Einstein's new buy

Ok...we have learned that we are a bit more couple of dog lovers than we thought! Or at least dog lovers of our dog! We did something that we thought we'd never do in our life and made fun of all the people who would do this, but we bought a coat for Einstein!! I know it sounds crazy, but he really did need it! The poor dog has very thin hair and almost no hair at all on his belly! (We're not sure why as his type of dog is bred to be hunting dogs!) But he would shiver like crazy outside even inside his dog house and then when we'd bring him inside, even after an hour of being inside he'd still be shivering. So we broke down and did the inevitable. But I do have to say it looks cute on him! We call it his Sherlock Holmes coat! All we need now is a pipe and hat to match it! :)

2009 Family Vacation...Cruise to Mexico

Ok...I'm going to warn you that this is going to be a very long post! I haven't posted in a long time and we also went on vacation about a week and a half ago. I just now got to posting pictures. I kept thinking that I wasn't taking enough pictures throughout the vacation and then I got home and realized I had taken over 300 pics...ok for some of you that may be nothing, but to me it was overwhelming to finally get them organized!! :)

Anyway, for our vacation this year we found a really good deal on a cruise through Carnival. Yes we did take the girls and we had a blast! We cruised on a 5 night cruise out of New Orleans to Progreso, Mexico and Cozumel, Mexico. We decided to drive down since it would be cheaper than buying 4 tickets, plus we have lots of family on the way that we got to visit along the way, which was great! So here's the run down...

The first day actually started after Nick got off work and we hit the road making it to Grandma Edna's/Aunt Michele's house really late. We actually forgot to take pictures with Grandma, but it was a great visit. We did however stop on our way out by the temple for some pictures. The girls were excited to see the temple up close.

The next day we left Grandma's and got to Jan and John's late in the night/morning. The kids were expecting us to get there on Friday after school and we surprised them and were there Friday morning instead! They were excited and got to play hookey and take us to the beach. We had so much fun and got lots of sun! Surprisingly Kayley was our beach baby and Cora was not. This was the first time they both had been to the beach and we were sure that Kayley would like it for only a bit and Cora wouldn't be able to get enough of it...it was complete opposite! Kayley kept chasing the seagulls and saying, "Hi Scuttle!!" She had a great time with her cousins as did Cora.

After the beach we stopped at a really cool military helicopter museum...don't remember the name. It had just barely closed for the night but we did get to see the cool helicopter/planes. It was cute b/c all the kids wanted Nick to lift them up to see what was inside, so plane by plane, kid by kid, all the kids got a peak inside the planes. Then later that night we all went out to eat at Applebee's. We also got a great surprise that night with Cora who ended up throwing up. We went to sleep and hoped for the best as the next day we were scheduled to board our boat!

Well, as you can see from these pics below, we did get to board our boat, but only after a few not so fun experiences. Cora woke up at the Sander's house and took two bites of cereal and ran into the bathroom to throw up. But, we were headed to New Orleans anyway in hopes of no one else getting sick as we all know how much you get to eat on a cruise ship! We did NOT want to miss out on that with being sick! :) So, right before we boarded the ship, we headed to Walmart for a few last minute items and in the middle of the shampoo aisle Cora lost it out of her pants! Nick dashed her to the car to change and clean her up, while Kayley and I frantically searched for a spill station after we put our buggy over the accident so no one would slip on it. We got it all cleaned up and then decided to hit McD's thinking it would take a long time b/f we got on the ship. Cora was sitting at the table waiting patiently and then lost her cookies this time all over the table. I took her to the bathroom this time only to find the bathroom being cleaned!! Urgh!! So we again headed to the car for another change/clean up. After it was all cleaned up, we were finally headed to board our ship.

