Birthday Surprise / Value Village Find!

The day after Ella's birthday party was President's Day so we were all home having a lazy day. First thing in the morning I got a text from Jen asking if they could stop by and surprise Ella with a visit before they headed home to Spokane. 

Ella had no idea Logan was coming over. She answered the door Jen said she had this funny confused look on her face. They were only able to visit for a couple hours until they had to drive home, but it was still such a fun surprise! 

The day before Ella's birthday the kids were at Ga-Ga &Pa's and Michael & I had a date day. We stopped at Value Village to look around. I found a few workout clothes for Ella since she said she needed new ones for Gymnastics. She only ended up liking one shirt and one workout coat. You have to return things to Value Village within 7 days and since they have 50% off on holidays it was a good day to go in. Ella ended up getting a few things...her favorite was this fun bright puffy vest. 

I ended up finding these....

Prince Albert Rose Cottage China. 

I about fell over when I saw it. I was sure it was a fake. There was no way this could be at Value Village. I turned it over and was shocked to see it was legit. I was then sure its was going to be all individually price, but again I was floored when I looked at the price tag and it said $20 for all of it!!!!! Are you kidding me! I scooped it up and put it in the cart still not 100% sure I was going to buy it. When we were finished shopping I decided to look online to see how expensive this china is....I found one 8 inch salad plate for $18.95. After that I didn't need to look any further I knew I was buying it. It is almost a full set of 4. It's just missing 2 tea cups & saucers and one of the cups and saucers has a small chip in it, but still $20 for all this was a steal! I would actually like to have a set for 8, but this is a great start. Now I just have to start frequenting antique shops or thrift stores to find the other pieces to the set. It's going to be a fun treasure hunt! 

Ella's Teahouse Birthday Party!

I've mentioned before how it's our tradition to have theme birthday parties for our kids through their 9th birthday. For their 10th birthday we will pay for them to go somewhere fun. Ella has been planning her 10th birthday party for years!!! 

She wanted to go to the Secret Garden Teahouse in Sumner with her girlfriends. 

She couldn't invite all her friends, but every girl she was able to invite was able to come. This isn't all the girls...a few hadn't arrived yet. 

I had called and tried to reserve her party last year, but they told me they wouldn't have their schedule for February until after January 1st. I called that first week in January and got everything set up. I had told the Mom's that they were more than welcome to come to the party, but I would only be paying for the girls. When I first sent out the Facebook invite I said that the cost would be $30 per person because that's what it said online, but when I called in to make the reservation that price had gone up because of the increase in minimum wage. The Mom's actually ended up paying $36 per person, but they were all fine with that. We only had one Mom that couldn't make it since she was working. 

When we got in the teahouse we looked into the front room and saw two tables that were all set up. I wasn't sure if those were our tables, but I figured they were. I talked with the hostess and she confirmed they were our tables, but there were these other older ladies there that thought one of the tables was theirs. I walked away and let the hostess take care of everything. I was a little nervous, but I had been emailed numerous times confirming our party so I knew we were okay. Come to find out they didn't complete their reservation so they didn't actually have one for their party....it was 10 ladies. I felt bad, but at the same time I was so happy that our reservation hadn't been messed up. 

All the girls sat at one table.

L to R - Lily, Ella, Helena, Kendra, Olivia, Caitlin, Addison, Anna & Riley. 

Us Mom's sat at the table right next to them....Christina, Ga-Ga & Kim. 

I hadn't really ever been able to hang out with the mom's of Ella's school friends so it was fun to get to know them better. Jessica is Helena's mom, Sheila is Olivia's mom and Lindsey is Riley's mom. 

The birthday girl herself! Her tea party was on her actual birthday too so that made it even more special! 

Precious Kuch girls! 

Us Mom's got the same thing the girls did except we had different sandwiches. The girls got to choose, peanut butter and jelly, peanut butter and honey or ham and mayo. The tomato basil soup was so yummy. Some of the girls didn't like it so us Mom's got extra. 

My pretty girl! 

Ella got a cute little personalize cake and we sang happy birthday to her. 

Then it was present time!!!

This fuzzy card sang a silly birthday song to her. 

She's SO expressive! 

This was from Helena...it's one of those bracelet machines. It's been so fun making bracelets for all her friends. 

Anna & Addison know how much Ella loves bling so they got her this beautiful bracelet! They also got her some scented hand lotion. 

Olivia got Ella this cool Peacock painting! As you can see she loves it! 

At Christmas time Rachael told me she was getting her older girls both 2 in 1 laptops. Ella has been begging me for a laptop for over a year. I had already bought all her Christmas presents, but that's the nice thing about having a birthday right after the new year. I got her the purple one and she was over the moon!!!! 

Miss Kim & Caitlynn got Ella a pair of earrings and the next Owl Diaries book in the series. 

Riley got her Scrunchies and you'd thought she died and went to heaven! She also got her squishies and fake nails...all the best girly things! 

Rachael was the only Mom that couldn't come since she was working. Her and the girls got Ella this fun backpack that is a baby holder her for One Generation Doll. She also got her 2 sets of clothes. 

