Nemo Is Is For Big Boys, Toy Story Is For Babies

James turned 5 a few weeks ago. He's still into Toy Story, but Nemo is his new fav, so, I got together with a friend and made him some Nemo cupcakes for his birthday :)  We invited some of his friends and cousins, and had a little party for him. He's really starting to get into the friend party thing, and he's pretty easy to do that with, since he just wants balloons and cake lol! The only thing I was worried about was the cake. The gf/cf diet is not conducive to yummy baked goods. I used gf/cf brownie mixes which turned out better, I think, since most gf/cf cake mixes use bean flour and it leaves an aftertaste : p  The frosting part was a little easier, because ghee is basically just butter without the milk proteins, but pure butterfat still has it's own flavor.

Here he is the night before the party taste testing the remnants of the chocolate frosting....holding my breath to see if he likes it.....

He approves!

He goes back for more!

You can tell he likes it cuz he's doing the eye squeeze thing :)

The finished cupcakes, featuring his favorite sea animals....manta rays, turtles, crabs, and Nemo :)

Extra cupcakes with monkeys, his favorite land animal

He was really excited to open presents this year. He sat right down when it was time, and put my hand on each of the presents and said 'help please' repeatedly as I showed him how to rip the paper off :D

Of course we had to take them all out of the boxes right away

He was pretty good about sharing with his cousins too

Until he got the squishies......but he let the play with the bubbles

He was so excited about singing the birthday song and I could tell he really liked the cupcakes. He kept coming up to me and hugging me really tight and then running back to see the cupcakes and then coming back to hug me again. He's always affectionate, but I think that today I felt gratitude from him. He appreciated what I had done. I had to hold it together, no crying, cuz no-one would understand what was happening in that moment.

He had a hard time blowing out the candles, but Evelyn was there to help :)  A great success, overall, and Many Many thanks to those who helped me pull it off!!!!!!

Playing Tourist

Had the opportunity to pawn all the older kids off on some relatives this summer, so I had a nice few days with just James and Tom. We went into DC one evening and checked out some sites I hadn't seen yet. James had fun :)

No Rest For The Weary

Well, maybe a LITTLE rest.....I did take a break from the housing project to go to 6 flags for a ladies only roller-coaster night. BEST DECISION EVER! Thanks for a great time guys!! :D

Classic photobomb lol

Good times!

Rayzels World

Just a quick update on Rayzel.......she cut all her hair off after girls camp and got some blonde highlights, and has been enjoying yw activities this summer.....Calvin and Savannah were working, so they couldn't go on the tubing trip, but Rayzel had a good time...pics courtesy of our Bishop :)

The Annual Camp Of The Girls

My favorite week of the year! This year was really tough, but, we rocked it as always! And as I was packing up the gear into the shed, making sure it was stored properly, I had a funny feeling that I wouldn't be doing camp next year......and now I'm not....exactly.....but I digress. Here is an insiders look at what Really goes on at camp ;)

One of our clever girls drew a pony with the YW torch as her cutie mark. PURE GENIUS! So I decided it needed to be on our flag. I had all the girls vote on it of course, but they know a good thing when they see it, and the vote was unanimous :)

We had 5 leaders sleeping in this tent. We got rained on last year cuz we waited to tarp until the last minute. NOT THIS YEAR BABY! It rained the whole week too. That sleeping bag hanging to dry on the left? Ya, that's Savannah's lol!

I brought my BFF  to camp with me again this year. Best assistant camp director EVER :D

AND EVEN BETTER, I got to bring Tom to camp with me :D....they look kinda alike in these pics lol!

And of course I love having my girls at camp too :)

I've been at camp every year since Savannah started going

We did a lil pranking at camp this year....that is a tootsie roll cat turd

We borrowed other wards dutch ovens, made kitty litter cakes in them and then returned them hehehe ;)

We also made carmel marshmallow used q-tips...the general consensus was that our desserts were too gross to eat :(

Tom cut scary eyes into his chip can, and then taped a glow stick inside and hung it at eye level...it was kinda creepy seeing the swinging red eyes in the dark...and you didn't see it until you were right up on it.

This is one of those funny things you see at camp. These are leaders phones, not girls phones LOL!

We sometimes have the odd challenge of authority at camp...pictured here is the Stake camp director in a dance-off....

With the Stake YCL leader as challenger

It turned into a dance party...check out Rayzel's moves :)

It's me! There aren't very many pictures of me usually, but at camp, I always end up with lots :)

We hang out so much we make the same faces hehe ;)

The men noticed, and were kind enough to point it out to us and document it....here we are doing it again lol!

Ah, the annual bloodbath...fake bloodbath.....

Chillin'

We had 13 girls at camp this year

Tom led the 3rd year hike, which happened to be Nana's year :) I heard he had them march and count cadence...it went over really well, everyone said he was awesome. Well duh.

Nana :D

Tom :D

Besties :D

Me :D

Gourmet campfire fried potatoes with gourmet campfire fried bugs. Yummy ;)

Every year, for some reason, my car won't start at the end of the week. This year Tom got to jump it for me :)

This what is known as Toe Cleavage. Modest is hottest and that means no short shorts, no tank tops, and no flipflops at camp. Unless of course its Friday night and everyone is too busy at testimony meeting to notice you're wearing them ;)

Our Bishop got this great shot of the rainbow after the storms....its a pretty great rainbow, so that should tell you how bad the storms were lol!

Severn Ward Rocks!!

And last but not least, a video of Tom doing the wiggelo :D

Just don't tell him I posted it here ;) SSHHHHH!!!!