Note to anyone thinking of cruising...you get VIP boarding if you're boarding with kids...so we didn't have to wait in ANY lines!! It was so nice to walk right up and check in! Well with the scare of H1N1, everyone had to fill out a sheet saying if anyone in their party had had diarrhea or vomiting in the last 24 hours...I freaked out and asked Nick what we should put b/c obviously Cora fit both of those categories. We had to put no so that they'd let us on the ship. Then once we got on, we hung out in our room for a while at least until we shipped off. We weren't worried it was anything contagious by the way as no one else felt bad or anything. We were almost for sure that this was just too much sun from the previous day at the beach. Well, all was well for the rest of the day and she only had one more diarrhea accident that night in her bed. After that, no one got sick and she was better throughout the rest of the trip...Thankfully!! :)

That first night we had a nice and exciting dinner as the girls had to learn how to eat/act at a fancy dinner! Cora's face describes how I felt that night, but it was really good and we had the best cheesecake for dessert and the best hot chocolate...which we ordered everynight after that! Back in the room the girls were way excited about getting the cool towel display! Kayley was way excited about being a big girl and sleeping on the bunk bed! She is growing way too quickly for me! Cora loved her special comforter bed on the floor underneath her. She still flails too much for me to be comfortable for her to sleep on a bunk bed.

The next day was our first day at sea. We had tons of fun playing in our water park/water slide! Unfortunately the girls weren't tall enough to slide down them and you weren't aloud to ride double..so they just got to watch Mommy and Daddy slide down them. But they also had a fun sprinkle part too that they played in.

We also enjoyed the mini-golf at top of the ship. The girls started out trying to use their clubs, but they both resorted to just walking over to the hole and dropping their ball in. It was fun though and awful windy!

That evening we went out and watched the sunset. We came across a really pretty rainbow. Then we walked around and got pictures of the boat and then got ready for our fancy night of dinner all dressed up! I was hoping that dinner was going to go a lot better than the first night...and it did as Kayley really liked pretending to be a princess at dinner...she pretended she was Ariel eating dinner with Prince Eric for the first time being a human. She was pretty cute. She even wanted to use the fancy wine glass to drink her water! :) She started to show us how Ariel used her dingle-hopper (for those not up to speed with Ariel, this is what Scuttle calls a fork) and we stopped her so as not to get any weird looks!

Then once get back in the room, there was an elephant waiting for the girls. They were pretty impressed with that one!

The next day was our first port of call in Progreso, Mexico, which is a small island off of Mexico. We had to take a picture of the girls' prized possessions of the week...Einstein & Baby so they wouldn't take them on the island so as not to risk losing them. All the people on the ship noticed them on the ship and would all ask them girls what the dog and baby's names were. In fact, one guy who we would often run into on the ship, we ran into him on the island and he asked the girls where Einstein was. It was cute!

The first part of our port we walked around the town to get the whole Mexican experience...it was interesting and HOT!! You had to really watch where you were walking as the cars really don't watch at all for people or kids!! It about made me sick to think how some parents were not holding their kids' hands. I guess the kids learn to watch out, but still! It didn't take long for me to get tired of this, so we headed back to sign up for a Mayan ruin tour.

We went with a group on a tour bus to see some Mayan Ruins. The girls were of course the talk of the bus as it was only a group of about 15 people or so. They had some pretzels to snack on and everyone was teasing them about sharing pretzels with them, even later in the week on the boat, they were still asking Kayley and Cora for pretzels. But, the Mayan ruins were pretty neat and apparently we went to the poor mayan's ruins. We were told that the shorter the door, the poorer the group of people. These doors were pretty small! The two pics on the bottom are (R) the female building/Moon (if I remember right) and the (L) male building/Sun...I might have the sun/moon part backwards...but they faced each other...can't remember much else past that. That probably had to do with having to do the tour with kids!

