Shea's Book of Life Party

Shea (and all of us) love the movie Book of Life about Dia de los Muertos with a love triangle, renditions of Mumford and Son songs and a little Radiohead- what more could you want?  

It was kind of like the first Coco and it has almost the exact same Land of the Remembered feel with the magical colors and floating lanterns and flags and lights.  

It is beautiful.  

We tried to recreate it as best we could and I never want to take the decorations down.  It was just so magical.  The pictures really dont do it justice.  If we had known that this was her party theme when the real Dia de los Muertos was going on, I could have really stocked up on stuff, but we found what we could and I am definitely saving the decorations for every year.

My friends from school who grew up in Mexico loaned us some of the stuff that they own and use for parties and it just made the party.  Jeff got a poncho and we had a sombrero and serving dishes and a guitar! It was amazing.  And Jan made Shea a Maria- main girl who every body loves- costume and it was perfection!

 Then we busted out a piñata (even though Jeff said that is probably mixing up Mexican customs.  I feel like they probably had a lot of piñata in the Land of the Remembered).

 Shea loved the piñata and everyone loved helping her break it.
It really was just so much fun.
Then we sang to her on a cake that she and sawyer made with jeff earlier that day.  And sang again and again. She loveddddd it.  Ate it all up.  Until the last time when we dared sing to Victoria.  Then it was almost as bad as last year when sass tried to blow out her candles and help her. bahahhah!!

Happy birthday Shea.
I can not believe that you are 4.  You bring such joy and spunk and gentleness and love and also opinions that you hold to very tightly.  You have shown me what it means to step out of my comfort zone and how much joy that can bring as I have watched you have to go out of yours and seen you shine.  You have taught me patience and you bring me so much joy.  To be loved by you is truly an honor and I am so so thankful you are mine!

"The Switch" Directed by Avery Barstad on her 11th Birthday

Jus like last year, Avery wanted to write and direct her friends in a movie this year for her birthday. 

 We all helped with the sign,

 but she did everything else.  She wrote, planned, set up, directed and edited the whole movie.

 
(some scenes more intensely than others...)

And I forced everyone into a group photo after the wild night was over the movie was complete.
It ended up being 11 minutes and 11 seconds on her 11th bday :)

And Adalyn and Kennedy got to come with us to church.

Then, like last year, we set up stadium seating for the Super Bowl

while some of us napped.

Some of our small group and church people came over to watch.

And someone mentioned something about ice cream.  I dont know exactly how it went down, but thanks to  jeffs obsession with Favor, 3 blue bell galloons were brought to our house and we all ate our feelings after the Patriots won.

My mom sent a balloon bouquet for her actual birthday and we decorated a little bit before school.

We ended the night at Shogun and all had to roll ourselves out of there.  It was so good.

Avery, I can never put into words how much I love you or how very proud I am to be your mom.  You changed my life.   You keep changing it.  You teach me how to love others by how you love your siblings and friends and you impress me so much with your quiet confidence and amazing creativity.  I am so proud of your heart for God and how you pray to Him about other people who are hurting or have less than we do.  I know He will use you in might mighty ways and I can not wait to see what all you do for Him.

Happy 11th birthday!

Shea's biggest, loudest, craziest Troll party EVER

Shea exclusively wears Troll pajamas all day, everyday- she loves Trolls.

She had seen the movie 3 times before her party and she just fell in love with it.

We all really did. 

It is so sweet and so positive and, I kind of think 'celebrate alwaysish'.

So we knew we had to have a troll party.  Luckily since I never actually threw the twins a crazy 8 party, we had tons of stuff to use.

Jeff helped my vision of a troll tree entrance come true and it looked amazing!

And then the kids had the genius idea to use balloons hanging as the little pods that the trolls live in.

And I took photos before the party and then pretty much forgot.

Victoria shared her birthday with Shea, yet again by using her free time to make Shea these amazing cupcakes for her birthday that were gorgeous AND delicious.

And the kids made their hair into troll hair with this awesome spray hair stuff from Andi.

They loved it.

