Happy Birthday Elise!

Last weekend (March 14-16) I drove home to start my Spring Break! Funny that I left a burning hot Tucson (who apparently skipped spring and thinks it is Summer) and after picking up Rosa we drove up the Rim where it snowed on us and there was snow on the ground (this state apparently has some issues with season). My plan: spend time with the family, get my taxes done at Jon's, see a fleeting glance of Dad before he headed off to the outage at Springerville not to be seen again for weeks, and of utmost importance: celebrate Elise's eleventh birthday!

Elise had a small party with a few friends, pizza, cake and ice cream - all an excellent combination. Her brothers gave her a Nerf gun as a gift - I guess they didn't think that one through! Here Tim demonstrates why Crookstons and Nerf guns aren't a good combination. Jaden takes it full force!

After the big kids left, Melissa and I played Candyland - and despite what it looks like we didn't last five minutes into the game before she started looking for something else to get into - like Kristi says she is in her terrible twos - and since she is almost three she has to live it up while she can.

Elise and I had a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's - we rented High School Musical Three and had hot chocolate and snuggled in blankets. An amazingly good combination! It was fun to be eleven again - just for a night!

We got up and had a leisurely Sunday morning, Elise even let me do her hair in an up-do for church(very sleepover appropriate) She looks so grown up - I can't believe that she is already eleven!

Poor girl didn't feel well! On her birthday! She was still a good sport and enjoyed her day as well as she could.

But never worry - by Sunday night she was feeling a little better. Celebrating her birthday just once more we had cake pancakes! One of my visiting teaching partners told me about them - you just mix up a cake mix like the box tells you and fry it up like a pancake. It was really good! We had jam and cream on it.