New Layout!

Hey, would you look at that!! I finally got a cool layout! Thanks to Rachel's blog I saw a link to Leelou Blogs and clicked on it, followed the directions for a free blog layout and viola now I have a pretty layout for my blog! It's about time-and wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be!

I would say TGIF, but I have to work tomorrow morning!! (At least it isn't all day-just the morning!!) Hope everyone else has a wonderful weekend!! I will be wishing I could be in TX with the fam! I know your program will be great tonight Mary-can't wait to hear all about it when you all get back home!! Tell all the TX family hello from me!

Painting, Crocheting, & Missing Natalie!

Here's Betsy & I with our new haircuts!!

I have found a new favorite thing to do!!! Betsy's friend Carrie set up for a group of us girls to head to Sips N Strokes on Tuesday night for a one day late birthday party for B. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!! I would recommend it to anyone-any age!! It was so much fun and it was really easy to follow the directions. There were around 50 people there total and each of the paintings turned out so different-even though we were all following the same directions. You can really see the difference in just our small group of 5 painters-they all turned out different! Betsy already wrote all about it and put some pictures on her blog here, but I will share a few (or maybe I should say several) pictures as well!

Betsy in her apron!

Carrie & Betsy

Ready to paint!

My blank canvas!

The background-I have already made a mess!

Finished product-now you can see the complete mess I made of paint everywhere!!

B & I with our paintings!

Betsy with her masterpiece!

The whole group! (Well our small group-there was about 50 people there total)

Also I have been busy working on a baby blanket for my friend of about 20 years Amanda who is pregnant with her first. For some reason it is taking me forever to get these squares done and the final product is still so incredibly small!! Her shower is on Saturday morning and I am afraid I will be taking a card with a note that I will hopefully have the blanket finished sometime before the arrival of their little guy-because it doesn't look promising that it will be done in time for the shower! I hope that it will, but I am not holding my breath!!And last, but certainly not least, here is a picture of Natalie and I. She is leaving me for Hawaii in the morning (for 6 months!!!) and I already miss her like crazy! Now I just have to come up with a good reason to hop a plane and go visit her!!! (The beach is calling to me!!)

Summer Hair

(Here I am-long hair and all-with Kevin at his cousin Emily's wedding on Saturday)

So I finally did it! I cut my hair. I have been wanting to for awhile, but was waiting until I had enough hair that I could cut it off for locks of love. However, it was taking FOREVER to grow my hair out long enough, so I did some research and found a place that takes hair donations that are as short as 8 inches (Pantene Beautiful Lengths-I put a banner on the side of my blog) and scheduled an appointment with Russell. (He cut my hair when I was in high school and college, but I hadn't been to him in forever!) I love it! I will have to play with it the next few days and see what all I can do with it, but already I know it is a great summer hair cut and I was more than ready for a change! Betsy got her hair cut today as well and I am so excited to see it tonight at the painting party! (He straightened it so that will be different!)

(Here is my ponytail-10 inches at the longest point)

(My new short hair cut!)

Betsy's Surprise Birthday Party

I am sorry it took me so long to get around to posting this, but it turns out that I am getting this done on Betsy's actual birthday! Happy Birthday B!! I love you!!

Since my big sister (Who is actually the smallest of all of us Binkley girls!!) was turning the big 3-0 this year I knew I wanted to do something big for her, when it turned out that her husband was going to be in Afghanistan for six months, and Betsy's big day was going to be while he was gone I knew FOR SURE that I HAD to do something big! (Thankfully I had mom and some of Betsy's great friends to help me get everything together-and thanks to dad for flying Mary home so we could have all four of us Binkley girls together for the big party!!)

We decided to make the party be "all things Betsy" and so it was a "green" party, (I sent e-vites, used real plates, utensils, and even made cloth napkins!) we also had all the games deal with 1979. (And since Betsy is, and always has been, an avid reader the prizes were books!) The party favor was a reusable bag from Whole Foods.

The food we served was similar to a Sweet Tomatos (one of B's favorites!) with a delicious salad bar with pretty much every topping imaginable! I even made home-made croutons for the first time! There were also home-made muffins (thanks Mare-Mare & Amanda for your help with those!) a hot tea bar, and then an ice-cream bar for dessert! It was fun because everyone brought along their favorite salad and/or ice-cream topping so we ended up with quite an amazing selection!! Carrie's gift to Bethany was a scrap book, and I asked everyone to bring a picture of them with Betsy from when they were younger-then Kevin (thanks babe!) got pictures of each of the guests with Betsy during the evening at the party and so I think the scrapbook should turn out pretty good!! (Betsy opening gifts-yes that is the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies book from this post!)

(All us Binkley girls in a group hug after I read a special birthday story to B)

After all the presents were opened, the games played, prizes handed out, and our stomachs full of yummy food we sung our heart and lungs out with "American Idol" on the X-box! (Since Betsy loves to sing!) It was quite a fun night and I am so glad to have the honor of celebrating such a wonderful big sister!!

Col. & Mrs. Turner reporting for fun!

On Sunday afternoon Kevin and I drove up to my parents to join in the fun of my nephews 6th birthday party. There was a camo dress requirement, but neither Kevin or I have any camo-so we just wore brown, tan, and green clothing and called it close enough! Mom and Betsy did a great job planning and pulling off this wonderful party! Canaan is one lucky little guy!! They thought of everything!

We were greeted at the door with this.

The kids had a great "training obstacle coarse" they had to complete, climbing over and under things, hopping, jumping rope, pull-ups, push-ups and a fun slide at the end! (Even though it was sprinkling on us, they all had a blast!)
Next the kids dug into their MRE's for lunch and some of them actually did eat them! However, most of them (along with all the adults) ate the other-more edible food provided at the party! The parents had quite a challenge "cooking" them! It was quite an event to feel the food "boiling" inside the special bags and boxes that they came it! Lets just say I am so glad we don't have to eat those all the time, it seemed quite hard to me-and not very appitizing. (Not that I tried any of it, who knows, maybe it isn't that bad-but I doubgt it!) Let's all just say a big "THANK YOU" to our men and women in the armed forces who actually HAVE to eat those things! God bless you for what you suffer!!
Canaan's amazing cake made by Mary Corbin
Auntie Mare-Mare enjoying the party in her camo attire!
We also enjoyed the USO entertainment
Here I am with little Emily-she is just soooooo cute!
(She really liked playing with my camera-here is one of her best shots!)
And finally Canaan got to open presents!!!
And here is adorable Zion with a great smile!
There are many more pictures of the fun afternoon on Betsy's blog if you want to check that out.

Kevin and I actually had to slip out a little early to get back home because I hosted a surprise 30th birthday party that evening for Betsy. I will try to get the pictures uploaded for that tonight or tomorrow so I can post them. I love parties, (especially all the fun in planning and hosting one) but I am exhausted now that is for sure!!

My Mary

Here are a couple of pictures from Friday night when my baby sister Mary got home. (just for a quick visit over the weekend for a couple parties) We went out to eat at a local Mexican restaurant and enjoyed a song by the Mariachi Band. It was so fun! I love my baby sister so much and I am soooo thankful dad flew her home for the weekend. We had a huge weekend with two big parties on Sunday so more info and pictures will follow soon, but just wanted to go ahead and get these up for now!