15th Birthday!!

I just don't know how I am the mother of a 15 year old!!!  Where has the time gone?

My kids get a party every other year.  They know on party years they don't get as many presents.

Because she had alot of people that normally come (I mean our Ohana alone is 10 kids! Then we have to add in her team at dance which is 13 kids - but I knew being the only day this month we didn't have dance on a saturday most of the team would have already had plans - which was true...)

So we choose bowling since that seemed the most cost effective.

 

Her with her friend that doesn't go to her school anymore.  They are so cute together!

 

She didn't know HOW the heck she got a spare!

 Opening presents. 

 She really loves those oreo candy bars!

 Her friend got her a really nice bracelet and earring set!

 Can't go wrong with art supplies!

 

 The theme was mason jars - but really the only part of the theme was on her invitations and the goody bags!  But since we didn't really have decorations we spent a little more on the goody bags and put the good candy in it.  All of her favorites!

 On her actual birthday yesterday!!  We just got this new pair of LuLaRoe's and she was excited to wear cup cake leggings to school!

 These glasses!  She's had them since she was 7.  She used to wear them to school.  Now she just wears them for a picture and leaves them at home.

Back when she was 7!!! My how time has passed!

 I have an album on Facebook of every Jan 28th and her in her birthday hat for that year.  My husband asked how long I was going to keep making the birthday hats for the kids and I told him - "originally I planned to stop at 18, but I can't totally see me keeping it going longer!!"

 Her OWN rain jacket.  Now she can stop stealing mine!

Can't go wrong with chocolate!

 She found a pair of glasses in her room and we have no idea who they belonged to.  But they are mens sunglasses.  She's been wearing them because she feels "cool" in them.  SO I made sure to get her a pair of her own girl sunglasses! :) her face.  Kills me.  She knew EXACTLY why I got her them.  To replace the ones I didn't like! :p

 This is the only gift she actually asked for.  She was no help in the present department this year. 

My husbands 40th #merica birthday party!

My Ohana loves a good theme party!  The last two times my husband has had a birthday party the theme was Redneck Games (he wanted to make it an annual thing - but moving after the 2nd year right after (like two days after) made that hard for the 3rd year.).  This year he decided to go with #merica!  

His actual birthday is the first few days of January so we celebrated with Pizza and cake on his actual birthday and then celebrated in a big way on Saturday!

 This was at dinner on his actual birthday.

 Not 40 candles but we made due! :)

 These two guys flew in friday morning to surprise Tim for his birthday.  We have known them and their wives for 17 years!  They were stationed together in Alaska all at the same time for each of their first duty stations. They all married Alaska girls.  We are spread out across 3 different states but we get together as often as we can.  (they are who we vacationed with in Cancun a year ago!)

 We got his outfit from Amazon.  I LOVED it.  I love that at Christmas he can wear great pants and reuse it!!

 

 My little family!  It was so warm on Saturday.  70 degrees!!!

 Ya'll his shoes were the best!  I said if you are going to wear a hipster suit, you have to have boat shoes with it!

 We held the party at a brewery about an hour from our house.  You pay by the ounce.  They give you a card that you can either pre-load with money (which is what we did and everyone just shared two cards to get what they wanted) or you can open a tab.  This way you aren't paying for beer you may not like. So you pay for a little test and then decide what you actually want based on that sip.

 The facility is really nice, they had wifi which was a plus for our kids.

 West Point is a cute little town.

 What the beer dispenser looked like.

 

 Our friends started showing up and of course they started "lei'ing" him.  This one was so pretty!!!

 

  Kids playing the switch.

 My ladies and me.  I'm telling you, we don't back down or shy away from a theme!

 We hired Korey Rose to play.

  All the guys.  Tim's dad was wearing the same outfit because the first outfit we bought was WAY too small for Tim, so his dad wore it.  He didn't take us seriously about the theme.

 My Ohana!!! Love them!

 This is the outside the the brewery.  The kids played out here alot, thankfully it was gated on both sides so we didn't have to worry too much.

 At the end of the night, kids were playing go fish.

This picture was from when he was opening presents.  I'm not sure what was said or what was being opened but the sheer joy on my husbands face just warms my heart.  He had such a blast and our friends are just the best to have come out and celebrated his 40 years on this earth!

Ninjago Birthday Party

 My son decided for his 9th birthday he would have a Ninja birthday party.  We thankfully have access to a place that has padded floors cause no one wants to do a ninja course outside in the Georgia June heat!

One of the BEST ideas I had was ordering the food on Walmart.com a week in advance.  Made a list of everything I would need - down to the bread, extra jelly, and meat trays, and made the pick up for Thursday night when I knew I would be in town for their activities.  This way I ran through the pick up slot and we didn't have to spend time inside the store, and got everything we needed and I didn't have to make an extra trip because I forgot something!

First up I made some nun-chucks and swords out of rope and pumping pipe insulator, I used athletic tape as the wraps.  Super cheap and easy to make.  I've also seen them made with pool noodles.  These are just thinner than a typical pool noodle.

For the food I scoured Pinterest.  I knew going in I didn't want to provide lunch but just snack foods (I held the party at 2 for this reason and noted on the invite that I was providing finger foods and dessert)

My son's favorite was the dessert sushi.  I bought two boxes of pre-made rice krispie treats (cut in half), an 18 ct box of fruit by the foots (typically got 5 sushi middles out of one roll), and a bag of Swedish fish (was only short 2).

 For the plates I hit dollar tree and got red, green and blue for all the ninjago ninja's and opted for the black table cloth to tie it all together.

These chip bag covers were everyone's favorites.  I found it on accident searching something else on Pinterest and I have made them several times.  Super easy!! There is a bag of chex mix inside the paper sleeve.

 

Also another Pinterest find was the Gatorade's made to look like Lego ninja's.  I found the printable on Pinterest as well.

Cake from Walmart was vanilla cake and vanilla frosting, but he also wanted a red velvet cake - but that's not pictured.

I had seen peanut butter and jelly sushi rolls a WHILE ago but this was the first time making them, I also made turkey and cheese sushi rolls.  These were a big hit!!!

 

My husband arrived earlier than us and made a GREAT  ninja course for the kids.  He worked about an hour and a half on this before we even got there, on a pulled hamstring at that!  We were there from 2-5 and they were running it over and over and over again!

 

 

He even had some obstacles outside, you can see the rope tight walk right outside the window.

This man literally thought of everything!  He was way better than I ever could have come up with!