Primary Idol

Rosie's version of I Know That My Savior Loves Me.

Rosie & Her High-Heeled Shoe

This week we got a bag of hand-me-downs that Rosie was crazy about. Among the various treasures was a tiny, high-heel shoe, which looked like character shoes for a dance. It fit Rosie perfectly. Notice that I did not say pair of shoes, because there was only one.


Yesterday before church, Rosie wore the single high-heel shoe around the house. She loved the *clunk* sound it made on the hardwood. I kept begging her to put on two matching shoes but to no avail. When we arrived at church, I looked down to find that she still had on mismatched shoes. Apparently, she was trying to make a fashion-forward statement in Primary. She was not bothered at all by the difference in height or that she didn't have a pair of them. When she walked, you could hear the clunk, scuff, clunk, scuff. It sounded like a pirate with a wooden leg.

But what do you do when you have such a fashionista? I let it go with a smile on my face and did my best to suppress my giggles. Rosie rocks.

Lemon & Lime Party

Yes, indeed, the celebration has begun and will continue for weeks to come. What could cause such happiness and jubilee. Oh, you know, just the little thing of the hubby graduating ... for the third time. So what if it's the third time? Third time's a charm, right. (I only wish I'd known he was planning so many graduations so I could have given him regalia for a wedding present and saved us the cost of the 3 rentals.) Anyway, as part of the celebration, we decided to host a graduation party for Ben and some of his law-school friends (pictured below).


The theme for the party was "Lemon & Limes" -- just a theme, mind you, not a reference to Ben or any of his friends, all of whom are planning to become lawyers.


Why "Lemon & Lime," you ask? I don't know. Like all inspiration, it just came to me while I was picking out invitations. In any case, we did EVERYTHING in yellow and green with accents of red. We even bottled our own drinks: Passion Fruit, Mango Twist, and Pina Colada -- each of which had it's own label. The drink glasses had colored sugar rims and matching straws.

I know this sort of obsessive-compulsive party planning borders on ridiculousness. But I had a month to plan the party, and I couldn't help myself -- isn't there an expression about idle hands and a backlog of Martha Stewart Living's are the devil's playthings?

The appetizer was bruschetta with five different toppings: feta, mozzarella, parmesan, bacon, and avocado. Yummy. (See Martha Stewart Living, "Bruschetta 101," May 2010, page 72).

Of course we had a children's table. (Yes, after that much school, every student is bound to have two or more kids.) So we had to provide kid-meal happiness as well.


The kid's cuisine included homemade lemon pudding inspired by many years of growing up eating banana pudding filled with Nilla wafers. I still love it -- thanks, Dad.

We also had three salads -- a leaf, pasta, and fruit -- provided by the guests, which I somehow managed not to photograph, as well as delicious ribeye steaks, which Ben cooked on the grill. I somehow managed to not take a picture of them, only the stuff I did. Go figure. (I'd like to say it was a minor oversight, or that they didn't fit the "Lemon & Lime" theme, but the real reason is probably my party-planning ego -- which is a delicate flower.)


Here are some water bottles I made with custom "Lemon & Lime" labels. Yes, I know -- this is way over the top. Again, the lesson here is not to give me too much time to plan a party. For dessert, we had New York cheesecake with a hint of lemon. (The recipe can be found at the SmittenKitchen.com.)


We also had yellow cake pops, which were inspired from Bakerella.com


I forgot to take pictures of the table settings and the centerpieces/tablecloths and the Martha Stewart-inspired pom-poms hanging in the tree. (For me, this is as egregious as not taking pictures of a newborn child.) I also forgot to take pictures of the kids' tables. I did get a profile of my belly, though. Wow -- my belly is the only part of the gala not inspired by lemons or limes but rather a Green River watermelon. If someone were to touch me, I think I might pop.

Despite my initial embarrassment for doing everything in the "Lemon & Lime" theme, the party was a hit. Time to start planning my next party ... maybe for my husband's fourth graduation. You never know, right?

P.S. Special thanks to my sister Keri for helping out with the party. I couldn't have done it without her.

A "Magic" 8th Birthday Party

The week before Wiley's designated birthday I started suggesting to him that for his birthday we just get a few kids together and going to Jump on It. But Wiley would have none of that (oh, it would have been so simple to do it this way!). Instead he told me he wanted "a wizard party."

Huh? What kind of wizards are we talking about? Harry Potter wizards, Wizards of Waverly Place wizards, Lord of the Rings wizards? Where did this come from? In the end, the wizard he was talking about was Merlin (think Sword in the Stone). I was slightly baffled by the idea of a wizard party but soon Wiley and I were planning away. He was very specific about wanting to use scrolls. So here are the invitations with coordinating maps to the house.


We decided to have crafts for the guests to do while waiting for everyone to arrive. Wands made out of dowels and tin foil and wizard hats made out of poster board and construction paper. Oh, the work. I stayed up way too late one night cutting out the hats and the shapes. I kept telling myself, he will love you for it.

As the guests arrived, if they weren't already dressed as wizards we had wizard clothing for them to put on and we had a backdrop for pictures. Ben dressed up like Gandalf with the full beard and everything.


Both Ben and I studied magic tricks for a week. We each had a few awesome tricks to perform for the kids, but even better, we showed them how to do the tricks and then they got to do them themselves. We even did the cut-the-lady-in-two trick. AWESOME.



We had bottles full of gross looking stuff, and a menu. The kiddos could go down the menu and circle what crazy food they wanted. Here is what we served.

"Flaming monster eyes" (meatballs in BBQ sauce)
"Fried skeleton ribs" (fried mozzarella sticks)
"Cheesy worms" (Cheetos)
"Dried bat wings with guts" (chips and salsa)
"Dehydrated fish" (goldfish)
"Troll eyes" (green grapes)
"Slivered giants liver" (canned pears dyed green)
"Mini dragon brains" (canned peaches dyed red)
"Monster hearts" (strawberries)
"Lizards tongue in sauce" (carrots with ranch)
"Gnome legs in sauce" (celery with ranch dressing)
"Troll fingers" (bottled green beans)

We also had an awesome blue potion drink. It was blue Kool-aid with Sprite, green sherbet, with floating Jello eyes and chunks of fruit. Sorry I don't have pictures of everything. I was trying to be a hostess and not a photographer.

I'm most proud of the cake. It turned out to be HUGE. I made two cakes and built up the the base of the hat with various sizes of cake circles and a wooden dowel. The point of the cake is an ice cream cone stuffed with cake. The shapes on the cake are made up of flattened Airheads and Starbursts. It took two days to make the thing.



We gave out Magic Tricks kits from the dollar store for party favors and sent the kids all home giddy about the magic. Oh, phew. It seriously was fun to put together and throw the party for Wiley. He was really happy with the results, and he told me that he felt really popular because his party was cool (oh, to be eight again). That wasn't what we were aiming for, but he seemed pleased nonetheless.

Ben and I decided that we would not throw another party for him of this magnitude until it was his 16th birthday, or maybe not until he turns 18. Hopefully, he won't be requesting wizard parties then ...