Tersa's birthstone ring

A ring is the birthstone jewelry piece that Joel gets the girls for their 16th birthday. Since she got a party this year, this is the only gift she received on her birthday. She didn't complain.

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!