They came... all 21 of them!!!

They giggled, they laughed, they screamed... oh my did they scream!! They burped and made arm farts which caused more giggling and laughing.

They crafted and painted fingers and toes, they sang and hollered with delight.

They ate pizza, cupcakes, ice cream, candy, popcorn and pop... this group of girls can eat!

They danced and sang their hearts out... the whole house was a bumpin' and groovin' while they danced in the dark with neon bracelets!

They left all sweaty and exhausted yelling, "That was so much fun!"

She...

She was beyond excited about the party and her first sleepover with BFF Kennadi!

She took it all in... smiling from ear to ear!

She came over to me and said, "Thank you Mommy... this is the best party ever!"

They were too wound up to head to bed until after midnight!

Hard to believe that she is 9 now!!! It goes by way too fast!

It's Birthday week around here for Miss almost 9 year old, Ainsley! And of course birthdays are big news around here... 21 girls have been invited... to an Almost Sleepover Party!!

Currently I'm elbow deep in sewing... sleep masks! They will be "blinging" them up during the party... along with making jellybean bracelets (I have yet to try these out to make sure they will work), painting toes, fingers and putting nail art on them, making pizzas, cupcakes and watching a movie... oh let's not forget the dancing, giggling, singing and all around silliness. So Blogging will resume next week... with stories and some catching up!

What is this about you ask???

This is what the family room looks like when your daughter loses her very small ipod down in the couch!

She couldn't find it before bed and she was sure that it had been sitting on the couch... and starts to cry since it is lost forever! Little Brother has no compassion for sister and yells from bed, "Can you get me some earmuffs??? Because I'm holding 2 stuffed animals on my ears and I can still hear her crying!!"

Resourceful Mama decides to take couch lining apart at the bottom and finds missing ipod and saves the night... no more tears... lots of love you's and hugs... and finally a sleeping little brother.

Sigh... she's getting older and growing oh so fast! Last night I let Ainsley stay up a wee past bedtime to watch some of the Nick Kid's Choice Award Show last night... she's been waiting all week for this to be on.

Walker was mesmerized when Fergie (from the Black Eyed Peas) came out singing with a Lego dress on! People getting slimed also erupted in lots of laughs and giggles.

What???...How did that get there??...(grin... smile... gasp!)

This is pretty much our conversation every time we open the garage door... and it's been 2 days since this lovely 2011 Honda Pilot came home with us!!

More later... with more pictures and the story!

We've been soaking up the sunshine and have been sandblasted by the wind for the past few days...

Once I'm caught up with laundry I'll be back with more photos and a recap!

Yesterday bright and early 7:30 to be exact the kiddos and I were heading out to Muffins with Mom at school...

It's been a crazy week here... I've turned into full time working girl this week!! Which means there has been improvised meals and laundry out of control this week!! Looking forward to Spring Break and our trip to warmer weather.

I'm hoping that this is a sign that Spring is on it's way...

Yeah... Ainsley got a 100% on her Grizzly Bear Habitat report. 75 points were on her notes, her draft, written report and oral report. The remaining 25 points were on her diorama... which was her favorite thing to do. She worked on this for over a month... all by herself!

Here's a close up...

Loved her idea about using toothpics for the claws and teeth!

This is what was going on yesterday morning...

It was one of those moments where you get an instant pit in your stomach. Yesterday morning I was working on my lesson plans for the week and heard the school announcing something over the intercom which seemed to last longer than normal. I opened up the backdoor and heard the principal announce it was a "code blue" and for the kids to come inside quickly.

Gotta love the internet... logged on and found out what was going on. Someone had posted on Facebook that there was going to be a school shooting between 2-4pm. Pretty scary... I knew our kiddos were safe but wondered how that affected me going to school for work. Since the school was on lockdown no one could leave or enter so I called and sure enough I couldn't go in to work. Was one of those days where you just kind of pace and think I know there is something I'm suppose to be doing.

Later in the afternoon they found it to be a hoax and the schools were opened for release. I went over and picked up the kiddos and they looked at me like, "What are you doing here?" (I usually let them walk home).

Their take on the whole thing... they were a bit scared when they were outside on the playground and the code blue was announced and everyone started screaming and running inside. But once in the classroom it was business as usual so they were really unaffected.

Read in the paper this morning it was a 26 year old who made the claim on facebook... they wanted to see what kind of response it would get!! Nice.