Eight is Great!

Saturday April 30th

Garrett turned 42 and Bella turned 8!!
Garrett had taken Noah to the Father/Son camp out the night before and didn't get home until about 30 minutes before the party started at 1 pm.
Bella had decided that she wanted an "Art" Party and so I came up with like 8 different art projects for them to do and of course, we only got through like 2 or 3 with a couple of games thrown in.

It was a beautiful day, so I set up the painting part outside in the backyard. 

I displayed some drawings of hers and had the cute wooden letters spell out "art".  

After Garrett came back home, I walked into the living room and found that he had taken the time to find construction paper and cut out an F to add to my 'art'.  Oh my...such a guy thing to do.  He thinks he's so funny...of course, all the kids thought it was hilarious!

More decorations in the front room

I loved this idea!  I had my friend Bethany--who is an extremely talented artist--draw me a mural with all sorts of cute animals at a birthday party.  It was so much better than I had imagined!  She put in some elephants because those are Bella's favorite animal.

Outside was a table set up for another project.

When all of her friends arrived (I think she had 8 friends come) we had them color on the mural for a little while.  

Then we played a game where they each got a piece of paper and they wrote their name on top and then drew a circle for their heads.  Then they passed their paper to the right and then that person had to draw the eyes of the person whose name was on the top of the paper.  Then they passed it to the right again and then they drew the nose of the person whose name is on the paper and so on until they had a complete drawing.  It was pretty funny to see some of the final pictures. 

 Then we headed outside to start the painting project.

I had a canvas for each girl and they were supposed to put painter's tape on the canvas in any design they wanted.  Then they painted their canvas and when it was dry, we'd peel the tape off and they'd have a design.  Mine is the one displayed in the picture above.  

These were some of the finished projects (with the tape still on). I had enough canvas's for them each to paint two pictures and for most of the second ones they just painted whatever they wanted.  

Then we went over to the other table outside and I had black paper and pastels for them to color whatever they wanted.  

Then we played a couple of games outside.  This one was balloon volleyball where they worked as partners and each had a fly swatter.  They had to keep the balloon in the air and hit it back and forth with their partner with the fly swatters.  

Then they played a marshmallow toss while I got the cup cakes ready. 

Bella wanted them to decorate their own cupcakes.  So I used paint pallets to put their decorating supplies in--sprinkles, mini m&m's and mini chocolate chips.  

It was a cute idea, but man those sprinkles were a mess!!

Cute little Bella!

When they were done with their cake and ice cream, they finished up the mural.  

Then it was time for presents.  I even planned her party to be 3 hours so we could do more, but time just flew!

Back:  Brooklyn, Bella, Emma, Jazlene, front: Amira, Cheryl, Lauryn, Katie and Ji-Su

Silly faces

The goody bags

After everyone went home, my kids worked on another project--stained glass window designs with tissue paper.

Since Garrett had been gone the night before, he didn't get to go out for his birthday dinner.  So, after the party, we went out for his dinner at Vivi's--a vietnamese place that we both love.  (kids stayed home).  

When we got home they opened their family gifts.  (Some of these were Garrett's gifts) 

More Legos!!

We also surprised her with an art easel and lots of art supplies.

And since she was turning 8, she got her own set of scriptures with her name on it and a cute scripture case.

Garrett's turn.

I got him a new pair of wireless headphones and he sat there and listened to them and was singing out loud--really loud!  It was funny.  

Bella's annual Questionaire:

1.  What is your favorite color?  yellow and light purple

2.  What is your favorite toy?  Legos and my bike

3.  What is your favorite fruit?  I like all fruits

4.  What is your favorite TV show?  "Good Luck Charlie"

5.  What is your favorite movie?  "Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day."

6.  What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? fruit and hot dogs

7.  What is your favorite outfit?  jeans and a t-shirt

8.  What is your favorite game?  Spoons

9.  What is your favorite animal?  Elephant, turtle, panda, rabbit, and horse

10.  What is your favorite snack?  apples and peanut butter

11.  What is your favorite song?  "Try Everything" from Zootopia

12.  Who is your best friend?  Emma Santos and Lauryn Squire and Katie Lloyd and Brooklynn Culbertson

13.  What is your favorite book?  Amelia Bedilia

14.  What is your favorite cereal?  Froot Loops (That's funny since I haven't bought them in over a      year or two)

15.  What is your favorite thing to do outside?  ride my bike

16.  What is your favorite drink?  Chocolate milk or lemonade

17.  What is your favorite holiday?  Christmas and Easter

18.  What do you like to sleep with at night?  My elephant Ellie

19.  What's your favorite thing for dinner?  "tordeleniy alfrado" (tortellini alfredo)

20.  What do you want to be when you grow up?  a Kindergarten or preschool teacher

21.  What food do I not like?  broccoli

22.  What is something that I do well?  color, puzzles, dancing

23.  What is something I need to practice?  drawing people

24.  My favorite place to go:  Alaska, Utah, and Mexico

25.  My favorite family activities:  are going on trips

26.  My favorite thing about home:  is my room and the play room and the front room

27.  My favorite chore is:  wash windows

28.  My least favorite chore is: sweap (sweeping)

29.  A place I want to visit:  Hawaii

30.  My favorite part of each day:  school

31.  Something new I'd like to learn this year is:  more math