This was the girls favorite part of the tour...and I'll admit mine too! We went to a resort that was located on the beach and it had a really cool pool. The girls only lasted for about 2 seconds on the beach...even Kayley, who was way excited about the pool. I should have gotten just a picture of just the pool, but I didn't think of that until after the fact. It had a big part in the middle surrounded by 6 smaller square sections with about 1 ft of water with chairs in that part. You could sunbath and get wet very easily all in one, but of course with kids you can't enjoy that...but the girls loved the 1 ft part and loved playing around in it. Cora had to be reminded quite a bit where the shallow part b/cm not shallow as she slipped under the water pretty quick, but no worries we got her up quickly and she was fine! Part of the problem was for some reason Nick did not want to swim so he just sat at the side with his feet in the water, while we "Non-bumps on a log" people enjoyed the swimming!

These are pics of our boat while we were walking back. We were very impressed with Kayley as towards the end of the day, she did very well on walking for a long distance. We really missed not taking our stroller with us, but you live and learn and we'll know to take it next time!!

Then that night we had another great dinner with a surprise dance from our waiters! Our waiter is in the bottom picture the second from the left. Hasam was his name and he was from Turkey if I remember correctly. He was working there until he saved up enough money to go work in Vegas. Apparently people who work on cruise ships work about 6 months at a time with only a few days off during that time. I can't believe how people do that, especially when they have a family as did Hasam...but it must be pretty good money!

The next day was our 2nd port of call at Cozumel, Mexico. It had the prettiest ocean water we have ever seen in our life!! Instead of paying to go do any tours this time, we decided to rent a car and drive around the town ourselves. We brought our own snorkel gear and found a beach resort/pool again and made our way to the ocean to attempt snorkeling. The water was amazing and so clear!! Nick went first and came and metioned the water being so clear and the fish coming so close that he could see their teeth. That was not a great idea to tell me as this was my first time to ever snorkel!! I didn't get as brave as Nick and would freak out when the fish got real close, but Nick loved snorkeling and that was his favorite part! Then the girls of course loved the pool at the resort, so we went swimming again.

After swimming and snorkeling, we went to the downtown part of Cozumel and did some shopping. Kayley was most excited about seeing McDonald's here. Cora was asleep while we took her picture there so as soon as she woke up, Kayley insisted on us taking her back to go take a picture and show her McDonalds. A completely different country and all our girls can think about is where is the nearest McDonalds!! :) Then towards the end of our shopping before we went back to the ship, we found a place that gave really cheap massages and I got one...it was amazing!

Then we headed back to the ship. Royal Carribean was also docked at Cozumel while we were there, so I had to get a pic of their boat...I noticed they didn't have a water slide like us...we really liked that part of our boat!! :)

Then we got back on the boat and headed to dinner later in the night. The girls then loved the little lobster back in the room. Nick really liked the lobster we got to eat at dinner!! :)

This is day 7...a day at sea where we had another fun day at the waterworks slide and water park. This day I finally figured out how to go down the slide and actually make a splash! I know it sounds silly...but the first day I kept going to the bottom and I would have to scoot myself down to the end of the slide cause I'd get stuck. I finally kept my back completely flat and got all the way to the end.

We also did a last day of golfing with the girls. They loved being able to mini-golf at anytime! The way home on the boat was a bit more rocky as I think we hit some storm or something...so the top of the boat was SO windy!! It literally was knocking Cora over and I'm NOT exagerrating! We had to hold her hand the whole time and walk her to the hole. So, when we both didn't have a hand, we did literally have her hang on for dear life to the pole. It was cute! We also got to watch one of the last pool games of a group of men and a group of women doing synchronized swimming...it was pretty funny. I didn't get a good pic of the girls, but the men were much funnier. They even held one another up in the air, but I missed the camera on that position.

These are pictures of the inside of our boat all lit up. It really did look neat at night! We tried to get a picture of the girls on the step landing, but there were a lot of people waiting in line to do the same and we decided to nix the idea.

This is the last morning on the ship. At our last stop in Cozumel, there was a guy who made the girls grasshoppers out of bamboo. Nick was worried they wouldn't make it across customs and they would get squished in our suitcases, so we decided to leave them on the boat...so we had the girls take one last picture with them before we left so they could remember them.