Ga-Ga got Ella 2 more sets of clothes for her doll and a cute highchair so her doll can sit at the table and eat. 

Party girls! 

Helena & Ella

Lily, Ella & Kendra

Anna, Ella & Addison

Olivia & Ella

Riley & Ella

Caitlin & Ella

All these beautiful girls! 

Now all the girls with their moms! 

Jessica & Helena

Sheila & Olivia

Kim & Caitlynn

Christina, Anna & Addison

Lindsey & Riley

Me, Ga-Ga & Ella

I got my dress on Amazon specifically for the party. It's a maxi dress and it is almost too long. I had to wear my booties and I still had to be careful to pick up my dress. I'm planning on hemming it so I can wear it again and wear sandals instead of heels. 

Since the girls didn't really have time to play together we had a few of them come over after the party for a pajama party. 

They played with Ella's toys, ate popcorn and watched Descendants. Helena was planning on spending the night...it was going to be her first friend sleepover. Unfortunately Ella got overly tired and I think she over ate at her party because she ended up puking. She always seems to puke on her birthday. I think Helena would have been okay if that hadn't happened, but it worried her so she decided to go home for the night. Ella was okay with it since she was so tired. Even with the night ending on a sour note it was still a fantastic birthday for Ella. 

New Glasses!

Back on January 3rd, Michael and all the kids went to have their eye exams. 4 of them ended up needing glasses...some more than others. I'm not sure what the problem was, but it took over a month for 3 of the glasses to come in and then even longer for Owen's since they sent only the frames with no lenses. 

Ella has one eye that needs a little bit of help, but only for reading. 

It's so crazy to me that after over 20 years of marriage now Michael's the one that needs glasses. This is honestly the only time I've seen him in his glasses though. He really only needs them for reading and working on the computer when his eyes get tired. He chose to take his glasses to work and only used them there. 

Jack is in the same boat as Ella...he only has one eye that needs some help. He keeps his glasses in his backpack and uses them sometimes at school to read. 

Side note: I was so excited to find this shirt at Target when I was shopping online for shirts for Owen. He is so into Harry Potter right now and he's all about Gryffindor!

Owen is the kiddo that really needed glasses and funny enough he was the one that didn't want them. He is so stubborn when it comes to change. After a week or so of arguing with him he finally started wearing them more on his own. He does take them off during the day if they are playing a game or wrestling. Just the other day he was playing on the computer and he said...."I'm gonna go get my glasses!" so evidently he's noticing the difference and they are in fact helping. 

Zeke was the only one that didn't need any sort of glasses and he was so sad he started crying. Isn't that how it is...we always want what we can't have. The lady felt so sorry for him she reached into a drawer and gave him a pair of extra frames that didn't have lenses in them. He was a happy camper after that! 

Valentine's Day!

I'm not a huge Valentine's Day celebrator, but I did want to do something a little special so Ella and I worked together to make the table look all pretty. 

I used our fancy china from our wedding, the gold flatware that my parents gave us and the crystal glasses Michael got years ago. I didn't have a festive Valentine colored tablecloth, but I did have this white one. I ended up using the napkins I bought for the Christmas dinner as placemats. I also looked online and watched a video for how to fold napkins into hearts. It was time consuming with all the ironing, but it turned out cute. 

Once the table was set Ella ran upstairs and came down with her red vase of fake flowers. It was the perfect touch to finish off our place setting. For dinner I made Steak with Gorgonzolla sauce, Parmesan Pasta and roasted Zucchini rounds. It was so yummy!

Goals For 2020!

Here's our goals for 2020! 

House Goals: 

Install Flagpole

Get Halo installed on the furnace 

Go through and organize everything

Maintain yard & garden beds

Patch and paint all interior damage
Paint trim around all the windows

Money Goals:

Save for truck

Sell Fusion

Buy Truck

Replenish 3-6 month fund

Vacation Goals: 

April - Michael's work conference

June - Camping @ Deception Pass

July - Family Reunion in Wyoming

July/Aug - Family Reunion in Oregon

September - Michael's work conference

October - San Antonio Trip to celebrate Michael and I turning 40! 

Family Goals: 

Take one kid on a date each month

Owen - March, July & November

Jack - January, May & September

Ella - April, August & December

Zeke - February, June & October

Do a family fun activity every other month with all the kids

Play more games together

Go to Wild Waves @ least 6x

Michael's Goals: 

Have 2 co-worker BBQ's 

Have more people over from church or the neighborhood

Host game nights

Incident Command School

Play w/kids more

Read Extreme Ownership

Lyndsay's Goals: 

Workout regularily - twice with Rachael and twice a home each week

Mentor new believers 

Do devotions with kids every night & every morning

Read Relationship book with Owen & Jack

Read books during the day

Don't worry about politics

Kids Goals: 

Owen - Buy the computer game Starcraft 3 

Jack - Finish AWANA book so he can go to camp

Ella - To get to a level 1R in her reading

Zeke - Continue working on talking like a big boy & try to be more careful so he doesn't hurt himself