"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.

McKenna's Art Party

This was a fun party to prep for. Lots of splatter paint and lots of help from the Bday girl! I will forever think of this party every time I go in my garage. The drop cloths didn't so much catch alllll of the paint. oops! I would definitely classify it has an improvement to the garage floor though.

I ordered the aprons on Amazon and McKenna loved adding a splash of color and her hand print to each one. I then screen printed McKenna turns 5 on them.

I originally made everyone's party shirt say something different but when they saw how cool my ROY G. BIV one turned out, they all wanted that one too! 

We had her party at a place called Van Grow and it was fantastic! The room was so cute and the girl who helped run the party was so so sweet and fun. All I did for decorations was a table with a few snacks. 

My cousin gave me a genius tip on making the eatable paintbrushes. I would have been the sucker who made rice crispy treats from scratch and cut them all into rectangles. She told me to just buy the already packaged rice crispy treats and then just dip them in colored chocolate. Duh! 

As the kids came in, they could go to a table and do bead work or decorate a party hat. Once everyone got there, each kid got a cardboard letter of their name.

Legacy Cakes once again made the cutest cake ever and it was absolutely delicious!

You know I can't have a party without some kind of giveaway! 

143 was the lucky number. If you haven't read the book Purple, Green and Yellow, you totally should! It's one of our favorites and so funny.

For the party favors I ordered these clear paint buckets from Oriental Trading company. I filled them with art themed goodies. I ordered most of the things from Amazon and a few from Oriental Trading company.

Thank you so much for everyone that came and helped McKenna put the ART in PARTY!

Barstad Christmas 2015

Merry Christmas from the Barstads!

Everyone got a (stuffed or robotic) animal!

(I want to say that no real animals were harmed in the making of our Christmas, but there were a few squirrel deaths...)

Sarah and her family came in town for a very sad reason, but we were so so thankful to have them here for Christmas.  It just MADE the holiday season and we love them so much.  The kids couldnt contain their excitement to go play with their cousins every morning when they woke up.

Chuck e cheese is kind of a tradition now.

And seeing baby Eli and baby Kai back to back pretty much made shea's entire life.  She was in heaven and wanted to hold them both non stop.

We made kringla with Grandma, which is the most delicious cookie/biscuit thing that just melts in your mouth that is a tradition she has passed down to all of us.

We went to Christmas Eve service at our church and it was so moving and beautiful when we all sung a cappella to candle light at the end.

Then we had christmas with my family and went skiing.

It was amazing.

And this year we went ice skating.  

That seems like a normal thing to do, but in all of our years going to Utah, we never ever stray from the routine of skiing, hot tubbing, watching sports, eating too much and going to bed- just to wake up and do it all again the next day.  This time we went wayyyyy out of our comfort zone and tried something new (for about an hour).  

And it was SO MUCH FUN!

Then, we went straight home and played Pie Face.

And Ben made Kai laugh the cutest laugh in the world!

And came home and played with all of our new toys.

I would say it was the best Christmas ever.