30 ROCKS!

As you can tell from my previous posts, I love a good party and I love throwing a good party even more. My 80's party in Utah was so much fun, I decided to have one for my besties out here in KC as well. All the same fun applied (we even ate the same food). We projected the NES on the wall so the boys could play Contra. The karaoke was a total hit! People were rocking late into the night singing the best rock ballads ever made. This time I attempted to make my own cake. It didn't look as great as dad's but it tasted pretty good. Denise insisted on buying candles this time and was set on making me blow out 30 of them! I think the house almost burned down...

Prepping the radical decor the night before ;)

The Decor!

 Accessories Table

 Neon Room Divider

Check out my rubix cube lamp :):

I'm kinda in love with the 80's slang backdrop :)

I Want Candy Buffet!

The white ball in the middle had an LED light that changed colors :)

The photo props

Some of our favorite 80's things including Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Dino Riders.

The People!

Alexander being a goof-ball :)

Anna and Alexander

More silliness

Kathy, Joe and Audrey

Steve and Sara

Denise, Rocker Chic!

The Singing!

Alexander Rick-Rolled the party by singing "Never Gonna Give You Up". It was pretty entertaining.

Shani breaking it down. Somehow she eluded getting her portrait taken...

Sara and I dueting "Walk Like An Egyptain"

Steve and Sara were the unexpected rock stars of the party, rocking song after awesome song!

THE CAKE!

Chocolate, Strawberry, Chocolate...Yummy!

 So far, I think it's pretty obvious that 30 ROCKS!

Partying Up the Summer!

A few weeks ago, Alexander and I were able to drive out to Utah to attend the sealing of some of our very best friends. We have waited several years with them for the magical day to arrive and we are so proud of how far they have come to be able to receive the wonderful blessings of being sealed as a family in the temple on June 29, 2013. I'm not too ashamed to say that I lost it in the sealing room and bawled like a baby seeing two of my favorite people and their precious little girls become a forever family. After my water-works ended we spent the day enjoying the company of good friends and eating great food. Somehow I managed to not get a single picture this day.

June 30th was Grandma Dorothy's 85th birthday. We had a special shindig at my parent's house and Dad cooked up a wonderful meal of roast beef and potatoes. When Grandma first came to live with Mom and Dad, she could barely eat anything solid. However, on her birthday, she proved how much better she was by eating dinner with us and cleaning her plate. It was a good day for everyone.

Four Generations!

The rest of the next week flew by in a blur of working, studying and visiting friends. On the 4th of July we had a BBQ lunch with my family and then went to a BBQ dinner at Melissa and Zuke's house. We finished the night by driving up to Provo to find a good spot to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks. We didn't intend to walk all the way to the stadium, but we did and ended up sitting across the street from the southwest corner of the stadium. We soon found that it was THE BEST place to be. Kelly Clarkson was the night's big performer and as the fireworks started she drove by in her limo and waved out the window at us! I just missed getting her in the pic. To make it even better, the fireworks were being fired right in front of us, giving us an incredible view of the action right over our heads!

On July 5th, I had my big 80's Birthday Bash! It was so much fun! We decorated with black and neon colors. We had spotlights around the walls of the room, neon ballons on the floor, slinkys hanging in the doorway, 3 original NES emulators hooked up (two were projected on the wall) for people to play, and a karaoke machine. We also had an accessories table for people to dress themselves up a little more. It included slit sunglasses, slap bracelets, glow-stick bracelets, mini rubix cubes, 80's themed coin purses, slinkys, and 80's themed pins featuring cassettes, boomboxes and space invaders. For dinner we had a baked potato and salad bar. My dad also made a lovely cake. :)

Check out all the awesomeness!

 Accessories Table

 Dad, Mom, Natalie and Carter

 Nathan, Zuke, Melissa, Becky, Brett, Lisa, Clover and Clara

McKay and Skyler. McKay wasn't thrilled to blow up that boombox, it takes like 15 min!

 Candy and Cake Buffet!

These balloons are so entertaining for Kim, Melanie and Denise!

