Kallie's Cooking Birthday Party

If you know me you know that I love to plan parties and put them on, especially birthday parties. I think birthdays are the best and when it is your day it should be celebrated to the highest and something that you will always remember. I love doing a party for Kallie because she can help me and she gets so excited. For past birthday parties for her we have done Purple Princess, Blue Clue's (Thanks John x 3), Lilo and Stitch, Finding Nemo, Princesses, Fairies, and Hannah Montana Rock Star. This year we decided to do a cooking party and it turned out really good.

The invitation was a wooden spoon tied to a recipe card with red ribbon and it said:

Recipe for: Birthday Fun

From the kitchen of Kallie Kenner

Ingredients: A few homemade pizza, 1 gallon of friendship, 2 cups of fun, 1 cup of imagination, sprinkles of laughter, lots of cupcakes, 1 gallon of ice cream.

Start off with a few pizzas. Add friendship, imagination and laughter in the kitchen at (address) on (date). Blend until laughter bubbles to top. Bake from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Top with cupcakes and ice cream. Please join us for fun. RSVP asap to make your reservation.

These are the top chefs that came to the party. When they came I gave them each a apron (that my mom and I made.) A dish towel that was hooked on their apron, for every time they washed their hands (and they did it a lot) they had a towel right there. I took a group photo (as seen here) and then individual pictures of them mixing some dough to use for the thank you notes. Then we began our cooking. We started by making individuals pizzas, using Rhodes dough for the crust. The girls had so much fun doing this building their pizza with lots of toppings. Kallie's pizza had tons of cheese on it and it spread across the pan as it cooked.

While the pizzas cooked, I taught them how to crack an egg and separate the yoke from the whites. They got a kick out of that, one girl went home and told her mom that was the best part of the party. I brought out a cooking memory game for them to play- where you put cooking supplies on a cooking sheet and then they have to write it down. Our pizzas were done and the girls enjoyed eating their creations. After they were done eating we went into the living room and played another game. A hot potato meets musical chairs game- it is a wrapped gift with many layers on it. The gift is past around the circle while the music is playing when the music stops that gets to unwrap one layer of the gift and the last person that opens the last layer get the prize/gift. While in the living room Kallie opened the gifts. The girls wanted to do a game with Kallie where they would disguise their voice and Kallie had to guess who was giving her the gift. After all the gifts were open we went into the kitchen and back to cooking. They made ice cream sundaes and decorated cupcakes and ate them too.

If you know me, you know I don't like fire. I was the only adult at the party and I couldn't find the candles. So we didn't have candles for Kallie to blow out, but we did sing Happy Birthday to her. Above is a picture of Kallie pretending to blow out candles. Below is a picture of the goody/ thank you item that we sent home with the girls said: "Thank you for making my party really COOK!" We had so much fun at the party. I really didn't have to do anything but switch out the trays with all the food on it. And the girls had a blast.

Happy Easter Day

We had a stressful morning getting ready for church and out the door. Kyle and I had to speak in Church so we were finishing up our talks and getting the kids in their clothes. So I didn't get a picture of them before church. So afterwards I got their picture taken in their Easter outfits (They have had these Easter clothes for three years now, I found a matching dress for Karlee at Ross for $8 so I was so excited about that.) In the process of trying to get all four kids to be happy and looking at you when taking the picture is a hard task to pull off. Here is one attempt. I put my best picture as the head of my blog now. Kelsie is in tears because she did not want to have her picture taken. My parents have a similar picture where I am crying in one of our Easter pictures.

Once we gave them there Easter baskets they were happy. Even Kelsie was trying to squeeze out a smile. The Easter bunny came while we were at church. So this is the first time that the kids got to hold and see their baskets.

Here are the kids checking out their baskets of goodies, they were excited for their Littlest Pet Shop (even Jaron). Kelsie had all her candy eaten before we left for dinner, except for her chocolate bunny that I had to put up.Karlee even loved checking out the contents of her basket. She was checking out her peeps.

We had a very good Easter. My topic for my talk in church was the Resurrection and introducing our family. Preparing for my talk help me to really get my mind in the place for the reason for the season. And I am so grateful for my Savior and what he has down for me. Our friends the Petersons invited us over to there house for Easter Dinner and we had a very yummy ham dinner. I hope that you all had a Happy Easter too.

Easter Egg Hunt

We took the kids over to the Easter Egg Hunt at the college. Kyle stayed with Kallie in her age group. So I took the other three to be in the younger section and I had the camera. This is a picture of Kelsie and Jaron waiting for the hunt to begin. I told them to stick together and they did a good job of that.