And the best part, by far, of the entire party.
Shea's entire personality is summed up in this video.
I just love her.
Happy Birthday Shea Shea. I cant believe that you are three.  It feels like just yesterday  you were born and now you are in a big girl bed! We love you so so much.  And are learning how to manage your incredibly large personality...
(and here is one to show us all someday that she did allow victoria to come to her birthday and allowed it it be Vic's birthday too.  She matured alot after blowing out her candles.)

"The First Day of School at the Red House School for Girls" A Movie by Avery Barstad

For her birthday this year, Avery wrote a script and wanted to direct, film and produce it at our house.  She wanted to keep it small and just invited a few friends who she thought would enjoy filming a movie.

It really was amazing to watch.  She is very into details and wanted the set to be perfect.  We had a lot of the pieces that made up the "school room" but every little extra thing I added, she would get so excited about. 

I made pillow cases for everyone to sleep in and sign with the logo for the movie and Jeff got her a directors chair that we put her name on in gold ink to jazz it up a little. 

She had a very distinct vision and I think that it went pretty much just like she wanted it to.

The girls were SO SWEET and let Avery tell them what to do and they just wanted her birthday to be special and just what she wanted. 

The filming lasted until 10, but everyone was such a good sport.

But they did go to bed right after.  Acting, y'all.  Not for the faint of heart.

We put the pizza and birthday cake in the wrap room for the "Wrap Party".  

And everyone sang to her after it was over.

And Lindsay and Allison made the party and hung out for most of it for Lindsay and Allison spent the night. I couldn't have done it without them!

And there was a huge dance party after it was all over!

 She has the full movie so I need to get that out so she can look at it before her first oscar nomination for best director and reminisce on her first movie.  

On her actual birthday, it was the Super Bowl and she was so excited to share her birthday with such a huge sporting event.  She loves every kind of sport just like my grandmother Momma Jo and its so much fun to watch her enjoy it. (She was rooting for the Broncos but thought that the Panthers were going to pull it out.  She was ecstatic when the Broncos actually won.)

Avery you are such an incredible person.  I am so very thankful to know you.  I am so so thankful to get to be your mom and watch you and your creativity love and encourage everyone around you.  You are truly a light.  Your smile and your heart are so big and so kind.  Thank you for how you live your life and for letting me a part of it.  You are the best surprise I could have ever hoped for in that positive pregnancy test just over 10 years ago.

Twincraft

This year for the twins bday we did Twincraft.
(They are obsessed with Minecraft and I have to admit that it makes me insane.  I hate having to monitor their screen time and I never really had to until Minecraft.  But for all intensive purposes, it is the perfect gender neutral theme for a bday and they are obsessed with it, so that does help.)
I tried to make a portal (but they didnt have pink streamers) and made it look pixelated with plates.



I was not on the ball and barely sent out an invites (ok, not any.  I sent them to school with the kids and few texts with a pic of the invite, but no actual invites went out.  Even to my brothers.  So, thankfully their class showed up and everyone who had gotten a picture text :)
Christopher and Tiffany spent their entire week making this cake that was as incredible to the taste as it is perfection in looks.  My kids could not get over it. They showed everyone who walked in the door the incredible cake their cousins had made.  Truly made the whole party.  (If you have been around awhile, you remember the incredible Noah's Ark cake they made for their second bday)




Thanks so much to everyone who came and celebrated and sang and stayed late and cleaned up!
Happy birthday to my twins.
I cant believe you guys are 7.  To say that I am proud of you is an understatement.  I could not be more thankful to have you both as middle children.  You handle the job of big, little and twin sibling with such class and patience.  Thank you for your forgiveness as I am trying to juggle all of this.  Thank you for your hard work Sass and your constant determination.  You never need any push or encouragement to do anything.   You are always ready and on the ball and I am so so thankful for that sweet side of you.  Ben, thank you for the kindness that just overflows out of you.  I have never met someone so sweet and kind and just a joy to be around.  You always put other people first and it is such an incredible joy to watch you.  You guys are total opposites and it makes my heart melt to see you compliment and help each other with your differences.  I hope you are always close and always encourage and love each other.