Is Your Family THIS Awesome? Yeah, I Didn't Think So. :)

There's a cute little girl I know that just turned 8.

She looks a little something like this:

Turning 8 at our house is a very special thing for lots of reasons.

Of course the biggest deal is that she gets to be baptized.

But I think Olivia might think the biggest deal is that she gets a BIG birthday party! 

(something we only do every 4 years).

However, since we do them only every 4 years we go ALL out when we do them.

Unfortunately Olivia's Grandma Susan has been dying of cancer and at the beginning of this week was so sick that Olivia and I took a last minute trip to Utah to get a chance to say goodbye.  Luckily we did because she passed away this morning.  She and Olivia had a very special bond and I'm grateful for the chance we got to go.  I had just resolved that her party would be a little less "spectacular" and that was okay.

My mom and sisters, however, didn't think any such thing should happen.

They wanted Olivia's party to be even MORE spectacular!

So they stepped up and rocked her birthday world.

But before they could do that, I have to say I came home from our trip to Utah to a SPOTLESS house.  My sweet Shane made sure everything was clean...not clean to boy standards, but super clean!

I was SO impressed and grateful because I had no energy to do it.

He had also installed a quiet fill toilet kit in our bathroom and kept Morgan and Owen thoroughly entertained while we were gone.

Seriously, how did I get the best husband in the world?

(I don't like to do braggy husband posts, but I just couldn't help it. Sorry.)

Anyway, Olivia, being the girly-girl she is, decided she wanted a "spa party".  

So we called it "Olivia's Pamper Me Party" and went from there.

My mother made 10 spa robes so each of the girls could have one.  10!!!  I think it took her 2 solid days and they turned out so dang cute it's not even funny. 

She has some extra material so she decided, why not make them matching gift bags?

WOW!

But just in case that wasn't enough she also made matching eye masks too.  

Can you even stand it? 

My oldest sister Dana knows I love to do cakes for the kids' birthdays and offered to do this for me. 

I was just planning on buying some grocery store cake since I wouldn't have time to even think about making one but Dana wouldn't have it.

She made this masterpiece along with 10 giant cupcakes for each of the girls to take home. 

OH. MY. GOSH.

My family is amazing.

But it doesn't stop there.

After playing some games, each of the girls started their "Spa Experience".

They each got a facial, manicure and pedicure.

My mom, sisters Dana, Allyson & Jenny, along with my sis-in-law Lana and adopted sister Julie (who is Allyson's sis-in-law) all came to be our Spa Workers.

And they were FABULOUS!!!

I didn't make any assignments they just all jumped right in and started doing their thing.

I am so grateful for that.

Here is Olivia getting her facial from Julie.  Julie is a massage therapist so whoever got her was lucky because they got some lovely face massage as well. :) 

Don't even think we would forget the cucumbers.

Puffy eyes be gone! 

Pedicures were full out, performed by my mom and Lana.  

They included foot spa soaks, exfoliating foot rubs, foot and calf massage with lotion, and a nail polish of your choice.

Look at these girls relax!  They loved the "pampering". 

Manicures were done by Allyson and Dana, our resident nail experts.

Hand soaks, fingernail buffing, cuticle oil and fingernail trim/filing when needed.

Then they picked out their favorite color and also got some nail art stickers! 

After all the pampering we "beautified."

Julie is also a Mary Kay girl, so she had fun doing some make up on the girls.

Lana did hair and the rest of us tried to help with hair and make up when we could.  Jenny is actually really good at the hair and make up too.

Our final result was a bunch of beautiful and pampered 7-8 year old girls.

Aren't they adorable?

I don't know how Livy has so many pretty friends. 

It was the perfect day.

Livy loved her party, her robes and her beautiful cake.

She told me the party was even better than she thought it would be.

Me too Livy, me too.

Thank you so much to each of you wonderful ladies who went above and beyond my wildest dreams to make Olivia's birthday so special.  

We will never forget all you did for us at this crazy, emotional, hard, exciting time.

My family is truly the best.

We love you!

..........

And Morgan was happy because even though she wasn't invited to the party, Grandma Dian made her a robe & eye mask too. :)

Snow Trip

Here are some pictures from our snow trip to Flagstaff last weekend.

