Happy Birthday Anna!

Miss Anna turned 4 today.  What a little personality she is! She loves pink.  She loves dressing herself and as, documented on this blog, continues to have her own sense of style.  She is bubbly, loving, happy, strong willed, bright and quick witted! She has a strong sense of self and does things when and how she wants too, throwing Mom and Dad an occasional curve ball here and there.  Like asking this morning when her friends were coming today for her birthday party ... the party I didn't know she wanted and didn't plan - thankfully she was fine with celebrating with all of us! 

Emily made her cake - from a little lady bug cake cookbook.  When I asked Anna what kind of birthday cake she wanted, she went straight to that cookbook and waffled between 3 different cake designs.  I was pushing for the cake shaped as a purse - cause this girl loves purses and filling them with treasures.  But this is the cake she told Emily she wanted and Emily reproduced it to a T.  Anna of course LOVEed it! 

After Anna and Alex's swimming lessons, we went to the grocery store and got all we needed for her favorite dinner - homemade mac and cheese, hot dogs, broccoli, watermelon and chocolate milk!  

After the grocery store we stopped by the flower shop.  Diane got me a bouquet of the month subscription with the local florist and last month I told Anna I'd bring her in on her birthday to get the July bouquet.  At her request he put together a pink bouquet and was quite sweet to throw in an extra rose for her birthday.  She was thrilled!  

Once we got all our goods, we met Diane at the house with her traditional donut and balloon delivery - Strawberry Shortcake!   

While I got dinner made and wrapped up gifts, GR and the kids went swimming - one of Anna's favorite activities!  Diane joined us for the evening and we even Skyped with Grandma Mutti and Grandpa Art for the opening of presents.  

We did a little shopping for her at Gap - getting her the dress she's wearing and a couple other things.  A couple of new puzzles, little princess dolls and new playdough (because she insists on mixing colors and leaving it out).  Grandma got her some new books, including one on building fairy houses - something I hope we can do when it isn't 105 outside and Ree Drummond's children's book, Charlie the Ranch Dog.  Grandma and Grandpa sent her the kitty purse next to GR.  

Happy Birthday Alexander!

This cute sweet boy turns five today. F.I.V.E!

To celebrate we went to an exhibit of LEGO sculptures by the artist Nathan Sawaya.  So many amazing structures!  The museum had a children's hands-on art room set up in the basement.  They had thousands of LEGOs set out on tables for kids to create their own sculptures.  We spent ages in there, building and building with the available LEGOs, then went to Stake-n-Shake for lunch. 

I made Angry Bird's cupcakes.  At first he wanted an Angry Bird's cake like his friend Andrew, but since fondant is not something I'm familiar with, I went a different route.  I'm really pleased with how well they turned out, and Alexander was very gracious to love them too.  The rope black licorice was really hard to find.  And absolutely makes or breaks the cupcakes.  Without the licorice, they look like Sesame Street characters.  Thankfully, Diane was able to find some for me at our favorite candy shop. 

The candles are held up with playdough. 

Hard to believe this boy will be heading off to Kindergarten in a few short weeks.  That is going to be so different for all of us.  He's terribly excited and while I'm looking forward to it, Anna and I are going to miss him at home.   

Happy Birthday Anna!

Picture taken outside Jenny's Canyon, Snow Canyon, St. George, Utah, Thursday morning. 

We celebrated with my family this morning, before everyone had to head home after our week long vacation together with a yummy birthday brunch.  

Bob came for dinner (macaroni and cheese with hot dogs) and pink cupcakes with pink ice cream.  I asked everyone to share what they love about Anna.  

Alex -- She does a good job singing and was fun to go to singing [class] with. 

Sam -- Cute and hugable, she shares hugs with everyone

Emily -- She has a great smile that cheers me up when I'm sad. 

Rebecca -- She does things her own way and she's okay doing them her own way. 

Bob -- Her enthusiasm and her likeness of the color pink. 

Papa -- Her ability to make me laugh. 

Mom -- Her distinctive sense of style. 

Happy birthday sweet girl!!  You are such an important part of our family! 

