Crawford Chronicle

Olivia turns ELEVEN!!

My baby is now an Eleven year old! Where does the time go? Here she is with the only RAT cake I have ever seen in my life!

The cake was designed and made by "Spiffy Cakes" owners and designers, Hailey Kasofsky and Tess Crawford. Hailey is wearing her new chef coat that she and Tess got for Christmas, complete with personalized embroidery.

They really outdid themselves with this amazing Rat made out of rice crispy treats. Tess sculpted and decorated it to look just like Olivia's real life, pet rat, Carmel.

The cake also had the number "11", our dog Jasper, Olivia diving into water, her new electric scooter, a basketball, and jumbo sour patch kids (sprinkled with sour powder).

Olivia invited 11 girls over for a new years eve, birthday, slumber party. Fun was had by all! Here we are playing Ninja!

She had to buy the biggest pinata in all of Party City and fill it with tons of candy!

One of our activities was letting the girls do face painting on each other. Some had fun getting revenge on their partners, like Rainen and Eden.

Shaylee and Sophie look like they are suffocating and sunburned, but it is really a giant flower and heart.

Olivia and Anika love rats and horses.

Kiera and Olivia were kind to each other and did their hair too in these "Hair bows."

Opening presents!!

Anika got Olivia AND Carmel a present. A rat carrier! Now I have to take Olivia's rat to school when I go pick her up in the afternoons. I guess it's better than carrying her on my shoulder, which I have done before.

Carmel likes the present and the replica of her on the cake! Great job Tess!

The Gallmans always go BIG with presents (like the kayak they got us for Christmas!). Olivia and Shaylee got Olivia this huge ball and it entertained the whole party for HOURS!!! THANK YOU!!!

Olivia and rice crispy Carmel after blowing out her candles. So cute!

Party girls enjoying their cake and candy!!

At midnight we went outside and lit off fireworks. They are finally LEGAL in AZ!!! This is the first fireworks show we have ever had at our house. More to come on how well that turned out in my next post....

Rainen and Eden all bundled up. It was one of the COLDEST nights I have ever had in Arizona!!

Blasted fireworks!!!!

All done.... time to clean up the fireworks and throw them in the trash.

Olivia is the perfect addition to our family!

We couldn't have asked for a better ending!

Or a more entertaining little animal lover and dare devil!

Love you baby and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Tess is 17!!!!

Just a few days before Tess turned 17 (on Dec. 11th, which was her due date btw.) she went to her first school dance, the Winter Formal with Harrison Jones. More pictures to come when I get them...

Getting ready!

All set to go! Isn't she beautiful? Thanks Audrey for hemming her dress last minute!

Dec. 14th, the big day! She wanted a ukele for her birthday and ordered it herself, SURPRISE!!

Cake making and decorating supplies for my favorite baker!

After only a few weeks she taught herself at least 6 songs and we sang along to some of them on Christmas eve. She learns very fast and practices a lot in her room, or out in the garage in the Suburban, so we can't hear her singing along.

We went out for dinner with family and friends to Macaroni Grill. YUM!! For her b-day party, Hailey's dad drove them up to play in the snow a few weeks later, right after a BIG storm. Brrrr!!!

Tess with best friend and baker, Hailey, and good buddy and Lacrosse player, Taylor.

Did Tess make herself a big fancy, spiffy cake for her birthday??? NO. She wanted an ice cream cake instead. That's alright by me!!

Tess sure has grown up!

We love our little Queen!

Happy Birthday darling daughter.

So glad you are part of our family!!

Chloe's a TEENAGER!!!!

Our happy little Chloe is 13! That makes 3 teenagers in our home now. How will we survive?!!

She helped me make her cake. It's a purple purse! It looked so real that some of the girls tried to open it before they realised it was a cake! She designed it, mixed the fondant colors, helped carve the cake, frost, and made all the accessories (that mimick real items of hers) out of fondant and assisted in the tricky assembly. I love having such talented children!

She had a funky fashion party where the girls did some mixed up make-overs. First we played some great party games like the switching chairs game. It got crazy!

One of the prizes was for the tallest and widest hairdo's.

This is Kamryn and ?

Ellie and Penelope

Silly girls! Maddy (in the pink) won for tallest hair!

This is only half of the 16 girls that came!!!

Fake blow-out-the-candles picture. I was video taping the real thing.

Chloe using her fondant phone and lip gloss.

On her birthday morning she was reluctant to get her picture taken. Yep, she's a teenager alright!

I was allowed to take pictures of her presents though.

What a darling brown-eyed beauty!

We love you Chloe and are so happy you a part of our family!!

We love you birthday girl! You make us soooo happy!!!!

Rustin Turns 15!!!!

Happy Birthday to Rustin! He turned 15 on Sept. 5th and had an awesome swim party on the 11th.

I made a lemon flavored camouflage cake for him!

Zack, Sam, Trenton and Kira chillin'.
The kids swam then played some good old fashioned party games like; pin the tail on the donkey, a pinata, and lots of new games like Ninja and of course, X-box!!