Oh, what's that?  You don't see any snow?

Yeah.

Olivia looked high and low.

We did find a pancake size bit of left over snow.

Don't even worry, the kids made 3 snowballs out of it.

I suppose it makes the snow trip legit. 

I did know before going that there would most likely be no snow since it hadn't snowed in awhile and temps were in the fifties, but it was our only weekend available and we had already promised the kids we would take a snow trip this year, so we gave it a shot. 

We stayed in the Little America Hotel where we got a smokin' deal on Priceline.

I must say I was really impressed with the hotel, especially for the price! ($65/night)

The kids thought it was the Taj Mahal.  Loved it.

Plus, the beds and pillows were super comfortable! 

They had lights up on 100's of trees, the lobby was all decked out and they had a huge fireplace to lounge by.  Here Shane and I are lounging and I'm holding his face so he doesn't try any funny business since all the pictures before this were goofy faces.  Look how handsome he is when he acts normal. :)  Love you babe. 

Buddy the Elf paid us a visit. :)  

Olivia thought it was fun to pose for this picture because we were laughing, but when she saw the picture, and Shane mentioned she looked like a boy, she was horrified and wouldn't put her hair up in her hat the rest of the trip. 

Don't we look special?

I was just proud that I was able to get us all in.

Sheer talent. 

There was a big plasma screen TV in the room, which, as you can see, completely pleased the kids.

"Hey everyone, let's go to Flagstaff so we can watch TV!" 

Here we are leaving room 287.

The kids wanted to show their sadness by crying for a picture.

Lovely. 

Even though there was no snow, we had a great time.

Maybe next year we can see some of that white stuff!

Sold

Every once in awhile I have a great idea.  This week I had one of those.

A stroke of genius really.

I decided my kids should actually earn the money they use to buy each other gifts this year.  Instead of saying, "Here's $5 for you to buy a gift for your brother/sister," I figured they should work for it so it meant something to them.

But what to do?

I'm a firm believer in NOT paying kids to do things they should do anyway like clean their rooms, make their beds, do chores, be "good", etc.  I thought of creating "extra jobs" like wiping down baseboards and stuff, but I decided that fell into the same category as "earning their keep".  But what can 4, 6 & 7 year olds do to earn money then?  I kept my mind a thinkin' and I came up with a plan.

What are my kids really good at?  Looking adorable (irresistible in fact) for 1-2 minute increments of time.  How could I exploit that and help them earn some sweet cash in the process?

Selling cookies!

They were totally down with the idea--quite excited in fact.  Everyone had a job:

Job 1: Hold the cookie basket and speak to the customer (this was the most important and coveted of the jobs--the actual selling.  They all wanted to do it.)

Job 2:  Hold the sign that clearly explained 3 cookies for $1 with a Santa that was telling you that you were "lucky". (which indeed you are because 3 cookies for a dollar is a smokin' deal).

Job 3:  Hold the money can up for the sweet cash to be deposited.

Job 4: (mom's job) make all the cookies and wrap them up all cute-like.

We did two days of selling.  The first day (Saturday), I thought went pretty well.  We sold about $14 worth in just under an hour.  Today we doubled our amount to sell ($28 worth) and sold out in 35 minutes! 

We did two things different today:  One, I dressed them all up.  I know this made a big difference.  And two, I let them take turns "selling". (the first day Livy did all the talking per her insistence, but I thought it would work well to change it up).  I am certain this made a big difference too.

Here's the sales team:

Could you say no to this? 

Or this? 

How 'bout THIS?! 

Morgan was our secret weapon.  When she was in charge of selling NOBODY could say no.  

We didn't get many "no's", but Livy and Owen did get some.  

Morgan got none.

I told her to speak real loud so people could hear her.  So she spoke real loud in her raspy, perfect, Morgan voice and I could literally watch grown men, teenage boys, grandma's, anyone that was standing there, melt into puddles and run for their wallets.  She was proud that she wasn't even being shy.

The kids loved this experience.  They think selling is fun and pretty easy.  They were SO excited to count their money at home and figure out how much they made.  They all made enough to buy each other gifts and maybe even have a little left over.

So, as Livy said when we got home, "This was a great success!"