Partying for Jessie's Birthday

Last weekend my parents were in town for General Conference and to just hang out with us... but also to celebrate JESSIE! We had a big crazy family birthday party for her on Sunday that was way too much fun.

We started off with some balloon volleyball.

Then we hung out and waited for Cat, Sophie & Scott to arrive. Andrew learned how to play checkers.

Mom made Jessie a super yummy cake. I used my polka dot serving plate that I made for the first time. I love it. It is perfect for birthday cakes.

Then we got ready for the games... first up Booty Bingo!

Everyone had to go around and say their favorite thing about Jessie. Everyone drew a picture on their bingo board for each thing that was said. We wound up with each board looking very different... but all telling about Jessie... and then we played BINGO! Apparently my family doesn't know how to play bingo though... there were a lot of laughs in this game... and a lot of kiddos sneaking M&Ms. It was perfect.

Next up we played a new game I invented. It is called "Where in the world is Jess?" I took photos from her instagram feed from the last year (plus a few FB photos) and printed them off. Then we gave everyone a band for their hand with a photo on it. It was kind of like Headbandz. You had to ask questions from everyone else to try and figure out which photo you had on your head and where Jessie was in the photo. 

World traveler Jessie had some great photos we got to use!

After a few games we watched a session of conference and then we continued the party afterwards with cake & ice cream!

After that we whacked the pinata for awhile... till we finally got it to break

The best part was when Jessie got whacked in the face by the pinata

Scott finally destroyed it

The last game we played was called "Dress like Jess." I had Jessie bring up some accessories from her house. Then we got into two teams and had a relay to see which team could dress like Jess the fastest. You had to put all the items on, pose for a picture, take them off... and then the next person in your group had to go... until everyone had a turn. It was so funny! Here come the blackmail pictures

Scott looks pretty good in heels

All in all the party was a blast and it was so fun to spend time with our family celebrating Jess!! We love her! 

Halloween Carnival 2013

Here are several photos from this year's Halloween carnival that Kevin & I hosted. It was awesome. We had about twenty families join us-- some whole families and some partial families that just brought their younger kids. It was open house style, so people came and went between 11am and 1:30pm. 

My two lovely assistants helped save the day and make my job as hostess much easier :) They ran the tattoo station and fishing game. 

The candy walk was the favorite once again. Kevin was in charge of this game and kept the kids moving. Catie was a pro and won probably 5 times in a row... sometimes legitimately... and sometimes she just ran to the spot that Kevin called. :)

We had two craft stations, candy walk, some ball games, two bounce houses (including a toddler one courtesy of the Heymans!), lots of food, the fishing game, and a tattoo station.

Many of the kids came in costume and were ADORABLE

Check out all of Catie's tattoos... she actually got more later. Eventually we had to cut her off.

So much yummy food!

Little miss was addicted to the tattoos... M was super patient with her :)

Such cute party helpers

This little walker was so adorable!

These two had fun being little buddies

My favorite photo... Catie knew I was distracted as the hostess and took the opportunity to eat any and all treats that she could get her hands on.

Kevin was my super party partner in crime. He is an excellent host, a talented decorator, and a very patient husband... especially when I started to freak out during the 30 minutes beforehand when the big bounce house and table I'd rented hadn't arrived yet.

It was seriously such a fun day! Our house was mostly cleaned up before we went to bed and we can't wait till next year! If only we could move into a new even bigger house between now and then so that we could invite even more of our friends!