Almost there!

We're almost done with soccer this season!!

Ari was loving playing with sticks in her new outfit.

My mom and Kent came to the game. Lexi's my cuddlebug!

You can see the bruise a little bit better in this one.

Kaden's expression here is hilarious.

One more game to go!!

Random

A couple of weeks ago, Ari decided to continue jumping from chair to chair in the kitchen after I'd repeatedly told her not to.  Just as I predicted, she fell off.  BUT she fell off face first.

That's her finger that she just HAD to have on camera.  But see the bruise by her eye? :(

I've tried to be better about couponing and ad matching lately, and I saw this in the Macey's ad last week:

Those are the meatiest tortillas I've ever seen!  hahaha

Kaden's preschool does all of the summer birthdays in May (plus the May birthdays), so he's been coming home with all sorts of goodies every single time he has class.  He hasn't taken this mask off:

My little superhero

SURPRISE!!

For months I've been planning Shane's surprise 30th birthday party.  Ever since January I've been planning and plotting.  

I let myself "forget" the fact that Shane said not to do a surprise party for him...  ;)

About six weeks ago, I emailed everyone and their dog to invite them to his party. (His real birthday isn't until next week.)  Everything came together really nicely.  I decided to do pulled pork, but instead of 15 lbs like I should have, I got 30.  And cooked it all.

I wanted to have enough!

I tried fitting 5.77 lbs of pork loin into my teeny, tiny crockpot the night before the party.  

It didn't go well.

Cutting off the string around it.  It looked like a lobster tail.

It took some squeezing, but we got it all in....kind of.  :)

Long story short, I left the meat in overnight (I started it late at night) and woke up at 4:00 AM to find the juices in the crockpot had overflowed.  ALL. OVER. I spent an hour and a half shredding the pork, then had to Clorox wipe everything down, then mop cause it was still sticky.  What better way is there to start the day?

A few decorations

I special ordered the cake.  I wanted it to be Lord of the Rings themed and knew I couldn't make one that would look as nice as this one turned out.

Fairy elvish writing

Tilt your head to the right.  That's how the evil eye is supposed to look.

I need to get a better picture of Shane's face.

 He was honestly 100% surprised!!  I'm awesome!

We ate lunch (which everyone helped out by bringing stuff), then Shane opened some presents before we busted out the cake and brownies and ice cream.

Shane loved the cake!

It was really fun and Shane enjoyed himself!

P.S. Kelly: thank you so, so, so, so, so, soooo much!!  You were a huge help!  

I couldn't have done this without you!

Random fun

Remember how I told you Ari loves to "play" the piano?

My little Mozart

We've had our favorite friends over a few times this last week and the girls were LOVING having a baby around.

Poor baby Jordan

His expressions cracked me up.

Lexi followed him around and made sure he knew the shoes went on his feet, not in his mouth.  ;)

We tuckered those kids right out.

Ari is short.  She'll most likely be taller than Lexi someday, but for now she's a shorty.  But that doesn't deter her one little bit.

Main floor continued...

I didn't have time to finish the main floor of our house the other day, but here is the rest of it. 

(Still a little dirty, but better than it was!)

Looking down on the kitchen from the staircase

The family room

Shane was looking for a very open floor plan and this was perfect.  The kids sit at the table and watch cartoons as they eat breakfast every morning.  The hardwood floors are Chinese cherry wood.  After our last house, I didn't want hardwood floors again.  They are SO much more work (instead of just vacuuming, you have to sweep, mop, and STILL vacuum the rugs).  But I didn't have the heart to cover this stuff up because it's beautiful.  A friend told me about Bona and it's made keeping my hardwood floor clean a lot, lot easier.  I'll get the upstairs of the house posted sometime this week.

Party

My friend, Kim, mentioned a few weeks ago that she'd never had a surprise birthday party.  She was turning 28 on May 3rd, so another friend, Jess, and I decided to do a surprise party for her.  Kim is obsessed with Friends (the TV show), so we did it with a Friends theme.

I made special cupcake toppers with famous Friends quotes.

We got Kim's husband to take her to dinner so we could set up at her house.

The sun is blocking her face, but she was really happy and semi-surprised.  ;)

Nummy food

Watching the video

I had an idea a few weeks back to do a slideshow with pictures of Kim and her friends who would be at the party to the theme song of Friends ("I'll Be There For You" by The Rembrandts).  Jess's husband put it all together and did a great job!  Since it was a girl's only party, we played a couple of trivia games ("How well do you know Kim?" and a Friends trivia game), then watched a couple of episodes of Friends as we all painted our nails and munched on the food.  :)

Freezing cold

Kaden's soccer game this last week was SO cold!  The day started out with snow, though, so at least it wasn't still snowing by then.

It looks deceivingly cold because of the sunshine.

Ari was toasty warm and happy.  :)  I wasn't so happy.

Lexi was bundled up and happy.

Only three more games of this season!