 Becky and Brett

 Clover and Clara

 Denise, Melanie and Kim

Zac, Jen, Hallie and Brinnley (I love Halie's face in the hardcore pic!)

Zuke and Melissa

Natalie and Carter

Alexander and Annalee

Becky, Melissa, Lisa and Anna

Trying to look cool

With the awesome cake Dad made

We forgot to buy candles, so I'm pretending to blow out my pretend candles...

Proving to the world that you just can't have too many parties, on the 6th we went over to Jen and Zac's for a fun get-together of dinner and fireworks. I was the lucky one who got to hold baby Brinnley all night. I may have made some sisters jealous ;). I did let Alexander briefly hold her though.

Sunday was a much needed day of rest before we headed out bright and early Monday morning. I hate saying goodbyes! Luckily, Denise got to come with us on the journey. We made the drive in a breezy 17 hours, despite the Subway guy taking FOREVER to make our sandwiches (We were seriously there for a half hour. He made up for it by twirling, I think he was doing it for Denise).


So how many parties can you fit in 10 days? We managed to attend 6! Not to shabby, eh?

Keeping Busy Having Fun!

Despite my lack of blog posts, we have been keeping ourselves busy around here.

APRIL

In April, we were invited to watch the Sunday afternoon session of General Conference (and have a yummy dinner!) with the Birrell family. They are so much fun! We didn't get pictures of everyone but these ones are cute.

I was kept very busy in April putting together Kara and Alex's wedding, my first official wedding out here in Kansas City. I created this new door backdrop and made the wedding a Scrabble theme, which I thought was really cute. You can check out more pictures here.

On April 26th, I helped decorate for a fundraiser for the Young Women. They did a vintage fashion show. We hung flowers and pictures of dress patterns on one backdrop. We also used the doors as the stage entrance where the girls walked out onto the red carpet. And of course, we pulled out the chair covers to really spruce the place up. :)

At the end of the month I came down with strep throat that infected my ears and fully clogged them, leaving me partially deaf for over a month. It was miserable. I tried EVERYTHING to clear it up but nothing helped. This is me trying a hot pack on my ear.

MAY

On May 4th we had the awesome opportunity to see the Piano Guys concert. They are some of our very favorite performers and we couldn't pass up this amazing chance to see them up close. We had fantastic seats and the crowd was one of the most considerate and nicest I'd ever seen. The music was so beautiful, that I have to confess that I started crying when they started playing. The emotion was too much for me to handle, I guess I'm getting old.

In the lobby

Excited for the concert to begin!

They showed all their music videos behind them on the screen as they played, which was a pretty good idea. Pianists and cellists can't really dance when they are performing so it's a good way to include a visual aspect to the show. 

Outside the theater after the concert.

On May 11th, I went to an info session for the MBA program at UMKC. It was at that time that I decided to try and pass the GMAT so that I could get into the program. The men conducting the session were so friendly and the program seemed like a perfect fit, so I felt really comfortable signing up for the GMAT and committing myself to it. I have to be honest though, it was a seriously gutsy move on my part. Ever since graduating for UVU, I have told myself I couldn't pass an exam to get into grad school, so the fact that I chose one of the hardest programs and exams was pretty daring. 

On Memorial Day, we got invited to TWO BBQs! I was pretty excited. We had lunch with the Hansen family and then we had dinner at the Bennions. It is so nice to have such wonderful friends!

On May 30th, I took this awesome picture of these clouds!

JUNE

On June 3rd we were able to go to the opening night of Broadway production, Spam-a-lot at the Starlight Outdoor Theatre. We got super cheap tickets and then one of our ward members who works there found us even better seats. The weather was perfect and we enjoyed fresh lemonade and kettle corn popcorn. The show was less impressive, but we had fun anyway. We were thrilled to be celebrating the 8th anniversary of when we first met/first date, which happened on June 4, 2005.

On June 27th, we hit the road early in the morning and headed out to Utah (again). We made the drive in record time, 16 1/2 hrs. We left at 6:00am and arrived in Utah at 9:30pm. It was perfect! The rest of that story is found in the next blog post. :)