Talent Show Birthday Party

This summer as the girls and I were playing outside on a porch in our backyard I said, "Bay, we could have a talent show". She loved that and we played and then I thought, hmm... we could have a talent show birthday party. From then on I started preparing for this party. On her actually birthday I made star-shaped toast with jelly and sprinkles for breakfast. Then as a tradition on birthdays I read the the book, "On the Day You Were Born" by Debra Frasier. It also gets read again at bedtime by daddy. She opened one present when daddy got home from work. Then the next day was a Saturday so we had the talent show party that day. It was so fun. Our family and friends ate pizza, salad, and fruit. Then we did the usual birthday stuff- birthday song, blow out candles, eat cake and open presents. Then the fun began with performing on the "stage". Kids danced, read poems, blew a bubble from gum, put on puppet shows. Pure silliness. I love it. It is exactly what I had hoped for. Then I helped Tony put on his puppet show that was similar to the boy who cried wolf. Thank You Jill for the awesome puppets! Especially the snail puppet. We thought the kids would never stop playing with the puppets. There will definitely be more puppet shows around the house. I just need to start collecting some quality puppets . Happy 3rd birthday Bay!

8-28-06 Bay Maryn Standrod

8-29-09 3 yrs. old

Bug Catcher necklace

I follow the WhiMSy love blog. She is so stinkin' creative. She and her daughters made these necklaces with a container to put bugs in. We made ours today. so fun and simple. I wish I could think of things like that. Click on her link for the tutorial. Here is Bay and June wearing them. June of course loves necklaces so whether or not she puts a bug in it she is happy.

Emery

I will blog about Tony's awesome birthday since he won't. He had been feeling sick and stayed home from work the day before. On his birthday, he slept in and then decided to go to work. I was glad since I wanted to do our usual surprise when he comes home after work. After he left I began blowing up balloons. The girls and I decorated the kitchen with them. When the girls went down for a nap, I made rice Krispie treats. Later, we anxiously waited for daddy to pull into the driveway. As he walked in the door we greeted him with a Rice Krispie "cake" and song. Then we gave him his present. Tony then got cleaned up and ready to go to the Emery concert. We thought we were super late since the event started at 6. It was held at a church. We knew it would be geared towards a younger crowd. We got there and realized how old we were. They had lots of outdoor games and stuff for the teenagers to do. It was so weird to be in that environment. We definitely felt out of place. We decided to go get something to eat and come back later when the bands would play. Emery wasn't scheduled to play until 10. So we rode around trying to find something to eat and then Tony yells, "that's Emery right there!" They were walking across the highway to go eat. We decided to let them choose were we would eat. They chose Wings To Go. We went in right behind them. I bet Tony was about to pass out. He really likes this band and they were right there in front of him. They are a Christian band that is pretty successful but not so well known that fans would follow them around and beg for autographs and pictures (except us-ha ha). At least not in small town IN. No, we didn't bug them with all that. We just sat near them and ate our dinner. Tony finally struck up a conversation with them. It was awesome. When Tony walked away, I told them it was his birthday. So then we talked about that. We decided to go back to the church and get close to the stage. And that we did. Since the crowd was small and it was in the parking lot of a church we were able to comfortably get to the stage. There were several mosh pits but we only got knocked around once. Toby, lead singer from Emery, gave Tony a happy birthday shout out and dedicated a song to him. Awesome moment again. I wished they would have played a little longer but what they played was good. We hung around afterwards to get a picture and thank them. I am so glad I was able to enjoy this with Tony. He has been to one of their shows before but I was unable to go. This was probably the best birthday he has had in a long time. If you have never heard any of their songs check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOtAgiH2Wfo

Naturally Named

I love knowing creative people. Catherine Clare, who I have known since elementary school, has started a new little business which I think will be a hit. She photographs architecture and nature that form natural letters of the alphabet. Many people are ordering the letters of their last name but my name is too long so I think I will just get an "S" or a monogram "tSa". She is having a giveaway now until friday so click over and write a comment to enter. Below is a picture from her Natural Collection where she has decoupaged the photo onto a wood frame.

Here comes the birthdays..

With vacation over now it is time to plan birthday fun! Hubby has a birthday on the 14th. We are going to an Emery concert. Then Bay's talent/puppet show birthday party is on Aug 29th. I just sent out the invitations to a few people from church who have little girls Bay has played with before. I hope I haven't gotten myself in too deep. I have never invited this many people to my house and I hope I will be able to entertain and feed them all. And if it rains I will probably have to cancel because I am pretty sure everyone would not fit inside our house. And if it doesn't rain and people do show up, I hope Tony and Bay will entertain everyone on our little "stage". Then in october, it is June's turn. I can't wait for all the balloons, cake, and singing. Life/Birth-what an awesome thing to celebrate!