Nine is Fine

Sunday Emily turned Nine!  Can you believe it?  We got back in town last Sunday, giving us just enough time, thanks to the wonders of the internet to plan a friends birthday party - something I don't think she's had since she was three.  School starts Wednesday so it served as a little get together before school too.  The girls swam, broke open a pinata, and had chocolate cake and ice cream.  

FYI: Sparkler candles while fun and super cool, are best used and enjoyed outdoors.  Lesson learned.  Thankfully the smoke detector didn't go off!

* * * * 

Sunday birthday's are always a bit tricky in this house given Papa's responsibilities and this was no different than Becca's birthday this year.  It means one-on-one conversations with papa and the birthday child expressing love and his the need to fulfill responsibilities.  Hopefully we are finding that balance, while still helping them feel special and the center of attention.  Last year it was a wedding, for Becca it was a fireside, this year stake priesthood, where the Bishop felt a great need to lead by example in an effort to have a greater number of the priesthood brethren rise to the occasion and attend. 

Consequently we took every opportunity this weekend to Emily's birthday.  Saturday night we had friends and Grandma over for dinner so GR could practice making his ribs for next weeks contest again, and ended the evening with ice cream at our favorite local shop. Sunday morning we had our traditional special birthday breakfast ... many of her favorite things.  We did gifts before Papa left for the evening, and we ate chicken stir-fry for dinner - another request of Emily's.  Monday we had her afternoon birthday party and then went out to dinner, as it was already 6:30 and we didn't have anything in the works for food.  She was smiles all weekend long.  I'm thinking getting to open presents three days in a row helped!

Petite Chefs

Rebecca started planning her birthday party in December.  With the move, we finally had to tell her we couldn't discuss the party plans until April 1st.  For most of April party plans were being discusses right and left with modifications being given almost as quickly ... I don't think the plans were truly decided on until right before the party ... our conversations went something like this ... 

yes cake decorating would be a great idea, 
we can bake pizzas too, 
I don't see how there's time to bake cookies too, 
no a competition would not be a good idea, even if Emily and Halle are going to be the judges, and I don't think teams are a great idea either, let's just let everyone do their own, okay?
if you're going to invite 8 of the 10 girls in your class, you should invite all of them, I understand they don't all get along, if they don't want to come that's their choice.
you're going to have to choose between watching a movie and all these other things you want to do, I don't think a six hour party is going to work, honey. 
ooohh sequins monograms would be lovely, but not at $6 a letter. 

In the end she settled on a handful of girls, her good chums from school, to come for a night of cake decorating, making pizzas and well, eating and giggling.  It was one of the best birthday parties we've held, by way of my personal enjoyment and stress level, and the girls had a great time.  

We had a 6" cake for each girl to decorate with lots of candies and icing and sprinkles.  They also decorated cupcakes which we used as Rebecca's birthday cake at the end of the party.  While the girls decorated their cakes, I made pizza dough so they could each make their own personal pizza for dinner.  

Becca and I toyed with the idea of decorating aprons but that quickly became cost and time prohibited, so I opted to make the girls aprons, and I'm so pleased I did.  The end result was so much better than anything I could have hoped for.  To make them a bit more fun, I made each girl a little flower pin using scraps from the aprons and coordinating fabrics.  I love this tutorial!   


While the girls and I were doing the party, GR took the four other kids to dinner, and then Mother's Day shopping.  Becca got upset that she didn't get to go out to dinner, and Emily and Sam were sad they didn't get to decorate cakes.  How do you win?!

I'm hoping I can figure out how to help the this summers birthday parties be just as fun and easy going for us and the kids.  For sure we need to have one for Emily.  The poor kid hasn't had a birthday party with friends, that I can remember since she was three or four maybe.  So, this is the year, wish me luck that I don't get totally wiped out by the rest of the summer and poop out. 

Double Digits

[A couple of years ago my mother started sending email announcements to the extended family about birthdays. Her hope was that this would be a unifying exercise given that both sides of the extended family -- my mothers family and my fathers family -- live all over creation. Her secret dream is that the email announcement will spur family members to send either personal or public "shout outs" to the individual celebrating their birthday or anniversary.]

