The Swapp Spot: Dana's Birthday on President day weekend

Well this weekend was filled with A LOT. A lot of family, driving, eating, lifting (for some), games (for some), and conversation. And in the middle of all of it Dana celebrated her 14th birthday. Yes you red right 14.

It was an awesome time. Friday Jamie and the fam got here. So Jamie, James, and I decided to hit the temple first. Then my kids got home from school so we went to get Dana a cello. That's all she wanted for her birthday. We went to a rent-to-own place and was able to get a really nice one. Then that evening the adults went to dinner. We had to take Jamie and James to the place we went for V-day dinner. We knew they would love it and they did.

Saturday started out with a plan. However when you have a plan nothing ever goes that way. Jamie, Kyle, Martin, and I got in the car to take Martin to his first b-ball practice. I thought that I would be there for 10-15 minutes to talk with the coach. Not the case, an hour later I finally got in the car half frozen and feeling bad that Jamie and Kyle had just sat there for that long. With only an hour left before Martin would be done with practice we had to hurry. So we found a Burlington Coat Factory near by and raced over. Our plan was to find Kyle a suit. After almost an hour of being there we were lucky enough to finally leave the store with a Nice suit and vest for a VERY good price. We raced back to get Martin only realizing that the vest was supposed to come with a bow tie and it didn't. So after picking up Martin we raced back to get it.

In the process Scott called and was on his way to take Dana to a Cello ensemble. Apparently she had expected us all to come, I was unaware of this being meant for everyone. So we raced that direction with a stop in between to grab lunch. Unfortunately it made us late and we missed getting to watch her. But she did great earning a "superior" for their group. However since we were there we picked her up dumbed Martin with Scott and then planned on hitting Jo-Ann's. We had planned on buying some material. That plan failed as we got to the street it was supposed to be on and no where was it to be found. So at this point I decided hey lets take these 2 and go to Serendipity. My sister had been wanting a Frozen Hot Chocolate and so had Dana. I figured it would be fun to go there for her birthday. It was nice to go with just the oldest 2. No screaming, whining, fighting, or anything else siblings and younger kids do. I really enjoyed it. Once we were done here and our plans had failed miserably we decided to head home.
On the way we decided that since Scott and James hadn't really done anything but work all day they deserved a break. By work I mean. Cut down 4 very big palm trees, load them on a trailer, and take it to the dump. So we talked them into going to see "True Grit". They seemed to really like the movie but thought it was a little weird like they were on a date together. To funny. Girls do it all the time and never think that.
So while they were gone we hit the Jo-Ann's near my house got a little material and made some really cute hair accessories. Again not what we had planned but hey it was still making something. It was a lot of fun too.

Sunday was Dana's big day. We all got dressed and went to church. After sacrament we got the kids to their classes and me and Jamie headed home to decorate. I had felt bad that Dana didn't think we were doing anything for her birthday so I wanted to surprise her. I think everything turned out really well. Jamie brought her Cricut Cake cutter over and we did a cake with fondant on it. Really cool! Like I said she only really wanted a cello so we only got her a few other things for her to open. A couple of shirts, some candy, pencils, and Martin got her a really cool art game for her DS.

This is about everyone. I'm of course taking the pic. To the left is a little bit of Emma and I think Cody was the only other person not in the picture. He was next to Justus but I couldn't scoot back anymore to fit him.

The "Cello"

Monday Jamie and I finally got to go get our material but of course we didn't have enough time to make a bag which was our plan. But that's ok. Next time we will be prepared and have what we need already.