Bowling with Friends!

For our friend Pete's birthday, we met up with a good group of people to go bowling at the Union. There were an ice cream cake, pizza, and presents, too...but I had the most fun with my multilens camera app! See the pictures for yourself! (You can see/get ALL the pics off my facebook photo albums.)

Mom's Campout Birthday!

We went camping at McCormick's Creek State Park, in "enemy territory" (about 17 miles out of Bloomington--IU country! :).  I think it is my favorite state park in Indiana.  There's a cute little waterfall that, had I brought other shoes/flip flops, I would have TOTALLY been in.  There's a pool (but you have to pay extra).  Lots of campgrounds, trails for all levels of hikers, and best of all, HORSEBACK RIDING!  It's only $16/person, and you get to ride a trail for about 50 minutes.  We had a great guide that made the horses trot a lot, too, which was fun.  I've been on a few of those kinds of trails before and this was the longest, prettiest, and most fun one ever.  The park also has caves, picnic areas/playgrounds, a little camp store, a nature center, tennis courts, fishing (if you're into that sort of thing), and a restaurant.  Also, it's all VERY clearly labeled as you drive around, and I loved how organized everything was.  (It's also right outside of Spencer, so if you need to run into town for anything, you can, no problem...we made a few McDonald's drink runs!)

We set up Mom's three-room tent, went and did a little hiking (mostly to the waterfall), then explored the area a little before going to ride horses.  After that, we made a little campfire and cooked over an open flame--my favorite part of camping!  All food tastes better that way.  It's just a fact.  When it got dark, none of us liked ghost stories enough to tell them and none of us play guitar, so we mostly just sat and chatted quietly before going to sleep early.  But I use the term "sleep" lightly, because it was in the eighties even after midnight and there was NO breeze, so we were all boiling and suffocating and Paul discovered he's a little claustrophobic in the tent.  THEN, we had a huge thunderstorm...I mean, HUGE...the thunder was right on top of us and even knocked over a few trees right next to the campsite!  Once again we got wet, although it was a welcome change after all that heat...but still.  I only slept a little after the thunderstorm and I think Paul slept even less.  Hahaha, Paul was certainly NOT converted to the joys of camping (not that he really tried), and I had to promise I'll never take him again...even though that makes me super sad because I LOVE IT!  Ah, well.  There are always my sisters and my mom.  And maybe someday, when we have our own expensive, weather-proof gear and there is only sunshine predicted for a whole week and it's in the middle of October when it's beautiful and dry and cool, MAYBE I can convince him to do it again, for me, out of love.  But probably not anytime soon.  Next time, I'll also make a whole three-day weekend out of it or something...being on a tight schedule, we had to forego some of the things we would have liked to do, and we had to pack up camp super early and head home in time to teach primary!

I still had fun.  And it WAS my mom's birthday celebration, after all!  :)  She had fun, too.  So it was worth it.

And now the pictures...the fun part.  :)

Our tent(s).

BEFORE...notice how most of them are up-and-down?

AFTER the storm...a few more trees are sideways.  :)

Waterfall pictures...

Horseback riding pictures...

Campfire pictures:

Mom's Campout Birthday Cake!

Want a super-cute, super-EASY cake for your next campout or camping themed birthday party?  Try THIS RECIPE from FamilyFun!  I love how it looks...I didn't know whether to eat it or set it on fire.  :)  It really IS easy...you don't even have to bake anything.  Although, the flames didn't work nearly as easily as the directions stated, and I folded it over TWICE...so you need it pretty thick if it's going to stand up on its own for long.  But it all was still yummy, and everyone was unreasonably impressed.  Served with s'mores ice cream, it was a hit!

We decided to go camping for Mom's birthday this year...we leave in the morning...pictures to follow!  Linking up HERE and HERE.

Charissa's Karaoke party!!!

I threw a very low-key shindig for my sister's birthday today.  I can't believe my LITTLE SISTER is 27 years old!  :)  She's even older than Paul.  ;)

For the party, we invited a few of her closest friends and family to a karaoke party at Echo Karaoke.  This isn't your usual karaoke bar, this is authentically ASIAN STYLE!  In all the Asian dramas we watch together, when they do karaoke, it's in a private room with black squarish sofas and all the control is on YOU for your own private party.  When we saw this open up near campus about a month ago, we were STOKED to introduce it to everyone!  And it's super affordable ($4/hour on weeknights, $6/hour on weekends).  No, I'm not getting paid to put this plug in here, I really just love. it. that. much.

Caida loved dancing to all the upbeat songs!

Caida and Cerene singing "King of Anything"...Caida knows just about all the words to any Sara Bareilles song!  :)

Tanner and mommy (Brittany)

Sisters singing

The Watson sisters and their best friends singing "the best friends song" ("Livin' on a Prayer")

And, of course, I made a small Japanese/Karaoke themed cake.  It was uber-simple, and the icing was super melty between the July heat wave and the warmth of the kitchen, but still.  Pretty fun, and I'm kinda proud of it--especially the microphones and the chocolate color I achieved with food coloring (since my sister and one of her best friends can't eat chocolate).  One of these days I will buckle down and master fondant, but until then, the melty storebought kind will have to do.  :)

Charissa's cake was on FIRE!

She's so popular.  :)

We are so broke right now, especially after Florida, that I didn't have money to buy Charissa anything (after covering the cake and ice cream and admittance into the karaoke place for us and our other sister and niece).  But I DID have an old karaoke machine with two microphones and a whole BUNCH of karaoke CDs that we had been considering selling on Craigslist (who wants a karaoke machine anymore with games like Rock Band out there?).  It fit so well into the theme of the party, and I still wanted to get her something to open SO BADLY, that I decided it just seemed right for a gift.  :)

Like my handmade bow on the karaoke machine?  :)

Happiest birthday, Charissa!  I hope 27 is your year!!!