THE NEWTON'S

Ashley's dearest friend left today on her vacation, so we had to have her birthday party last Saturday night so she wouldn't miss it. We had 14 girls (including Ashley) over for an UNSLUMBER party (that means we fill them up with sugar and junk food and then send them home at 10pm) and they had fun making bows (thanks Amanda for the supplies and instruction!), and decorating cups.  We had the traditional slumber party dinner of pizza and chips and watched a movie and had plenty of junk food and candy and soda for them to consume.  Then they opened presents, and played some games.  Went for a walk to ding dong ditch a boy that lives the next street over (with some adult supervision) and acted like 10 and 11 year old girls having a good time!   The cake was fashioned after Ashley's bed spread- complete with the two decorative pillows she and Maddie made to match out of Fondant. :)  It was loud and crazy, but lots of fun.  I just supplied the stu...

Ashley's dearest friend left today on her vacation, so we had to have her birthday party last Saturday night so she wouldn't miss it. We had 14 girls (including Ashley) over for an UNSLUMBER party and they had fun making bows (thanks Amanda for the supplies and instruction!), and decorating cups.  We had the traditional slumber party dinner of pizza and chips and watched a movie and had plenty of junk food and candy and soda for them to consume.  Then they opened presents, and played some games.  Went for a walk to ding dong ditch a boy that lives the next street over (with some adult supervision) and acted like 10 and 11 year old girls having a good time!   The cake was fashioned after Ashley's bed spread- complete with the two decorative pillows she and Maddie made to match out of Fondant. :)  It was loud and crazy, but lots of fun.  I just supplied the stuff and stepped back and let them have a good time. :)

We are fully immersed in birthdays last week and this week.  With two girls one week apart on their birthdays- the birthday celebrations and preperations tend to stay at the top of the "to do" list. We started with our family party for Angela on her birthday.  A fun make your own pizza night (as per her request) and then we had cake and opened presents from us and grandparents.

So we left Arizona and headed west.  Rich and Dave both had some stuff going on that day that they wouldn't be able to leave Arizona until that afternoon, so we moved Zach's carseat into our car, and Amanda and I loaded up with all the kids and we drove out to Anaheim, via San Diego so we could make a quick visit with my sister Nancy and her family.  Uncle Jacob pulled out the hammock's and put them up outside and that kept the kids entertained while Nancy and Amanda and I got to visit while dinner was being made.  It was a quick visit- just a couple of hours, but it was nice to let the kids see each other and they are even more excited about next years Johnson Family Reunion.  Alex was surrounded by boys... I don't think he knew what to make of it... lol!  From Nancy's house we went on to Anaheim, found our hotel and got a good night sleep and got up early for Disneyland the next day!  I had to get what is becoming a traditional self portrait of A...

Once school was out we had to jump in the car and go on an adventure...  we went to Arizona first to visit Rich's brother David and his family- Amanda and Zack... we had so much fun just hanging out at their house and playing!  Amanda has some niece and nephews that are the same ages as our kids and they came over and the kids played till they dropped! Here's Rich entertaining Zack while they waited for everyone else to get ready for church.  Dave and Zack Alyssa We tried to take some family pictures at the Mesa Temple, but 4:30pm on Sunday after 3 hours of church and with it being 105 degrees wasn't a great time to go and get the kids to cooperate... I'll just cound myself lucky to get this cute picture instead. :) Amanda introduced the girls to making their own flower clips to put in their hair. A rare picture of me... Ashley snapped a few pictures before I made her give the camera back. Dave and Amanda had a pool and I think we spend 4 hours in i...