Jurnee’s Fairy Birthday Party

Fairy Birthday Party
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Nadia’s sweet friend Jurnee turned 5 at the beginning of the month and her birthday party was at ‘Sweet & Sassy’. She had an Enchanted Fairy party and boy was it an adventure. The girls arrived and picked out a fairy dress to wear. Then they moved to the hair and make up area for the “high school girls” (Nadia’s words) to do their hair and face paint. Nadia didn’t want them to do her hair, but she did get glitter spray and the face paint.

Fairy Birthday Party

Can you believe this? I think I wasn’t prepared for how overwhelming this place was going to be 🙂

Fairy Birthday Party

Once the girls were set the employees had them get up on the stage/catwalk to do some dancing. This was really cute to watch.

Fairy Birthday Party

Fairy Birthday Party

Here is Amelie – terribly upset that she is trapped on the sidelines when she could be in a fairy dress with glitter in her hair dancing on stage. I wonder if her little kid mind was wondering if I was punishing her or something because she had to stay on the side lines with Aunt Michelle and I.

After the dancing the girls went behind the stage and one of the employees did an announcement of each girl coming out on stage and being given their fairy wings and wand. Nadia ended up first in line and I don’t think she knew what hit her.

Fairy Birthday Party Fairy Birthday Party

Fairy Birthday Party

Look at Jurnee with her very cool rainbow wings! Then it was time for group photos and a parade around the store.

Fairy Birthday Party

After the parade the girls went into a side room for cake and juice and then Jurnee opened her presents.

Fairy Birthday Party

At this point Amelie took to the stage – thrilled that all the other girls were in the other room so she could do a little dancing and jumping. When the party was over I snapped this photo of Aunt Michelle and the girls.

Fairy Birthday Party

Thanks for inviting us to celebrate your day Jurnee!

Monarch Butterflies

We studied Monarch Butterflies in our Autumn unit study. A couple of weeks ago when we were leaving church I saw some on the bushes near our car. Mike was able to capture some photos that I thought turned out awesome. I told Nadia that it was like a little gift from God to be able to see them in real life right before we did our study.

Monarch 2011
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Monarch 2011

Monarch 2011

Here are some things we learned that I found interesting.

  • The orange coloring on the Monarch’s wings makes animals and birds throw up if they are eaten. So many birds have learned to avoid them.
  • Monarchs come out with huge abdomens filled with liquid. They move all the liquid into their wings to make them larger then sit still for a few hours for their wings to harden. Then they are able to fly.
  • Monarchs born in the spring only live 3 months.
  • Monarchs born in the summer live 9 months and they are the ones that migrate in the fall and spend the winter in Mexico and other protected southern areas.

The beginning?

One of the first things we did as a family once we returned home from China with Nadia was to attend the Star Wars Exhibit at the Fort Worth Science and History Museum in August 2007. Should we have known the love of all things Star Wars was coming? (wink, wink)

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Texas Scottish Rite 90th Birthday

TSRH 90th birthday
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(The base of the cake was real – I don’t know about the rest)

Last week we attended the “Treasure Street” event for Texas Scottish Rite’s 90th birthday. We love this hospital!! It’s completely astounding how much the staff there cares for the children and families! It’s also amazing that in 90 years they have never charged a patient for care. If you haven’t been reading our blog for long, go here and here to see why we have been so blessed and wanted to give back.

Treasure Street - TSRH 90th

Darwin, Kaye, Paula, Roger, Me, Mike

Our group had so much fun! The party was in a giant air conditioned tent set up in the parking lot of the hospital. They had a cheese station, pasta station, salad station and taco station plus drinks. They had a very large silent auction area and we won a few items. The event was sold out and one of the employee’s said they were expecting 1400 people.

Treasure Street - TSRH 90th

Treasure Street - TSRH 90th

Treasure Street - TSRH 90th

Lee Ann Womack was in concert after the birthday toast and cake cutting. She was great even though I knew exactly 1 of her songs. The best part was seeing Kaye so excited about seeing her in concert and having such a great time.

Treasure Street - TSRH 90th

Treasure Street - TSRH 90th

Treasure Street - TSRH 90th

Cute shot of Kaye and Darwin watching the concert.

The entire night was classy and fun and we were so blessed to share it with people we love. I can’t wait to see how much money they raised once the online auction for big items closes!

Happy Birthday Texas Scottish Rite and thank you for all you have done for sweet Amelie!