Krissy's excellent party...

Krissy in her pretty grass skirt.

Ever since Kristen was old enough to understand that a birthday party is a really cool thing, she's been faced with a dilemma. You see, hers is the only birthday in our family that falls in the summer. The summer is a very special time, however, for the Poyfair children, because each and every summer Karli makes a point to spend one month in beautiful La Grande, Oregon, home of Grandma and Grandpa Orton. These two wonderful occasions (Krissy birthday, Trip to LaGrande) usually converge in La Grande on July 13th.

Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, because Kristen usually gets spoiled to death by Grandma and Grandpa, her Dad (who never gets to go) sends balloons, and then when she gets back, she gets another rip roaring party from Grandma Craner.

Well the last few years, Krissy has lobbied us for yet another party -- a friend party -- and we usually ask her why she can't just be happy with two parties. Well, this year, Karli caved and threw her a friend party before the other two.

Kristen spent the past few weeks in planning it, and Saturday was the big day. Here are a few photos from the groundbreaking event.

The Cake made by Karli -- Angel food with Pink frosting, pineapple and cherries.

Kristen managed to recruit siblings to help. Katelyn was put on 'Handing out lei's' duty.

Dallin also played the vital role of 'DJ Jazzy D' -- wowing the crowds of 8 and 9 year old girls with his fresh mix, grooves and beats.

This is my wife. Isn't she beautiful? I think she looks like a Rock Star right here.

Soon the girls showed up and the Limbo Stick was brought out. Here's Natalie Halcrow.....

And Lauren Mejia...

And Hallie Craner...

And Emily Halcrow...

And Krissy!

After the Limbo... we moved on to that irresistible summer treat -- Snow cones! Here's Natalie Halcrow and Annie Darrington on their third helping!

Hallie Craner wolfing down her snowcone.

Lauren Mejia daintily eating hers...

With the snow cones eaten, what else was there to do but pummel Dallin with water balloons. Dallin tried to fight back, but Mom and Dad strictly forbid it, so he took it in the shorts, the shirt, the head from twelve 9-year olds.

With everyone nice and wet, we marched them inside for cake. The Craner cousins lead everyone in a rousing rendition of 'Happy Birthday' Craner-style. Hence, this is why ears are being plugged in this picture.

In the end, Kristen was extremely happy with the turnout and the fun. Mom and Dad are extremely happy cause it's over. Everybody wins!

In the meantime, Kristen is looking forward to party #2 in LaGrande in two weeks when it actually is her birthday.

Mobile Home Disaster -- We've started to watch this show on a tip from Mom and Dad Orton. It's a blatant rip off of ABC's Extreme Home Makeover, except that instead of tearing down a house and starting from scratch, they take a mobile home and spend 48 hours in fixing it up real good. And while the show takes a definite tongue-in-cheek swipe at 'Extreme Home Makeover' (The host of this show is lazy, fat and hilarious) the result in the end is still the same.... people who needed help with their mobile home get an amazing upgrade and are thoroughly thankful to everyone who helps out.

To me, this show is a lot funnier and fun to watch that their more established big brother. Anyway, go check it out. It's worth a TIVO.

It's the plumber, I've come to fix the sink -- While we were busily preparing for Krissy's party on Saturday, I started looking for an easy and quick way to fill up all the water balloons for the angry little girls to pummel Dallin with.

Well, we have one of those Moen faucets, the kind that you pull out the whole nozzle and looks like this...

In an effort to conserve time, I decided to untwist the handle part of it from the hose. Immediately, the flange that connects the two ends falls back into the innards of the faucet, and my fat sausage fingers are too big to get it. In my frustration, I then let go of the tubing, and that too falls all the way back into the innards of the faucet. I then start to play with the faucet, and water starts to shoot out.

So, I turn off the water to the whole house and spend the next hour in yelling, swearing and being otherwise disagreeable while I try and fix the dumb faucet.

An hour later, beaten, bruised and my pride battered, I give in and call a plumber to fix it. In the meantime, Karli had taken the kids and gone to the church to fill the balloons. The plumber didn't arrive until the party was in full swing.

It then took the poor guy an hour to fix the mess I had created. Here's the proof.

When he was done, he mentioned that he's never quite had a house call like that one before. So, the moral to this story is as follows... if you want to cut corners, make sure you can fix it...

John Adams by David McCollough - I grabbed this book off off Dad's bookshelf a few weeks back and can't put it down. During this time of year we hear a lot about the Founding Fathers and might know their names and other trivial facts. Reading this book has been an amazing experience in learning about the life of someone who literally sacrifice all he had for the idea of a nation that he believed strongly in.

To follow his life is to follow the story of the birth of our nation, and I've become fixated on this man's sheer drive to make sure our nation was founded on correct principles and then fought to preserve it. The book follows his ups and his downs and does a great job of pointing out his foibles, which goes a long way towards making this man all the more human.

It's a long read... I'm only halfway done... but worth it.

WALL*E -- I loved it, Karli not so much. It's definitely not your typical love story, but I thought it worked just fine. The fat humans were enough to motivate me to get out and run, or mix a salad into my daily eating routine.

And that's it for this week. We all hope you have a tremendous Fourth of July.