day, bud.

Make it real:)

Phoebe's Baptism

Phoebe is now an official member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We are so proud of her for the maturity with which she handled the entire day. She read a book on baptism on Saturday morning and followed it up with a million questions about details of the ordinance. I loved the conversation that followed. I have learned that the baptism of a child is one of the most special days for a mom.
Last night, at bedtime, Phoebe said that she wished she could do "it" again.

This mother's prayer was answered.

Cade's 10th Birthday Party

Pizza, soda, pizza, bumper cars, laser tag, arcade games, soda, presents, cake, soda, games that give you lots of tickets, ice cream, balloons...
in that order.
Happy birthday to my favorite son!

I'm in the process...

of attempting to create this...

I worship Amy Atlas's tablescapes.

In an alternate universe, I'm a party planner.

Thank goodness for the events in life that allow me to cross that universe with this.

Little Me

Ever since this girl was tiny, people have said that she looks just like me. I've never seen it quite as obvious as others do. Frankly, I think that she's much prettier than I was as a child. But, I'll take the compliment.

Phoebe is 8, now. I still remember the day I went into labor like it was yesterday. It was the day after Christmas and Sara, my mom and I were going to do some present returns at the mall. It didn't take more than 5 minutes of waiting for my mom to take the velcro rollers out of her hair to realize that that was not going to happen, today. No, instead of returning a present, I was about to recieve another. Phoebe came into our lives on December 26, 2001.

In 2 weeks, she will be baptized. As scary as it is to see my first daughter growing up so fast, I am sick with pride in my lovely daughter.

She is a gift.

I Can Save Your Life

In my qwest to become a certified personal trainer, I am now CPR certified!

Here's hoping that I never have to use what I learned, (especially on someone the size of the sasquatch I was paired up with, in class).