Today, Rebecca is 10! I sent my family the following spot light on Rebecca and decided to include it the blog ... enjoy and feel free to add your own insights about Rebecca in the comments.

Rebecca is a hands on creator. She is constantly making something out of anything and everything she can find ... paper, fabric, boxes and cans from the recycling bin, etc. Right now she has two different quilts pinned together on the floor of the craft room. [quilt she made last year, and another she did the year before] Rebecca also enjoys designing things on the computer. Using Microsoft Publisher to design invitations, books, labels, business cards, fliers, etc.

Rebecca is an avid reader and excellent student. She caught on to reading quickly as a kindergartner and fell in love with the Junie B. Jones series. Since then she's found lots of favorites ... All of the Ramona Quimby books, both Penderwick books, Judy Moody is another favorite. But recently, Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian has been her books of choice. She read all four books in two weeks. Rebecca is one who will re-read books. They are her good friends, and when she finds a book she loves, she will read it again, and again.

Rebecca is a planner. Birthdays, vacations, etc. When she wants to do something she plans it all out her in head with very detailed ideas about how she wants things. She and her friends had her birthday party planned by mid-January this year.

Back in early March she started planning our family garden ("her" garden, as she calls it). She called her primary teacher for advice on what fruit trees to plant in Kansas (we're holding off on this stage of the garden). She then called my visiting teacher & her husband, avid gardeners too, for advice on what to plant - even arranged for them to come over and advise us on where to plant, making a list of their suggestions of what to grow in Kansas. And she called her Great Grandfather to talk with him about gardening and started reading the book he published about gardening.


Rebecca has always been a black and white, right or wrong kind of kid. She works hard to figure out how to do something correctly and she will not deviate from it. She is not easily intimidated by adults or peers and freely speaks her mind.

Since a young toddler Rebecca has taught us the importance of making people feel loved and accepted. She is an incredible example of being a friend, and extending a hand of fellowship to all she knows. She says hello to everyone. She is always excited to see you, and will greet you with a smile, hug and ask you how you are. Even if she only met you for a brief moment, she will remember you and excitedly greet you the next time you see each other (and remind you how you know each other if necessary).

Last night Rebecca was asked by a member of our Stake Presidency to speak in Stake Conference today. She was asked to share her favorite scripture about the Savior, share why and bare her testimony [side note: 10 members - 2 each: primary, youth, young adult, male, female - were asked to do this, along with a member of the stake presidency. Becca was one of the two primary children, and she was the youngest].

Last night she excitedly accepted, but this morning her confidence was gone and she was a puddle of tears; scared, nervous and completely unsure of what to share. Thanks to calm assurances from her parents, a phone call to her primary teacher, and the answer to GR and I's silent fervent prayers that the spirit would bring peace and calm to her heart, she began to prepare and choose a scripture they recently studied in her primary class. She wrote a few key words down as notes, and shared her scripture and testimony in Stake Conference this afternoon. She didn't even get flustered when she realized that the scriptures she had marked and put her notes in didn't make it in the car and she had to write out her notes again.

The scripture she shared was: Mark 14:21-25. So fitting for a 10 year old who 2 years ago was baptized and has such a vivid memory of her baptism, and the covenants she made in that ordinance, and renews each Sunday when she partakes of the sacrament. Her testimony was basic, simple, as all first testimonies are.

Rebecca is a pretty mature 10 year old. She is asked to shoulder a lot of responsibilities in our family. Even today we needed to celebrate with a birthday breakfast rather than our traditional birthday dinner because GR had BYC and was the speaker for the tri-ward Bishops devotional for the youth tonight. She bravely and maturely agreed to have her birthday dinner Monday night instead of Sunday night. No need to feel too poorly for her. We celebrated in style this morning with pancakes, sweet rolls, all her favorite fresh fruits, sausage and donuts!

