Girl's Night*

Last Tuesday our house was invaded by girls. I guess invaded is an unfair word choice considering I invited them. The funny part of it all, I kept having flash forward moments to when Madelyn is a teenager and having everyone over. Luke practiced for that day and hid in the bedroom for most of the afternoon on Tuesday until he left for Guy's Night at the church.

We had so much fun. One of the girls (Samantha) and I thought we should try making home made brownies. I have never (that I can remember) even attempted them before. Once I saw the recipe I kept wondering why I hadn't. They looked so easy. Nothing to it. We're blaming it on a bad recipe (or the enormous amount of coco powder that I dumped in on accident), but they weren't that great. I'm sticking to the box for now (or at least until I run across a good recipe.

Madelyn wanted to be right in the middle of everything. She showed off all of her toys to the big girls.

I had the pleasure of driving the church van to dinner. Driving it is no problem. Parking it is another story. I actually did a good job parking it at the restaurant (we ate at Cheddars since most of the girls had never eaten there), but it's when we went to the store to grab some headbands to cutesy up that I failed in the "straight" category. I was in between the lines (barely), but they were all making fun of me.

After an evening swim when we got back to the house, they all got busy making the headbands out of strips of fabric!

Madelyn at everyone's feet trying to figure out what was going on. The poor thing was up way past bed time but she did not want to miss out on anything.

Notice the super cute headbands that some of the girls are wearing in the following pictures...

They turned out so cute.

It was Megan's 16th birthday so we had a cake and I bought some candles for her. Next time I will read the package and avoid the ones that mention anything about "sparklers". Kara and Ashleigh started lighting them about half way down the stairs and the candles started to pop and spark like mini fireworks. Everyone was laughing so hard and the more that were lit, the more comical it was. I am just glad no ones hair caught fire (not to mention the house)!

Finally they were all lit, we sang and Megan made her wish!

We had a Bible study time later that night. The Lord had been laying several things on my heart that I just really felt like I needed to share during that time. The night before I had bought a teen magazine just to see what was in it. I knew that there would be things that I wouldn't think were appropriate, but I was totally blown away that one of the headlines on the cover was about sex advice. Sex advice? Really? On the cover of Seventeen Magazine? I am not totally naive to the fact that this is an issue that teenagers face, but should we really be giving them advice (other than not to of course?). All I could think about as I showed them that magazine and asked them what they thought about it was what those magazines will be like when Madelyn turns 16 or 17. I loved hearing their input and honesty about the issues that they face. They are an amazing group of girls and I know that their futures are full of awesome things.

Wednesday morning everyone was pretty exhausted.

We ate cinnamon rolls and then made journals out of scrapbook paper and composition books. They were all so unique and adorable. I made one too. I am not the best at journaling with pen and paper but I am going to use it for ideas or random thoughts or things too personal for the internet.

Of course there was more swimming mixed in that afternoon.

I can't wait for our next slumber party!