1st Day of School 2011

With so much going on at the end of Aug., I was not as prepared for the first day of school as I usually am. Keddi was the only one of the girls wearing a new shirt and I never did get pictures of what the older girls looked like on the first day. But Joel and I did take the little girls and briefly met their teachers. That will be the last 1st day we take Keddi to!

The Stuff for Tersa's 16th Birthday Party

We wanted to make everything as elegant as possible. I made the invitations and the ballots (which we don't have a great picture of) both of which were sealed with sealing wax and a peacock seal. (She has been into peacocks for a while now.)

I said Tersa could invite 15 people to this event. Her first list included 8 boys. But as we planned, we thought that maybe the boys wouldn't play along well and might ruin the spirit of the whole thing. Dan Hill had suggested that she needed to do an "after party" at his house so we did. Some of the girls from the awards were invited along with a group of boys.

The girls were given this ballot in their invitation with the instructions to fill it out and get it back to us. It was fun to try to redefine the categories to fit our purposes for the party.

These are the "Oscars". They said "Movie Buff" on them so we made new labels that would have the award titles on them.

Tersa's friend Krista Richardson was dismayed that Tersa did not have a 16th birthday tiara and insisted that Tersa wear hers for the party.
These shoes however, Tersa all the way. She had seen some this color on the internet several weeks before and then they show up in the Payless ad! She's got her father's luck.

Sarah Vidal told me that these small Martinelli's were at the dollar store. We thought they would

make fabulous Thank You's for the girls. Unfortunately 4 of them left without one.

The Arrival

The first people I talked to about coming to help me with this party was Randy and Lindsay. I knew I would be too busy to get all of the pictures we would like and that I didn't have the skill to get good ones in low light. What I didn't know when I asked them to come was what a sacrifice it would be. But they were here and I am so grateful! Most of the pictures of Tersa's party were taken by Randy. What a relief to give that responsibility to someone else!

Tersa really wanted Mardi to wear this dress of hers. Mardi was uncomfortable with the idea that she would have to wear Tersa's heels with it!!! The heels she wears are wedges and she is uncomfortable in other types. But, she didn't break anything and she looked beautiful! Hannah spent a good deal of time on Mardi's hair and also did some make-up for on her.

Though she never really said much about the party, unless I asked specific questions, Tersa seemed to enjoy the red carpet walk and transportation by limo quite a bit! No she's not much of a ham! I have to say though some of the way she stepped out of herself that night was surprising to me.

The Awards

I thought it might be fun to invite family members to help out with the girls 16th birthday parties. I started with mine and Joel's sisters. I didn't expect that everyone would be able to come, I just wanted to invite them and let them decide and work it out. Cami was the hostess for the awards and ended up singing for them 1/2 way through too. She did a fabulous job and the girls loved her!

As Cami read the nominees for each category, the girls would stand. Each was nominated for at least two categories and each guest won an award. (Yes I had to do some tweaking.) Then the girls would come forward to claim their award. They totally got into it. They pretended to cry or be total snobs about winning. Some were at a bit of a loss as to what to do, but each girl gave a speech!! That would NOT have happened if the boys had been here!

The winner of the Best Director Award (the person who is the bossiest or directs everyone in what to do) is....Tersa Barber!

And the winner of the Best Director of a Documentary Award (the person who knows what is going on in everyone's lives) goes to....Mardi Barber!

The Pictures

Tersa said that she would like to have prom-like pictures taken at the party. I knew that Randy would be busy so I asked a guy in our ward if he would be interested in taking them. The following pictures were taken by Anthony Vidal with the assistance of his wife Sarah. They said it was a lot of fun and the girls were in great moods. Eventually I am going to find a Hollywood background to put up behind these pictures, but for now, this is it.

Are they my girls or what?

The Set-Up

This was a great staging area for the Award Ceremony. Gotta love the church for having a podium like this in the Primary room!

The buffet table was in a corner to the right and that is the only part of the room decor you can't see in this picture. The room has two sets of lights. We kept one set off and used the christmas lights in the trees to give some ambiance.

We ordered these place card frames. It showed the girls where they were to sit and they will be able to put a picture in it. They were a nice touch.

In black and gold, the tables looked very elegant.

The Food

We decided that a buffet could be elegant depending upon what food was served and how it was presented. We were right.

Sparkling cider in champagne flutes were a must for Tersa. That and Mandy's fruit dip. Everything else was left up to us to decide on. Mandy took over the food for me and I was so grateful!! There was cheese and dip for the crackers and Leann got a fondue recipe for the sweets.

The After Party

Tersa said not to worry about the cake. Just make one to bring to the pool. Maybe a Nothing Bundt Cake? But, Joel wanted to order one.

Cool huh? I provided the trophy on top and asked for the gold lettering, which looked as though they had melted down some metal and used it to write with. I was impressed!

They had a lot of fun at this part of the party too. We always feel so blessed that our girls have good kids to be around. Not perfect ones, but good!!

Tersa, Chase Peterson, Crawford Gates, Hannah & Gabby Spendlove, Emerald Hunsaker,

Bree Robinette and Mardi.

Krista Richardson, Jocelyn Cole, Kori Buchheister and Elyssa Cuenca

Robert Richardson, Tyler Schott, Abbi Brewer

and Ruby Hunsaker

Shinara & Mathias Baptism

Shinara was very excited about the dress we found. It fills out when she turns around. Shinara doesn't like dresses and this was the first time I ever saw her really excited about one. And she was beautiful in it.

There were three Barber cousins born in 2003 and we had talked about doing their baptisms together. It worked out to do Mathias and Shinara together and I am so pleased that it did. I am grateful that his family drove all the way down here. It made this event very special.

These are the men that were in Shinara's confirmation circle, minus Dan Hill who had to leave before we started taking pictures.

Ron Hahn (Mathias' Grandpa), Uncle Randy Hahn, Ben Wellborn, Joel, Bishop Brent Hellewell, Shinara, Kalvin Hone, Tom Cole and President Kyle Peterson.

Since Tersa's baptism, I have gotten the same cake design for each of the girls. They would choose their favorite colors. But, Costco doesn't have that design anymore. I chose these simple cakes because it looked like the sunday clothes they might wear to their baptism. So cute since there would be two cakes.