Preston's Birthday Part 2

After we came back from Incredible Pizza, we invited Aunt Jill and Uncle Jeff's neighbors down for a birthday party. We had spaghetti and meatballs, salad and french bread. But the best part was saved for last......homemade ice cream pie!! After dessert, we opened Preston's presents. P.S. - Meatballs and an upset stomach do not go well together! :)

All of the kids eating dinner!

The adults: (clockwise) Mrs. McClean, Dad, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Jill, Mrs. Stephens, Sebastian, Mr. Stephens and Mom.

Preston, in mid-blow.

Say "Cake"!

Opening his presents...

The next day Uncle Jeff's round pen arrived so Dad and Mr. Stephens helped him unload.

These purple flowers grew by their driveway!

They set it up in the pasture.

It was huge!

The kids played with playdough outside on the porch because it was such a pretty day! Sierra with her playdough!

Dakota made a worm!

Preston made a snowman even though it was 80 degrees outside!

Fiona made a pizza!

They played for hours with their playdough!

That night we had grilled chicken with fresh cilantro from their garden on the top! It was SO good!!

Preston's 7th Birthday!

It's hard to believe that Preston was born 7 years ago on March 28, 2005! The morning of his birthday, I was sick, so I stayed in bed for the morning while Mom took the pictures. At around noon I got out of bed and took over the camera. Then at lunch time, we all went over to Incredible Pizza in Germantown.  A few days earlier, Aunt Jill got us a Groupon coupon that allows an all you can eat buffet including drinks.  We bought the gamecards separately and had lots of fun at the arcade. After our successful meal of stuffing ourselves until we could barely move, we rolled around the arcade and tried our best to function after gaining about 10 pounds. :) My favorite activity was the go-carts....anything that has a steering wheel and two pedals! I LOVE driving!!

It was a beautiful evening the day before his birthday so we played outside.

Fiona and Sierra riding Harmony.

The Birthday Boy!

Tilly loved to play in the sun!

Aunt Jill shaved Miller and the kids thought it was amazing!

Preston:  the new 7 year old!

Before all of the balloons got trampled...:)

March 28th--Caramel French Toast is the favorite Birthday breakfast!

Dakota, Fiona and Preston playing on the horse trailer.

Incredible Pizza!

The awesome buffet where you could eat until you almost popped!

Aunt Jill, Uncle Jeff, Fiona, Dakota and Matilda playing in the arcade.

Dakota, practicing her driving skills!

Preston riding on the motorcycle.

I tried out the motorcycle too...

My favorite part...the go-carts!!!!

#24--Bennett Roberts!

Before the game started.....

In the middle of the game...:)

Fiona rode the horse!

Sierra and I on the merry-go-round.

After digesting all of our lunch (!), we stopped at the buffet again to get some ice cream on the way out.

Incredible Pizza was incredible!!

Our Saturday Garage Sale!

On Friday (March 23rd), we helped Aunt Jill and Uncle Jeff get ready for a garage sale that we were going to have the following morning (Saturday). I priced everything (after asking Aunt Jill) and I volunteered to be her cashier, since I love that job! :) We stayed up until midnight getting everything ready and we had a really fun night....Dad played the guitar and Uncle Jeff played the banjo upstairs while Aunt Jill, Mom and I cleaned out the attic. Aunt Jill and Mom ended up balling after they found letters they wrote to each other when they were young. Then after they finished, they started to sing along with the songs that the guys were playing! We went to bed at around 1:30am and got up at 6am to be prepared for our garage sale. That's a whole 4 1/2 hours of sleep! ;)

Uncle Jeff and Dad playing their instruments.

Mom and Aunt Jill joined in...

Aunt Jill and I, the night before the garage sale...

Our customers the next morning.

I was the cashier...Sierra and Fiona helped me!

Setting up the table.

The next day, we went to Church and then we had lunch at Skimo's, the Koontzes favorite restaurant. Their favorite lunch is the grilled cheese and marshmallow sandwich!

On our way home from Skimo's, we drove the back way and Mom spied a dumpster behind the building (they both have eyes for dumpsters) with three huge garbage sacks next to a pile of shoe boxes......Aunt Jill drove to the alley where the dumpster was located and we hopped out of the car to investigate. We discovered shoe boxes full of designer shoes inside and outside the three garbage sacks. They were all size 10 which Aunt Jill, Mom and I all wear! We brought home all the shoes and started to try them on in the driveway because we were way too excited to walk 10 feet to the garage door to bring them inside. :) Aunt Jill and Mom ended up donating most of them to Goodwill. I did find some really cute high heels to wear for fun!!

My new shoes! :)

The Bargain Barn

While we were in Memphis, we found out about the Goodwill Bargain Barn. It is a secret place behind the Goodwill store that my Mom and Aunt Jill found out about (unfortunately). We went almost weekly after that. Let me tell you a little bit about what the Bargain Barn is:

• The Goodwill employees would fill up huge blue bins with clothing on one side of the building and different random household items at the other side of the building.....then comes the digging.
• Clothing is $1.45 a pound (Mom and Aunt Jill tried to find the lightest things, so that when they weighed it, they would get more for their money).
• You have to stand on the blue lines and wait for the next bin to come out and when it does, watch out! People will start to shove and try to get what they want. It's kind of scary, actually. But when people are satisfied with their loot, you get to dig through their leftovers!
• You DIG through the bins and you don't even look at what size it is, you grab it because it has cute fabric.
• Pretty soon you have a whole stack of clothing in your cart that you sort through after it gets too full.
• Most of it will go back in the bins depending if it's your size OR if it looks like it came from your Great-Grandma.
• Mom and Aunt Jill thought it would be wise if they brought plastic surgical gloves after their first couple of visits....it is not for the timid.
• Mom and Aunt Jill discovered Ann Taylor, Anthropology, Aeropostale and more!
• I have to admit, I did find some really cute stuff and I outfitted my whole wardrobe and then some!

Mom, Aunt Jill and Fiona going into the depths...:)

Knick-Knacks were on one side of the building and clothing was on the opposite side.

Digging through the bins....empty carts don't last for long (Mom is wearing Tilly on her back).

Lining up on the blue lines waiting for the next bin to arrive!

Aunt Jill and I digging through all the clothing....sometimes I got overwhelmed with how much clothing there was!! (Notice our gloves.)

Mom and Aunt Jill, digging!

The household items...

"Bargain" is our middle name!

Notice it says, "No Shoving". :/

The Bargain Barn.....Mom and Aunt Jill's new favorite store!

This is the REAL Goodwill store....too fancy for us!