After we docked, we decided to spend a day or two in New Orleans as we both had never been there before. We were told we had to eat a beignet, so we headed to the French Quarter to try some. They were pretty good, but not quite what we expected. I was expecting more of a doughnut type, but it was more of a funnel cake type, which is not one of my favorite things. The girls on the other hand could not have enough of them! We got two orders of 3 and the girls ate at least 1 1/2 each by themselves!

Then we just walked around the French Quarter. We actually were right by where we docked and could see the boat from where we were. We felt like we were at a port of call and were dying get back on the boat! It was sad to think they were busy cleaning our room for someone else to use it! The only difference was our boat looked much prettier being on the Gulf of Mexico versus the Mississippi River! :)

That night we were very lucky to have Katrina have us at her house. Our girls loved playing with Todd, Phillip, Grant, and Lucy. It had been a long time since we had seen them and our girls didn't remember them...at least Kayley didn't, Cora hadn't ever seen them. But after we were there for 5 minutes it was like they were all best friends! Then, the next morning Todd surprised us all by being sick. We were worried we were all going to get sick, but surprisingly no one got sick or at least not full blown. Techinally Cora did get sick the day after we got back home 4 days after this time, but it was very short-lived.

So the next day on day 9, Katrina very willingly and unselfishly followed us into downtown and got us in to the aquarium for free with her season passes. Poor Todd had to ride in the car feeling sick, but she insisted on taking us. It was really a cool aquarium and the girls had a great time!

This was a part with some Nemo type fish. There were two sides of the aquarium and I got on the other side to take a picture of the girls as Cora was really cute as she loves Nemo so much and was so excited! The girls were both very confused and thought I was actually inside the aquarium. It was funny! Then they got to play in the sea anemone (like Nemo's house).

This is where we got to pet a shark and a sting ray. We did actually get Kayley and Cora to pet the shark, but neither one of them would pet the sting ray. The shark was actually bumpy and not soft at all like a stingray. It was very interesting.


This was Flotsam and Jetsam from The Little Mermaid. Kayley was really excited to see these. Then the killer whale display did actually have a blow whole that blew air out every now and then. Nick actually put Cora's bottom right on top of it, but as soon as he got her on there, the air stopped.


This picture on the right was taken for my lovely sister Jan!! She and I tease each other about being stumpy as she and I are the shortest one in our family. So I found her street!! :) The other picture is of the street car in New Orleans. We were going to ride them, but they ended up being a lot more expensive than we thought and our meter on our car was about to run out and we didn't know if we'd get back in time or not.

After New Orleans we drove over to Biloxi, MS in hopes to spend another fun day at the beach. Apparently Biloxi was hit really hard by Hurricane Katrina and it didn't get as much publicity, which is why we didn't know this until we got there. We did find a nice hotel right across the street from the beach, but the beach looked more like a lake. I guess it was a combination of the Mississippi river still flowing in there and leftover debri from Katrina or something. So we did play and had fun building sand castles, but I forgot my camera.

Then the next day we started the trek home by stopping in Sikeston to see Aunt Tootie and Carrie. We didn't get a pic with Aunt Tootie as we left earlier than she had expected the next day, but we had lots of fun visiting with them and Carrie made these cute pumpkins for the girls that are now sitting on our front porch! :)

On our way out of Sikeston we of course stopped by Dad, Grandpa, and Kathryn's grave sites. We had not been there since Grandpa's funeral, so it had been quite a while. They had lots of questions as to who was who, but it was nice as I was sitting there thinking that it is so nice they are all three right by each other. It was really nice to reminisce a little while in Sikeston and on our way home with the girls and show them a bit of my history. I can't wait until they can meet my Dad in person! In fact, last night we had family home evening about temples and how Grandma Jani and Papa Felker were always going to be married and that Mommy and Daddy were always going to be their Mommy and Daddy. Then today Kayley asked me how happy I was going to be when I got to see my Daddy again. I of course told her I was going to be so happy that I would probably cry. But I was so glad that she actually is starting to grasp the importance of temples!

