Danielle

Happy Birthday!!

{to the newest teen in the house}

Monique's Birthday || Stampin' Up! Party

For Monique's 13th this year, she organised a Stampin' Up! party which she ended up having at the manse, since our pastor was away and Monique really wanted to have Mrs. Smith (our pastor's wife) at the party. It turned out to be great for us because when Mum and Monique left, we had baking utensils, ingredients, you name it (just about . . . ) all over the kitchen and dining table (lol). 

Overall I think the cake turned out pretty good, no?

: : Talking before making cards : :

: : Cardmaking! : :

: : Treble Clefs!! : :
{Guess who piped those lol?}

: : Amelia Smith (7yrs) made this for Monique's birthday cake since I only made a cake last minute : :

I melted more chocolate than I needed, so I piped this pony as well. I think we ended up using it for Danielle's cake (photos still coming of that one lol)

Do you think?!

Monique's Birthday || Photo Recap

: : Bryce smiles for the camera : :

: : And Mum and Dad's turn : :

: : Monique and her gift collection : :

: :Yum! : :
Sauce recipe courtesy of the Bates family

Monique

As of today, we have three teens in the family . . .

Happy 13th Birthday Monique!

This past year Monique has enjoyed

• continuing with violin lessons
• beginning piano lessons
• spending several hours each Friday helping our pastor's wife by entertaining the children or cleaning
• practising her culinary skills with one assigned night to cook each week

Leave Monique a birthday wish in the comment box! :)

Jarrod's 13th Birthday

Nice one Monique...

Jarrod turned 13 on May 10th...yeah two teens in our family now...freaky!!! lol Anyway here are some pics from the night we celebrated his birthday - dinna, presents, and dessert. 

Maria

Lovely(!) pic of Laura

Opening his presents

Dessert time!

Day After New Year's Day Part 1

Just so you know, my title is derived from the calendar...!

So anyway, this particular day counted as busy for us. First off was all the normal housework that needs to be done after the weekend (fun stuff!), then after various necessary preparations, we all piled into the Burtons' van (yes, Mum had refrained from returning it so we could use it for this visit!), and headed for the Campbells' place. Jarrod is friends with the Campbell boys, so our family and the Shellings' were invited to go over for lunch and a few games, in celebration of Seth's 13th birthday. We weren't the only ones running on homeschool time, so somehow, we managed to arrive before the Shellings(!). Well, ok, they do have 10 children, and the eldest is only 11, so I suppose I'll let them off...lol! Actually, Mrs. Campbell and Nathan hadn't yet arrived back from dropping off the Porsche they'd had overnight...so the timing worked out fine in the end!

Once everyone had arrived, we all had lunch, following which Mrs. Campbell got the games started. The adults, very young children, and I just sat talking for a while. We needed to leave by a certain time, so finally we rounded everyone up for birthday cake, and lastly, a group photo:

Sorry, can't give you the names as I don't know them all....! But Mr. and Mrs. Campbell are in the top lefthand corner, my parents on the left, and Mr. and Mrs. Shellings on the right.

Esther's birthday Party

Hey,

My friend Esther Sonneveld had her13th birthday party on Friday 16th to Saturday 17th April.
On Friday night Mums and girls presented scrapbook pages to Esther, and stayed for dessert and a movie - Facing the Giants.
Then most of the girls stayed the night and the Mums went home (as did I).
I got up WAY to early the next morning (about 7:30 I think) and went to the Sonnevelds' who waited for a few more girls to arrive, and then had breakfast.
After breakfst were HEAPS of games - Truth or Dare, in which we rung a chinese shop and asked "Do you do take-aways?"
"Yes"
"What's 9 take away 5?"
"Uh, I dunno"
and a few others.

In teams, wrote a story about Esther ONLY by clipping words and phrases out of a newspaper.

Late morning, after the cake:

we all piled into the van, and went tenpin bowling.

Next came lunch - rolls, ham, luncheon, etc...

Then more games and activities including splitting into teams (again), and making dresses for one person in each team from rubbish bags, toilet paper, and sellotape..

After HEAPS of games and fun we all got dropped off at about 5pm.
Better get ready for Girls Rally Break-up evening...
Luv Bee