Art Portfolio For Art Camp

Briana has attended five art camps at the same local art center over four summers and she has made many beautiful creations...

Being the hoarder collector that I am, I have kept all of Bri's art pieces. I finally decided to put them all together in a 16 x 20 portfolio...

Now she can look back at all of her hard work in one place...

I have enough room to add to it if she decides to attend an art camp again next summer. :)

At the end of each summer, the art center has a showcase to show off all the artwork that was done by the camps' attendees. Bri picked her monkey as her display piece. Unfortunately, Doug, Bri and I were not able to attend the showcase this year, but Bri's friends Imerie and Ella did and my friend Val took this picture at the showcase for us to see Bri's picture on the wall...

 Pretty neat, isn't it? :)

School Update (And Bri's Sense Of Style)

Briana has been looking super cute as she heads to school each day...

 School has been going really well for Miss B. She comes home happy each day. My neighbor/friend Jennifer and I have come up with a carpooling schedule for Briana and her daughter Caitlin. It is much more fun when you go to school and come home from school with a friend...

Venture started back up and she seems to be enjoying it a lot this year. I think she has finally found her groove in that department.

Of course, I still really like her teacher Mrs. T ~ there is a really nice comfort level because Bri had her last year. And Bri likes her new English teacher a lot too. Homework has been super light - hoping it stays that way for a while.

Running club started last Monday and soccer practice starts this upcoming Monday. We are really getting into the swing of things now!

Bri's Awesome Star Wars Themed/Video Game Truck 10th Birthday Party

All I can say is "WOW!" The kids had a blast at Bri's 10th birthday party! Including the birthday girl of course!

Doug and I hired a mobile video game truck come to the house ~ the kids played in it for 2 hours. Minecraft, Just Dance, Star Wars...they had so much fun.

Even though the kids were going to be in the trailer 90 percent of the time, I still had to decorate the house because they would be eating snacks and cake in it.

Bri wanted a Star Wars theme - so she got a Star Wars theme...

 I even had Rey on the door to greet all of our guests...

We had 16 party guests including Briana. 16 was the magic number because that was the amount of kids that could fit comfortably in the truck...

Bri was so excited when the truck showed up...

Bri got to go in by herself first to check it all out and pick out the games...

Then the kids were explained the rules and they all filed in...

Gaming happened immediately...

I loved watching the girls do the "Just Dance" game...

This is just a quick sample of what was going on in the truck...



After all the gaming, the kids were famished and dug into the snacks...

Bri and I then got the cake ready...

Everybody singing...

Ella was so sweet and played "Happy Birthday" for Bri on the piano...

Pictures of Bri and her friends...

Aunt Amy and Cousin N were there too...

Below is a super sweet picture of Bri and her "China sisters." The girls have all grown up together. Looking at them - all so beautiful, smart, strong and amazing - makes me tear up a bit...

The party turned out amazing in the end. There were a few hiccups with the company we hired ~ luckily, the hiccups didn't affect the party.

First, they didn't give me the "no later than one hour before we come/we are on the way" call they promised. I began to panic a bit when they didn't call. I ended up calling them a half hour before the party. Second, they gave me the wrong cake flavor. It came vanilla and it was delicious, but the birthday girl really wanted chocolate. Lastly, when Doug and I told them about these issues, we received no apology from them at all.

Despite those hiccups, the party was super great and the kids had fun. The gaming itself was awesome, but I can't say I would recommend this particular company because of that lack of an apology. There are so many video gaming truck companies to choose from. I definitely do recommend a game truck for a birthday party - it was tons of fun!

Bri felt super special and I think all the kids had a good time. I am so happy that I was able to do this for my sweet 10 year. I do think next year the party will be a bit smaller though. I was pretty exhausted after this one. :)