Putting pine cones on the graves.

The last group of pictures!! :) All in all the girls were great for our vacation! It was a total of about 30 hours of driving or so and they were grouchy at times, but for the most part great travelers! The DVD player was a great thing to have in the car, for them and for us too as we played our own in the front seat too! :) But even while we were on the boat on the last night at the fancy dinner a lady came up to us and commented to us about how well behaved they were throughout the whole time we ate dinner every night. We were really impressed with their behavior throughout the trip and will definitely take them again on a cruise...maybe even next year if we get another good deal! :) The girls are continuously taking on a daily basis about going on a cruise again so we are counting down the days till next summer!

Jet Ski Fun

You thought I was joking on posting a lot!! :) During the middle of September we were able to FINALLY go on the lake here in Blue Springs with the Carles. It was a long process as we had to get paperwork and get all the battery issues resolved. We had originally planned to go a week before this, got the jet ski in the water, started it and then I made the mistake of turning it off in hopes of getting one of the kids on the back with me and luck would have it, it wouldn't turn back on! So after buying a new battery and a permit, we finally got on the lake! (We have usually gone to Branson to go on the lake, so this was our first time on BS lake.) The kids had a blast!! We are anxiously awaiting the summer to start again so that we can get out again with them! We will however leave Einstein at home next time though. I didn't get any pics of him, probably b/c he couldn't leave my side and when he had to be separated from me when it was my turn, he about jumped off the dock to go get me! We couldn't get Cora on the jet ski, so maybe next year. Katrina did ride with Jess and I though. It was all lots of fun and the summer ended way too quickly for us all and ruined our plans of going again when we got off of vacation! We'll be ready for next year!

Grain Valley Fair Daze

Also back in September was the Grain Valley Fair Daze here in Grain Valley. We had fun walking around and listening to the music. Luckily our girls are not old enough to beg too much about riding rides. We just figured since we have Silver Dollar City season passes already paid for, why pay for rinky-dink rides at the fair...no offense to those who love those kind of rides! But we also got to meet up with the Carles on Saturday for the parade. Einstein even got to join in on the fun!

Fun Family Labor Day Weekend

Well this last weekend was a great weekend as we were privileged to have visits from lots of family. Edward, our nephew got baptized this weekend, so Edward, Katie, Andrew, and of course Jessica & I were all together with our respective families. It was a fun-filled weekend with a lot of great visiting. We were sad that Jan and Mary and Mom weren't able to make it with their families, but enjoyed the time that the rest of us had together. Here are all the pictures. The first group is of the kids at the baptism on Saturday. I wasn't quick enough to get a picture of Edward, so I'll have to just wait and get a copy from someone else.

Next are pics of Mallory, Ellie, & Cora. We tried to get a picture of all three of them plus Katrina and Lauren, but there was always someone missing. They are 5 of the 6 girls all born in 2007 in our family. It was sure fun though to see how each one of their personalities are different. Their voices are all distinctly different...Ellie talks in 3rd person all the time, "Ellie needs to eat", etc... Cora & Lauren have raspy voices that sound like they are smokers, Katrina is very soft spoken and you have to get really close to hear her, and Mallory has this very high pitched cute voice! They are all different, but yet they all had so much fun together...minus the times that they all wanted the same toys!


Drew and Sam were quite the partners in crime...or play! They had the best fun making these concoctions of pop cans and our left over food with tape and grass and anything else they could get their hands on.

Then, all the cousins loved having Einstein & Stella there. The Felkers brought Stella and Einstein was in 7th heaven. The kids had fun taking turns in the dog house...sadly they probably stunk like crazy afterwards as it's been a long time since I've cleaned it out and washed the dog bed and blanket, but they didn't seem to mind. The dogs had so much fun that after everyone left, Einstein was so depressed that he didn't even eat his favorite liver treats!

Then there was plenty of outside time for the kids and the weather was perfect for it! The little girls even tried to play some football, but didn't like it too much!

