A Splash Bash for Emily's 6th!

As the invite said: Come "Slide" on over for Emi's 6th Birthday Splash Bash! Food and Fun in the last of the summer sun.

Emily celebrated her 6th Birthday on September 13 with her closest friends and family. After MUCH (too much) deliberation we decided to throw her a party at home and we rented a big (some would say huge) waterslide and a snow cone machine. Seemed like a good way to celebrate Emi's big day and the last of the summer water activities all at the same time. I think it was a total hit! The kids had a blast and the adults that were brave enough to try it did too.

The kids watching this giant 'thing' inflate in the backyard...

Emily's birthday treats. She wanted a Ding-Dong, Rice Krispy and Twinkie cake and ribs for dinner. Kind of unusual. So I thought we had better have plenty of other treats on hand just in case anyone objected to the actual definition of processed food. We LOVE Grandpa Bill's smoker by the way. I honestly think most of our friends think we only serve ribs anymore whenever we have guests to dinner!

Auntie M made the birthday flags. She also made the party hats. Too cute!

The beach balls were party favors. Somehow I still have a dozen beach balls...hmmm.

The giant slide required giant amounts of electricity. Such big amounts that periodically throughout the party we would blow a fuse and it really is amazing how quickly those things deflate. So, fortunately, we had an electrician or two in the crowd to save the day and the kids learned pretty quickly to buoy the pool end in order to prevent a flood of epic proportions.

And these people were so grateful they figured out the buoy system. Whew, disaster adverted!

Abi thought the snow cone machine was awesome. I think, no kidding, she must have had 11. She would sweet talk whomever was closest into getting her one and then when she thought they skimped on the syrup....

She would help herself to some more! Can we say "cavities"

Billy also enjoyed the snow cones...Thank goodness there was a giant source of water close by. This kid was COVERED in sticky syrup.

Singing Happy Birthday...

Happy Birthday my sweet girl!

Another Tooth Fairy Story...

Emi lost ANOTHER tooth. This one right before her big Birthday Party. So, I guess she can whistle herself a birthday tune now! She has lost both bottom front teeth and I do believe we will be hearing about the top two soon...Just a hunch. It's amazing how much the first one has grown is just a week.

Emily's 6th Birthday...

Emily James Deatsch turned 6 years old today. 6 Years. It seems like such a short amount of time, but her entire world is defined by it right now. I can't even begin to think what the next 6 will be like! She had a pretty quiet day...Off to school in the morning. In her glitzy Birthday Girl shirt, of course. Then Billy, Abi and I brought some cupcakes to class for her to share with her friends. She had the distinction of being the first kid in class to have a birthday treat brought in...which totally made her a star. Then home for a small celebration with us. She got to open up a couple gifts and we had her choice (Bacon & Broccoli) for dinner and Ding Dongs for dessert. We didn't want to over-do it what with her Splash Bash Backyard Birthday Party Extraordinaire on the way and all....



Wii Resort Sports... A gift from Mom & Dad and excitement for the whole family.

Happy Birthday to my first born baby!

Emily's First Tooth

Emily's first baby tooth fell out! With all the excitement of starting school I completely forgot to post it. (the trouble with playing "catch-up" I suppose) At any rate it was a very big event around here. Many of her friends had already lost one or even two and she was getting pretty anxious, which meant we all got daily updates on the wiggly factor. But it did FINALLY fall out just days before her first day of school. The tooth fairy did make a visit and left her 2 $1 silver coins to put away for the orthodontist!

Kindergarten Rocks!

Emily's 1st Day of Kindergarten!!

August 17, 2009

Desert Mountain School
Mrs. Holt's Heros

- walking to the bus stop at 7:30am

Emily James started kindergarten. I can't even believe it. She is getting so big, so fast. She is in Mrs. Holt's class along with 23 other kids. She was so excited to start school and so ready. I, on the other hand, was not nearly as ready as I thought I was. Who knew? It was an overly emotional week for me. Yes, I said week. It messed me up, what can I say. She rides the bus (never thought I would let her do such a thing) along with a few other kids from her class. Her bus driver is Mr. Mark and he is the reason I let her ride the bus. I am confident she is safe in his care, I think....no, I am. Yes, I am confident she is safe. He is always very friendly and knows all of the kids names and their parents too. On her first day Travis and I walked her to the bus stop, watched her get on and drive away and then raced back to the house (wiped away the tears) jumped in the car and managed to beat the bus to school. I wanted to make sure she was going to be okay! She was, of course. She is a big, independant girl. Already....

