An Oompa Loompa Party

This last Saturday was Whitney's special birthday party.  She has been looking forward to her Oompa Loompa party for months and has been telling everyone.  I am glad that the day turned out so fun.

I made a Whitney Golden Birthday Ticket to tape onto candy bars to use as invitations.  Everyone seemed to like the creative way to invite.

I taped on a copy of Willy Wonka to our front door.  So he is kind of welcoming everyone to our chocolate factory home.

While waiting for everyone to come, we let all the kids color pictures from the movie.

I knew that most of the kids hadn't seen the movie, so we watched little clips about each of the kids from the movie so everyone would understand what we were doing.

Our first game was the "Feed Augustus Gloop".  Will and I both made a poster and the kids had a relay to see which team could feed their Augustus the chocolate chips the fastest.

The kids seemed to think the relay was fun.

Then we had to rescue Augustus Gloop from the chocolate river - chocolate milk by drinking through the straw.

This was Whitney's favorite game.  We had to juice Violet by popping the balloons (which I had filled with water).

Afterwards, we had a golden egg hunt (in honor of the golden goose that Veruca wanted).  There were three little babies at the party who also appreciated this game since they also searched for candy.  Megan has a mouthful of chocolate and is with Grandpa.

Before the party, I thought for a long time on what I should do for Mike Teevee. I finally decided that we should made shrinkadinks so we could see some shrinking.  The kids thought this was really neat.

Then we also looked for little Mike Teevees among lots of rice inside my 'televisions'. This became a free for all rice throwing party at the end.

Then everyone built glass elevators out of legos for Charlie Bucket.  Conner's elevator was the most advance.  

Then it was time for brownies and singing Happy Birthday.

And everyone wanted a Fudgesicle - or chocolate popsicle like the kids call them.

Whitney got lots and lots of presents.  All the kids gathered around her as she opened them.

And playing with the guitar that Grandma gave her.  The guitar and the cart have been real hits over the last couple of days.  

Anyway, it was a really fun day.  I am glad everything worked out well.

St. Patrick's Day and Relief Society Birthday

So Tuesday was a busy, busy day.  It was the Relief Society Birthday Dinner and I was in charge, so I ended up going to the church three times that day to help set up and make sure everything was ready.  But first, I did take a couple of green pictures for Saint Patrick's Day.

Everyone wearing green.  And even everyone looking forward.

Whitney insisted I needed a picture of me in green.  We are still working on not cutting off heads.

The girls got to use green fingerpaint to decorate a cardboard box.  They loved this activity. And that pretty much sums up our Saint Patrick festivities.

I was worried about this Relief Society Birthday Dinner.  But it turned out really well.  Maybe I will be recovered enough by next year to do it again.

These are the table settings.  The Relief Society Presidency got together and made these beautiful flower bouquets with mirrors in the middle (to go with our Inner Beauty theme).

Here everyone makes faces.  I cut out a whole bunch of face pieces and told everyone to make a beautiful face.  My mom and sister were able to come to the activity.  So I appreciated their support.

After making faces and talking about how beauty is different for everyone, we ate a scrumptious meal.  We had cream puffs with different fillings - the chicken salad and ham salad were delicious.  And we had plenty of food for everyone.  That was a relief.

I made a video presentation about beauty.  I think everyone liked the video.  (Thanks goes to Will for turning my powerpoint into a DVD)

Kind of a blurry picture, but we are playing a matching game using the virtues found in Proverbs 31.  We talked about what makes us really beautiful.

At the end, I gave out 'Beauty Bags'.  They didn't have the typical 'beauty' items in it.  Instead there were things like cotton balls for showing others gentleness and compassion.  Anyway, I am hoping that the wonderful sisters in the ward learned something about being truly beautiful on the inside and out.

   Now I am just planning Whitney's big Oompa Loompa party on Saturday,

Whitney's Birthday

My big girl has turned five.  Holy cow! How did that happen?  We did a smaller party on her actual birthday; my family was able to come from the Tri-Cities for dinner and celebrating.  We are going to be having another party with Whitney's friends in a little while, so that should also be fun.

We went to story time in the morning.  Whitney's birthday is close to Dr. Seuss' birthday.  We are the only family who consistently comes to story time.

So the story time lady threw Whitney a birthday party.  That was really nice of her.

Whitney got a birthday crown and a coloring book and a few other small party things.

Megan enjoyed the cupcake at the party.

Then the evening with my family here.  Whitney picked brownies over chocolate cake.

And we got yummy fudgesicles.  Megan liked her brownie, until she saw the fudgesicle and then her brownie was no good anymore.

My parents brought some fun presents for Whitney.  Whitney also got to open presents from Grandma and Grandpa Keeler.  

The lucky girl got so many fun things.  Most things have already been opened and used.

Megan getting in trouble after the party.  She wanted to poke all the brownies.

And my sister Kaitlin left her water bottle here, that was quickly discovered and utilized.

Anyway, it was a really fun day.  Happy Birthday Sweet Whitney!!

The Randoms

We are potty training here - what could be more fun?  So we have been trying to stay home as much as possible.  These pictures aren't going to be super exciting.  But here they are.

Megan smiling in Will's (I mean her's) BYU hat.

Megan seems to like Rachel's potty toilet more than Rachel.  Here she reads a book while sitting.

We were ready for church about 30 minutes early one Sunday.  That is no small feat with little children.  So we spent awhile singing primary songs.

Megan is my best cleaner.  She had spilled some milk and decided to try to clean it with a broom.  Good try little girl.

Whitney informed me that she needed snow.  We haven't really had much at all.  Poor kids.  So we made paper snow.

And now the "snow" is falling down.

Megan and her friend Asher playing under the computer desk.

I use a lot of methods to try to help Rachel stay on the potty chair sometimes.  This balloon fight worked really well.

And at story time last week.  The kids used animal magnets to make a zoo.