After the baptism on Saturday, I found Kayley reading to the little girls. She was having so much being the big cousins to the girls and to also hang out with the bigger cousins, Olivia and Elizabeth.

This picture is to show that 1) My brother Edward is a goofball and a great Dad as he willingly plays with the kids in putting on some dress up gloves! And 2) to show that Mallory is just like her Dad in more than just her looks. I tried to catch it, but Edward has an owl eye. He can close his left eye without the right eye even moving and sometimes he does it when he not even noticing it. Well, Mallory was eating something a bit sour and when she would make her sour face, her owl eye would show threw just like her Dad's and it was even her left eye! Like Father, like daughter!

These are a couple of photo shoots of the girl cousins. They were all being cute on the couch...once again, Katrina didn't want to get in.

Photo shoot #2...

Then, on Sunday the girls all went into mine and Nick's room to watch Cinderella. About half way through the movie I noticed almost all the boys had gravitated to watch the movie too. I took a snap shot for proof. If you notice the boys...Ross is smiling as he's on a new kick to be proud of doing feminine things lately. Matt smiles just cause he's sweet and cooperative. Both Edward and Judson hid...Edward is hiding his face and Judson took off as you can see his shoes in the lower right corner of the pic. It was funny! It was a great weekend and of course wasn't long enough!

My Masterpiece

Ok...my real masterpieces are our girls, but this was quite the project. Nick and I have been wanting to replace our linoleum in our basement entry way for quite some time. We looked into doing ceramic tile, but with the cost of the tile cutter and other tile supplies, it was worth it to do peel and stick tile that could be grouted like real tile. Well a couple weeks ago, we went to look at the selection at Lowe's and were blessed to get the exact flooring we wanted color and everything for half price as they were clearing it out! We were way excited, well I was more excited than Nick...I was just like a school girl! Then to top it off I did the math and it was exactly the amount I had figured in what we would need! Anyway, I decided to take on the project as my family is coming into town this weekend and I wanted to show it off. What a project! I ran into having to chisel away at the baseboards to make it fit, which Nick helped me with. Then after 2-3 days of working on it...it's done...well other than putting the baseboards back on, but the caulking is still drying on some parts. Anyway, I have to say that I drool over it everytime I walk by it and I'm so glad that we (I mean I) did it! I didn't have an actual before picture but I did have a picture of when we were trying to decide what pattern to use so you could see what was underneath. Only with the tile on it you can't see the gashes that were in the floor that needed to be replaced, hence why we did this! Oh...and did I mention that I did this all by myself, except for Nick helping me shave off the baseboards!

Kayley says the funniest things sometimes...

Kayley said a couple of funny things tonight that I wanted to document. We were eating Blizzards at Dairy Queen and she told me, "Mom, do you know that your duty is to your mouth?" Not quite understanding what she was saying, I thought she was talking about "dootie"...err...poop. So I asked her again what she said trying to understand exactly what she was saying. Again, she said "Your duty is to your mouth." Nick heard what she was saying and said she meant, "your duty is to your heart." Apparently that's a line from Mulan...so now we know that "Our duty is to your heart...and I'm glad that my daughter does not know the other form of "duty" (dootie)!

Then on the way home, we came on a road with a lot of pot-holes and Nick reminded me to try and avoid them. Kayley then responded with a "yeah Mom, watch out they fall you!" It was cute!

