Emily turns 8!

Emily just had a very special birthday! She turned eight! Birthdays are pretty big here at the Asp house anyway, but because Emily was turning eight and getting baptized, we made it even more special! We started all the celebrations a day early on Friday, March 3rd. I spent the morning finishing party cleaning and making about 20 chefs hats. I always volunteer at the school on Fridays, so I spent about 2 hours there eating lunch with the kids, reading to the kindergarteners, and changing at-home reading books for all the 2nd graders and kindergarteners. I also got to take treats in to Emily's class and listen to them sing to her! Her poster we'd made for All about Me was hanging up as well! I rushed home to finish the rest of the party preparations. I ended up convincing Steve to leave even earlier to stop by the store and pick up frosting and hang streamers for me. I just didn't get enough done in advance! The kids (18 of them!) all came right after school. They started by decorating an apron and watching the episode of Magic School Bus Emily's party was based on - Magic School Bus gets Baked in a Cake.
I was Ms. Frizzle!
After they all had their aprons and chefs hats on, Ella (the Magic School Bus) collected their tickets and the kids had to find their corresponding letter on the carpet.
We sang a few rounds of Wheels on the Bus to get us started.
We ended up at the bakery and all the kids had to try to mix cake mix and water to the right consistency and fill their table's muffin cups.
We had so many kids we had 3 tables full!
After Steve put the cupcakes in the oven, we split up for games. The friends started with Steve upstairs and had a relay race. They divided into two teams, had to put on oven mitts, carry as much play food as they could to the play oven, open the oven, put the food inside, close the oven door and run back to the next teammate. Steve said some teams figured out the trick of carrying only a few items at a time and not dropping any. They got wild and had fun!

I took the friend group first and we got out the preschool parachute and shook it to warm up the oven, get it really hot and then trap each person inside the oven. They had a blast. Especially when it was my turn and I screamed, "I'm melting, I'm melting!" After a while we switched groups.

Then we went back to the bakery and decorated the cupcakes that somehow turned out perfectly and weren't even hot! :) They each got a cup of frosting and a bunch of toppings and 2 cupcakes. We dished out ice cream and got enough sugar in them to get them REALLY wild!
Lastly, we opened presents. Emily was very gracious and was a good hostess. She has a lot of good friends and we are so glad so many of them could come. We sent them home with their apron, hat, a wooden spoon with a marshmallow cupcake and a note that said, "Thanks for mixing up some fun at Emily's birthday party" tied on.
On Saturday, Emily woke up to her family presents. Unfortunately, she got mostly clothes!
But her favorite present of all was a goldfish bowl! We went to PetSmart and she picked out a blue beta fish. She named him Azul (spanish for blue, but I don't know how to spell it.) She's done a good job remembering to feed it.
We spent most the morning cleaning and making about 4 batches of Rice Krispie treats. Emily's baptism was at 1:00.
She had her cousins Scottie and Samantha say the prayers, Jill play the piano, Lynn lead, mom do the baptism talk and Paige do the Holy Ghost talk. Emily was super excited, but also a bit shy that she was the center of attention! I used a hard boiled egg (Emily's new favorite food) to show how we can make mistakes (marker), but baptism washes us clean. I also gave Emily a monogrammed white baptism towel to help her remember how clean she feels today. She looked beautiful in the white dress we bought thanks to grandma. Emily's school teacher, church teacher, home teachers, bishop's wife and daughter, and primary president were nice enough to attend. We wished more long-distance family could have attended, but we understood.
The cousins and aunts all came over for cupcakes and Rice Krispie treats. I didn't make a cake this year, but Emily was happy that I arranged her cupcakes into an 8 and we all got to sing to her.
Poor Mason was a big overshadowed, but it was his birthday recently too. I changed out the candle for a 7 and we sang to him too!
After the company left, we went out on the town! Emily wanted to try out Chuck-a-Rama for her birthday. It was super crowded, but the girls each found foods they liked! We went to Toys R Us to get Emily a balloon and to spend some birthday money. We also went to the Mall and Emily and Ella (don't know how we got suckered) each got a new build-a-bear. We had fun looking around the Disney Store. Lastly we went to Chuck-E- Cheese. The girls had a blast!
(Pointing at the 8!)
They've learned it's important to get tickets as well as have fun!
We were POOPED after such a busy day! But we wanted our first-born to know how much we love her. She has gotten so mature and is trying to stay perfect and be a good big sister!

February Fun!

Even though February is a short month, it's still amazing how fast it flies by! Here's two of my sweeties ready to cheer during the Superbowl! We had all the cousins over for the superbowl to celebrate Eden's, Samantha's and Steve's birthdays. I don't think there was much football watching, but everyone had a wild and crazy time!
February was a month of sicknesses for us. Ella started us off, then Eden got it, then Emily, then back to Ella! I was happy to avoid a doctor's visit as I used drops I already had and then they just filled two more prescriptions for me over the phone! Poor kids each missed a day or two of school.
On Valentine's Day the girls woke up to a trail of heart cutouts leading from their room to the couch. There was a present to each of the girls. Emily and Ella each got another Liv doll and Eden got her first Pillow Pet. An "ooh ooh ahh ahh" - which she LOVES! Curious George is her favorite show right now and she won't sleep without her monkey pillow anymore! I also got to plan a preschool Valentine's party and a 2nd grade Valentine's party. I've definitely planned more parties in my life than most people! Eden had pink eye on the Sunday before Valentine's day, so I stayed home with her. Steve and the girls were all decked out though!
Here's a message to me I saw stamped out in the snow on Valentine's day! Such sweet girls I have!
Just a cute pic of Eden's growing personality! She LOVES babies and loves to dress up!
I took the preschool kids on a fieldtrip to the zoo since our theme this year is "I am Zoo-per!"
Good thing we had nice weather for the fieldtrip, because the next day we had about a foot of snow! I got all the girls bundled up before school to play in what was hopefully the last snowstorm of the year. We tried to build a snowman, but the snow was too wet.
The girls all had a blast at first!
I was telling the girls how to make snow angels. Ella plopped right down and made one.
But Emily said, "Geez, why would I do that?" Too practical. However, after I plopped down and made an angel, Emily decided it did look pretty fun.
Soon enough though, we were all cold and wet and ready to go back inside!
Big sister Ella to the rescue!
However, after just a few minutes Eden got all dressed up again (by herself) ready to go and play again!
I took the girls on a mommy date to the Safety Fair at the Expo center. There were a lot of fun things to do and it was suprisingly not too busy. I made Eden wear her monkey backpack. However, once she realized it had a cool tail, she wanted to hold it by herself. Kind of defeated the purpose - especially since I lost her after that! Luckily she let Ella and me take turns after that!
The girls had so much fun they talked their daddy into taking them AGAIN Saturday morning while I had to work. There was one station from a bilingual school, where a lady taught them how to make playdough all in Spanish. Ella just loved making playdough by herself! She came home and got to work making batch after batch of playdough.
This was just a FEW of the playdough batches they made up!
Here's Ella at Queen and King day at preschool.
We read "The Paperbag Princess" by Robert Munch and all the girls got to make a paperbag dress. Here's Eden modeling Ella's bag.