This is Karlee checking out the egg that someone handed to her. For just sitting in the one spot she she got four eggs, so she did pretty good for herself.

After the kids hunted the eggs out they had to turn the eggs back in so they could use them next year. Here Jaron, Karlee and Kelsie are emptying out their eggs and checking out their loot.

Check out all the eggs Karlee got. Just kidding. The kids were just playing with the bin that had 1/4 of the eggs in it. Karlee really got in to it.

The kids had a lot of fun doing the Easter Egg Hunt.

Oh No I am Stuck

Karlee got stuck in a bucket I love her face is like "Oops I can't get out, help"

Happy Birthday Kallie!

Happy Birthday Kallie. Today Kallie turn 9 years old. I can't believe that she is already that old. When 5 pm came around I was telling her minute by minute her birth story, I can remember it clear as day. We were scheduled to go in to surgery at 1pm but we got bump to 5pm. When 5 finally rolled around, I was so ready to have her out in my arms and I was ready to eat something because they had you fasting since midnight. At 5 they rolled my in to the surgery room. I laid strapped to the bed with my arms straight out. The room was cold, I was waiting for Kyle to come in the room, when he finally did I didn't know that it was him until he spoke to me and sat by my head telling me to breathe ( that is what he was taught in our birthing class) . He sat by my head the whole time that they were getting Kallie out. When the doctors finally got her out they said "It's a girl !" Both Kyle and I asked each other what they said and so they repeated "It's a girl!" We were both beaming and so happy. They wrapped Kallie in a blanket and handed her to Kyle. He held her so I could see her, I could touch her because my arms were strapped down. Kallie was so beautiful and perfect. Kyle was torn when he had to choose to stay with me our go with Kallie as she got checked out and cleaned. I made him go with her. I have the cutest picture of Kyle sitting and watching Kallie as she laid under the warmer. I couldn't wait to hold her, but I had to wait two hours after she was born.
Kallie has been such a blessing in our family. I am so grateful for her. She is turning into a beautiful young women. She does great in school, loves to read, draw pictures, and do math. Today she was asked what her favorite class in school was and she said Library. She is always wanting to write a story and has one ready to go. She wants to learn to sew now, so she has bought the fabric to make some pajama pants for herself. She is also a great big help around the house, and with her brothers and sisters.
Kallie I love you so much and I would not trade you for anything. You remind me so much of me, I love being your mom. You make me so happy. Happy Birthday Kallie!

"The Sound of Freedom"

Today I went with Jaron and his kindergarten class on a field trip to Kinsley Air Force Base. It was a lot of fun and Jaron enjoyed it too. The Air Force Base is on the edge of Klamath Falls. It is a base where they train pilots in F-15, you can always hear the jets go over our house or town. It is a cool sound to hear all the time. At first when we moved here the jets were really loud and noticeable but over it is just something I expect to hear. But the sad part is that the jets are moving to the Boise base at the end of the month so that they can repave the run way here.

We arrived at the base and loaded off the bus and into a room where the pilots told us what we were going to be doing and handed out earplugs and explained to us that we needed to keep the earplugs in. We were going to go watch the jets taking off.

We loaded all of us on the AF bus and drove on over to the runway and got out of the bus with our earplugs in and watched as jets took off. It was so awesome when it took off past us it would shake your whole body. Jaron loved it. We were able to watch and feel six jets take off. The pilot that was giving us the tour, told us that the noise the jets make are not just noise but the sound of freedom.This is a picture of one of the jets taking off.

After we watched the jets take off, we went back to the classroom and a pilot came in and showed us all the gear they wear when flying the jets. It was cool to see, I didn't know that they had to wear these air chaps (that is what they look like) around their legs so that their blood continues to flow right. Because they go up so high so fast. This is a picture of him in his gear.

We watch a couple short shows about jets and then went out to the hanger and got out picture taken with a pilot in the cockpit. And then a group shot next to a jet. I don't have those pictures because I was able to in the picture, but I will post it when I get them. The picture below is what is on the back tail of the jets.

This is a picture of Jaron and I on the way back to the school on the bus. We had a lot of fun together I am so glad that I got to go with him. He is such a good boy. I love him so much.

Soccer Boy

Jaron started soccer today and he was so excited he didn't want to take off his shin guards and leave his ball. Here is a short video of in his first practice tonight.