Texas Roadhouse

As mentioned on an earlier post, Olivia has a birthday the day after Kayley's. So, after much convincing (only b/c he wasn't feeling very good), I got Nick to go. I actually went twice to Texas Roadhouse b/c the first time was to deliver a coupon that Jess could use (you know how we love coupons and we wanted to share the wealth...or the cheap). Then we visited and after much time on the phone, I got Nick to come, so I went back home to pick he and the girls up and we all went and had a fun dinner with them! I had to see if Jess had any plans of them singing to Olivia for her birthday, so Jess told our waitress and they came out with the saddle and some ice cream for both Kayley and Olivia. Olivia was the only brave one to get on the saddle...at least for them to sing to her. Cora got on the saddle for me to take a picture of her. She and Kayley are complete opposites in braveness it seems!! :) But, it was a fun night...our girls really do just adore Olivia and she is such a great cousin to them. It reminds me of how much she and Judson were my buddies when they were my girls' age. I remember them loving to ride in my "red car!" They used to get so excited about that! Judson loved me so much, he even asked me to marry him, he even bought me a ring, which I still have by the way! Then when I was getting married to Nick, JT had Judson tell me it was ok for me to marry Nick. It was so cute! We sure do love having the Carles so close to us now!

Oh and a funny thing from Edward when ordering his food. He was ordering his drink and asked for some "Hic"...he was at the end of the table and the waitress asked him to speak up, so he again said "Hic." No one could understand or hear what he wanted as he is a soft spoken boy anyway, so Jess asked him to point to what he wanted and he pointed to the "Hi-C" picture. Can't say I blame the boy...it does look like "Hic" to me if I've never read the word before! It was funny!

Kayley's 4th Birthday

Our Kayley turned 4 the other day and we can't believe she is so big now! It's amazing that we have been so blessed with such a smart girl. She is constantly asking me what sound letters make and she loves to read and write her letters! She still has two more years before she starts kindergarten as she misses the cutoff by 20 days, but I'm excited I get my sweet Kayley at home with me for 2 more years! She is a good big sister, when she and Cora aren't fighting and we couldn't ask for a better little Kayley!

She of course is still in love with Ariel, so we had an Ariel birthday party. We were hoping to have a swimming party, but unfortunately the rain didn't hold out for us and it was pouring down during her party! But, we made it work and it turned out to be a great party! She was lucky enough to have a lot of her family there as well as friends and she couldn't have had a better party! Her Aunt Mary even was there from Vegas!! :)

We started the party with some Ariel games. Since we were supposed to have the party at the pool, we had to tweek the games a bit. Instead of doing a game of searching for diving sticks in the pool, we searched for them in the house...a game of "Ariel's Sunken Treasures." Then, we were going to have a fun Ursula game with Aunt Mary in the pool, but instead had to do "Hot Sebastian" or Hot Potato...the kids took a while to figure out the rules of that one, so we eventually stopped the game and just gave all the kids some candy! :)

Then we did some cake and ice cream. I attempted to do an Ariel cake from an idea off the internet. Am I glad that Mary was there to help me with the artistic side of it! I was running late on everything with the party, so Mary helped me ice the cake while I went to go pick up some dinner. She did all the water/sand dune part and I wish I could take credit for it, but she did all that! All I did was bake the cake/sand dune with the holes in them and put on Ariel's fins...which also had to be tweeked as Ariel was a bit taller than we expected. Then I added Melody and Flounder for the final touches. I have to say that I think Mary and I made a good team and maybe we should go in the business!?! Olivia was also a good sport in sharing her birthday party with Kayley. Olivia's birthday is the day after Kayley's, so she had a cookie cake and had a friend, Ikea come with her. They were both great helpers with the kids and of course all the kids adored both of them!

Then it was time for the presents, which was mad caos as there were lots of kids and only one of me who was manning the station of the presents! Kayley hit jackpot and loved all of her presents though! It was amazing how fast my house got crazy messy...it felt like Christmas morning!

One of her gifts was an Ariel bathtub toy, which she had her eyes on at the stores! I'm not sure which kid had the idea, but someone wanted to play with it in the bathtub. They started to do it in the hallway bath, but I made sure all the parents were ok with it and decided to do it in our bathtub and let all the kids put on their suits and climb in...they did want a swimming party to begin with anyway! It was quite the sight and I'm shocked at how many kids fit in our jacuzzi tub! I didn't put theses in a collage format b/c otherwise it wouldn't fit all the kids in the picture. I got a head count and at one point we had as many as 10 kids in there! It was all in all a great party and a great time visiting with friends and family!