Public Service Announcement

I feel obligated to pass along a lesson that I learned painfully this morning.  Every parent or adult who may find their iPhone in the hands of a minor needs to read this cautionary tale.  It started last night when Matt came to me asking if he could download the game, Temple Run 2, on my iPhone.  "Is it free?"  "Yes."  "Sure."  He found it in the App Store and I typed in my password to authorize the download.  He sat on the couch and played for a little while and then we all happily went to bed.

I got up this morning and checked my email on my phone and found 17 emails from the Apple iTunes store containing invoices congratulating me on my in-app purchases for Temple Run 2 totaling $358.27!!!!!!  Luckily for Matt, he was still asleep and I had to go to work.  I called Apple and told them what happened and, thankfully, they are refunding the charges and gave me instructions for how to prevent it from happening again - because they only give the refund once.  And now I will pass those instructions on to you.

Click on the Settings icon...

Click on General...

Click on Restrictions...

Slide the In-App Purchases to Off and change the Require Password option from 15 minutes to Immediately.

The default is to prompt for your password when you purchase something and after that it will not ask for your password for 15 minutes.  If you make another purchase during those 15 minutes it restarts the clock and you can purchase to your little 7 year old heart's content.  This change will prompt for your password for every purchase.

*No 7 year olds were harmed in the making of this PSA, although one was grounded for many days.

McKenzie's Birthday Party

We have had so much fun celebrating McKenzie's 12th birthday. Her festivities began last Sunday with a family party at Granny's house. On Monday, Andy, Jan, Cassie and Caleb invited us to go to Toyo, a Japanese Steakhouse in Oxford. We had a blast! Believe it or not we had never been to one and they wanted us to try it out with them. The food was great and the entertainment was too! I don't think Matt knew what to think about it. His eyes were as big as quarters while the chef prepared our food. At the end of the meal, they brought McKenzie a birthday dessert. Like we needed anymore food, we wanted to take them to Holli's downtown because they had never been to it.  A few of us ended up with ice cream.
On McKenzie's actual birthday, Cassie and Jan were so sweet to take her on a surprise outing. They went to get a pedicure and then to McAlister's for lunch. McKenzie had so much fun and couldn't wait to tell me all about it.
She wanted a party this year with all of her friends. So we agreed and McKenzie chose Lost Pizza Company for the place. It is a favorite of her and her friends.  I have never seen girls eat so much! We started out with barbeque nachos for them to snack on while waiting for everyone to arrive. They ate pizza and we ended with birthday cake and dessert pizza. The girls just sat around and visited and played on their phones. Wow times have changed. I use to have to come up with ways to entertain the kids, now its easier.  We appreciate everyone making it a great night! Here are pictures from the party...

Happy Birthday, McKenzie!

Today is McKenzie's 12th birthday.  Here's her annual birthday video.  The song is "My Hope Is In You" by April Geesbreght that one of her dance classes danced to in their program, Little Red.  Happy birthday, McKenzie!!!!  We hope you have a great one!