- arriving at school

- waiting for the bell at 8am

- getting off the bus at 3:20pm

The Jamboree! 2009

The Annual Jamboree ~ 2009

This year the Jamboree was a much more reasonable size, 30 or so people. Recall last year, upwards of twice that number. Some say even more than that. We spent four glorious days in the woods with our friends and family. Just relaxing, eating and passing germs.


Abi, still looking squishy and sporty. We will call this her Richard Simmons.

I love the progression here...

Another of my favorite moments from camp. Billy brought along some hand-me-down army guys he got from his "big guy" cousin Nathan. He found the perfect tree stump to set them all up and played for hours with them. Self entertainment is a skill best taught camping, I have decided.

Camp Creek. I had no idea such a place existed until this year. It's another of AZ's gorgeous little secrets and so close to the Ranch and the Jamboree. Just a few miles off the Young road.

Love this, look at Squishy's bubbies. They are squeezing out at every angle. What's even better is that she is completely unaware of the major wardrobe malfunction going on.

Hard to tell, but look closely and I am pretty sure any passers-by would have had the strangest thoughts about what was going on here....there are no people to be found, just all of our clothes and shoes and "things".

Andrew Mings, a handsome boy.

Billy, another of those handsome boys!

Ah, but wait! Audrey is breathtaking, isn't she? I think she makes the perfect little woodland nymph. Shh, don't tell her mom, but she spent most of that afternoon at the creek in the buff! Wouldn't you though? If you could be that little and cute and innocent?

Audrey is the only one who caught me snapping this picture....

I think she is funny.
So after all the frolicking in the creek it was time for lunch, right? Well Russell certainly thought so....

He found this tasty little morsel all on his own and proudly trotted it back to the lunch table. Apparently he felt we should have brought him a sandwich too. Needless to say, very little eating happened afterward.

After what should have been a great picnic lunch in the forest we headed off to the fish hatchery. Why not, right? The kids thought is was pretty neat. I thought it was hot.

My TROPHY!! I never win anything and certainly not when it pits my cooking skills against Bette's. However, I did win the Salsa Queen of Chicago after a blind taste test pitting Erin, Bette and myself against each other. Sounds like dangerous territory doesn't it? Me against my in-laws? But I won!! I won this beautiful sliverswan and an icy cold sports drink. Salsa Queen! --Thanks to Bette for covertly dissecting the Antlers secret sauce and sharing with all of us to make our own even tastier versions!

Emily James 5 years and 11 months.

This would be a picture of a bull standing 10 yards away from our camp...starring right at me. I guess he wasn't into paparazzi.

This is my family...completely in harms way.

Julie Zimmerman is in charge of appetizers....mmm...mmm. I am almost positive no one eats like we do when they camp. It's what makes it so much fun.

Need I say more?

12 kids not counting infants. Poor Fred has to work on his toddler song book. This crowd is getting big enough to require an entire band. They love when Fred pulls out the guitar and sings for them. They hound him, and us, about it pretty much constantly until the Saturday evening performance. Poor Hayden was sick this year though and missed the whole thing...

...Abi, in turn, had to enjoy it twice as much. Only fair, right! She danced and wiggled away in her seat. One of Fred's many biggest little fans!

Marshmallows!

S'more Please!

Travis and Newman....Campin' Pro's.

Abigail, 2 years old. She had a really rough start...She is (was) strangely terrified of pine cones. Weird, I know, but true. She just freezes up whenever she sees one. Then proceeds to scream until help arrives to move it out of her path. The first couple days were rough, but after some intense pine cone therapy she managed to overcome it to a certain extent. Travis and Uncle AC taught her to say (in Abi speak) "bad pine cone" and kick it out of the way. My city girl did remarkably well though considering her idea of walking with nature is from the parking lot to the restaurant. Last year 2 days was her limit and she spent the other 2 crying in her tent....lucky me. Thankfully, we have made a HUGE amount of progress.

Billy, 3 years old. "If I can't see you, you can't see me." Get it? He's all camouflaged out in the woods and his eyes are closed...

Abi and Uncle AC.

Newman's youngest, Tia relaxing with a great pillow. Russ is the best camping dog!

So the Jamboree this year was a little less crazy than last. I don't think anyone is complaining. Everyone still had a great time, even the kids. The kids, by the way, are oddly absent from all of my pictures and not because I wasn't taking them....They had so much fun this year just being kids and playing in a crowd that they were gone entertaining themselves the whole time. Just think in another year all the kids will be big enough to go play on their own we can play Boggle uninterrupted!