lucy's big girl bike!

here's a video of lucy and jayne riding their new bikes.

Emma's 1st Birthday Party!

My sister's little girl, Emma, turns 1 on the first of september, and they had a party for her at this new place called kidznasium here in midland. they hadn't even had their grand opening yet, so we were like their first customers. it's a really kid friendly place that had tunnels for the young kids to crawl through, a ball pit, a climbing wall, some baby toys. my sister knows a lot of people with young kids, apparently, and invited all of them, so there were plenty of kids to play with!

here are the kids playing in the ball pit. they really seemed to enjoy it! i think it was lucy and jayne's first time in one, actually.
emma and big brother, samuel, wrestling together. the birthday girl. what a face...samuel and his monster feet.jayne, emma, and richie playing.like 5 of the children there were under the age of 1, including little libby! they seemed to have a really good time!

After play time, it was time for cake! i made the cake for the occasion, and it turned out completely different than originally planned. see, i had planned to make a little lamb cake on top of a sheet cake that was to be decorated like grass, but that one didn't turn out the way we were hoping.

the poor dumb sheep's head was too heavy and fell off while i was frosting it. so, i made the cakes again, and it happened. the same thing, it's head fell off. so, instead i opted for a different approach. completely different. this is what we ended up with, and my sister really liked them, so i was happy! emma didn't seem to mind what the cakes looked like. my sister hadn't even gotten emma sat down in her chair before she had snatched a piece and gobbled it up! too cute...

i read too much...

so, i spent all of last week reading the "twilight" series. my mom really likes them, and alot of people at church were totally into them, so i decided i'd try them out. i was hesitant to start reading any of them, but my mom had me borrow the first two, so i figured, i might as well. don't get me wrong, they were really fun books to read, but they weren't like the best books ever. but man was i addicted! so much went undone around our house, and it's a good thing the baby isn't here yet, because i just couldn't put the books down! every free minute i had was devoted to reading those ridiculously addicting words! i finished breaking dawn today, and i am so relieved because now i can get back to my life. i'm a big harry potter fan, but even those books didn't leave me ignoring my kids (well, not too much) so i could read them cover to cover. it was like my life was on hold for some odd reason, and i feel so embarrassed that they had such an effect on me! i would recommend them to anyone to read, and i am really excited about the twilight movie that is coming out in december, but man am i glad to be back to reality!

richie's not birthday party

so, we had richie's birthday dinner tonight, and i made him brisket. i had asked him what kind of cake he wanted, and he wanted a giant chocolate chip cookie instead of a cake. so, that is what i made him for his birthday, and the girls helped me decorate it. you can see they're signatures on the top in blue icing with sprinkles.

here he is blowing out the candle on his birthday cookie.

Richie was really excited about the gifts he got. here's a picture of him with a new video game i got for him to play on his new wii. can you see the excitement?!