Weekend Recap- Birthday Party Edition

 

 

This is totally how I feel going into this week!  4.5 more days; I can do it!

What a wonderful weekend it has been!  We celebrated Elizabeth turning 10.  I am getting a little emotional as I am typing this out because it makes me so sad to realize how fast 10 years has flown by!

Friday night we were all exhausted from the busy week we had.  We needed a night in together as a family and we did just that.  We ate supper and then got our pjs on and snuggled in our bed together and watched Elf.  It was a wonderful evening!

Saturday morning started early with Elizabeth having cheer practice from 9:00-12:00.  While she was at cheer practice I got the house ready for her party.  I also ran a few errands in town and then took Emily to Nana’s house so I could devote all of my time on Elizabeth’s party.

For Elizabeth’s party this year she wanted to do 10 acts of kindness around town.  She invited 12 friends and 9 were able to show up.  We still kept it with our theme and said, “10 friends, 10 acts of kindness.”  Elizabeth came up with 8 acts of kindness all on her own, then asked her friends to help her come up with the other 2.

The girls arrived at the house at 1:00.  They immediately got busy making cards for the residents at a nursing home here in Dexter.

After they made the cards, they went into the kitchen to make chocolate chip cookies for the police station.  I let them have complete control over the kitchen!  It was fun to watch them work together to make the cookies.  They laughed because their cookies ended up looking like cookie balls, but they still tasted good!  I reminded them it was the thought that counted!

After the cookies were done, we were ready to head into town to perform our 10 acts of kindness.  My sister came over from Doniphan to be the 2nd driver for me since my vehicle could only hold 6 girls.  I was so thankful for her help and couldn’t have done it without her.

Our first act of kindness was finding 2 mail ladies around town and giving them treats.  Elizabeth had picked out some candy canes filled with candy and bundled them in groups of 3 with a nice note on it.  Mail carriers work really hard all year long but especially this time of year at Christmas.  One of the mail ladies, Miss Carli, is one of my dear friends so I knew where should would be working.  She is also the mom of Maddi, one of Elizabeth’s best friends that was with us for the party.  We stopped with her first and then she told us where to find Miss Marla to take the other treats to.  They were both appreciative!

The second act of kindness was to donate old toys to the mission.  Elizabeth had asked all of the girls to bring an old toy to donate.  We ended up with a huge trash bag full of toys and a few other nice things.

The third act of kindness was to go into the laundry mat and put quarters by the machines.  There were a few people in there using the machines that we gave quarters to and then left the rest by empty machines.

The fourth act of kindness was the take the cookies to the police station.  The girls thought this was so cool!  Officer Pulley was nice enough to even take us on a tour of the police station.  It was really neat to learn about how the police station is ran and see where everything takes place.

The fifth act of kindness was to go into the Family Dollar Store and leave dollar bills for others to find.  I gave each girl a dollar with a note attached to hide somewhere in the store.

The sixth act of kindness was to go into the nursing home and deliver all of our cards we made.  This was my favorite act of kindness that we did!  It truly touched the residents and they were so appreciative that these girls took the time out of their day to make them cards and come to visit them.  We sat and talked with a few residents and even stopped and sang some Christmas carols to them as well.

The seventh act of kindness was to go through the McDonald’s drive-thru and pay for the car behind us.  [No pic of this}  While we were in the drive-thru, we got hot chocolate to use for our next act of kindness as well.

The eighth act of kindness was the take hot chocolate to the Salvation Army bell ringers at Wal-Mart.  We bought 4 hot chocolates and there were only 2 bell ringers, so we ended up giving the other 2 drinks to the cart pushers.

The ninth act of kindness was to go into Wal-Mart and put money into a few RedBox movies.  We simply rented a movie, put a few dollar bills in the sleeve of the movie and returned it.  That way whoever rents that movie next gets the money and will hopefully buy some popcorn or snacks to go with their movie!

The tenth and final act of kindness was to load groceries for people in the Wal-Mart parking lot.  It was COLD and we waited a while before we found someone that had more than 1 bag to load.  We were finally able to help a few ladies that had bought quite a bit.  It took the girls no time since there were 9 of them loading.

After doing all of these acts of kindness we headed back to our house for pizza, cake/ice cream, and presents.  These girls were starved and devoured 4 pizzas in no time!

 

Up next on the agenda was BOWLING!  Before we left I asked to get a few good pictures of the girls.  This was such a great group of girls!

Bowling was an interesting experience.  Taking 9 girls anywhere can be a LOUD, interesting experience.  They squealed with delight when they knocked a few pins down, so just imagine the noise level when one of them got a strike.  HA!  There were no cell phones allowed in the bowling area, but I tried to take a few of the girls from far away.  Carly ended up being the highest bowler with a score of 116.  Liz came in second place with a score of 102.

By this time it was 8:00 in the evening, so parents picked their daughter up from the bowling alley.  I was exhausted, but seeing Liz have fun with her friends was worth it.  We went home and cleaned up the house and after I put the girls to bed I went on my weekly grocery shopping trip.

Sunday started with church and then more celebrating!  After church I had asked my family to come over to celebrate Elizabeth’s birthday.  They came over around 1:00 and stayed until about 4:30.  It was such a great visit and time of celebrating with more cake and ice cream.

After her party, Liz {and me, since I’m the coach} had volleyball practice this evening.  A few girls had to leave early because of choir practice, but we were still able to get some good practice time in to improve our serving and bumping.

When I got home this evening around 7:00, I wanted nothing more than to put the girls to bed early and just sit down and relax and blog.  The girls both asked me to paint their nails though, so I was happy to do that!  We even tried to add glitter and rhinestones this time.  It took me a lot longer, but we played music and had a great time together.  It won’t be long before they can do their own nails without my help, so I gladly paint their nails any time they ask.

The girls are finally in bed and Chris is watching football so I am able to sit down and blog.  Hope you enjoyed reading about my sweet Liz’s birthday weekend!  Tomorrow is her actual birthday and she is so excited!  I am off to wrap her birthday presents and a few more Christmas gifts as well.

Leaving you with our #selfieSunday.  Have a blessed week!