She opened her presents in a small break this evening before GR left for the church. While he was gone, the girls and I put Rebecca's new bedding on her bed. Her new favorite color is green, and everything she got today was green (with a couple minor exceptions). Green scriptures, green sports watch (that will show military time), green sheets, green bedspread, green print pillowcases (made using this tutorial, but awaiting the crocheted trim), and some fun new artwork (from this website) for that big blank wall!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Art!

My brother, in jest, challenged Daddy to blow out his candles using a party horn blower. He did it, twice - counter clockwise and then clockwise - without catching it on fire.

Emily's Great to be EIGHT Birthday

Our sweet Emily celebrated her eighth birthday today! Eight years old! We packed lots and lots of celebrating into our one little day. When I asked her how she wanted to celebrate she said she wanted to go to either Dave and Busters (restaurant & arcade) or Famous Dave's (BBQ). It took a while, but she finally settled on Dave and Busters.



The kids started the morning off by going to our farmers market - a Saturday morning favorite! - with Grandma and Grandpa. While the four big kids, enjoyed the market, GR went and performed a wedding, while Anna and I made a huge birthday brunch for everyone to enjoy when everyone got home. Per Emily's request, the menu consisted of scrambled eggs (side note, to my sibblings - finally after years of failing, one of my two pans of scrambled eggs turned out like Mom's! yippee!), bacon, sausage, biscuits, cantaloupe, grapes, lemon poppy seed cake, the works, all served on my mismatched collection of china plates, that we only use for very special parties. It was scrumptious, oh so filling and served on time - 10:30am on the dot.

We hoped to miss a busy dinner crowd at Dave and Busters by going for a late lunch/early dinner. Apparently, we weren't the only ones who had the same thought. But we got seated quickly, had a good meal and headed back to the game area. We played for a good 2 hours and the kids racked up some serious tickets - each hitting their own little jackpots here and there - reaching a grand total of 6398 tickets. They each got to pick a big stuffed animal (two poodles, a dragon and a tree frog) and a couple of little trinkets that will hopefully last longer than the weekend before the fall apart or break.



Then it was back to Grandma and Grandpa's for swimming, cake & ice cream and of course presents.



Emily is growing into such a mature little lady. She is an excellent student. She has beautiful penmanship. I love reading her classroom journals. Emily is happy to help classmates who need extra help understanding something, and does it in a kind and compassionate way. Never making the other person feel dumb or less than adequate for needing help. She is also a strong reader. She and Rebecca love reading the same books and often share books with each other, talking about the characters and story lines.

She is a super helper with Anna and Alex. She is very loving and nurturing with them. I ask a lot of her and Rebecca and she is typically very willing to help ... diaper changing, feeding, playing, etc.

Emily is very thoughtful, always wanting to make something to share with someone else ... a friend, neighbor, teacher or family member.

We are so lucky to have this sweet girl in our family! Her beautiful spirit and bright, happy personality add so much to our family! We are so proud of her and the young woman she is growing up to be. She is very excited to be baptized and we are thrilled she has made this choice.

Happy Birthday Anna!

Friday, Anna turned ONE ... my baby is one year old, man this year has flown by!

• She has only two teeth - they are on the bottom.
• Walking is now her main mode of transportation and she's pretty steady on her feet.
• She's a very determined little kid, who is not easily distracted or persuaded.
• She loves playing in the water - although baths are an entirely different thing.
• She is quite social and loves to be in the middle of everything.
• When she wants something, she screams/yells "Eeeehhhhhhhhah" - at ear splitting decibels, it's always shocking, it always make everyone jump, and it's especially disruptive in the middle of church.
• She is a very independent soul who loves to explore the world around her.
  
• Anna is a very happy, joyful child. She doesn't get upset easily. When she cries it's because she really needs something.
  
• Anna is tough and can easily hold her own against her rough and tumble older brother who tackles her to the ground, all be it gently, on a daily bases. She takes it all in stride, without getting up set and occasionally returning the loving gesture.
  

To celebrate, Grandma brought over the traditional donuts and balloons. Anna ate nearly all of her glazed donut on her own.



We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - her favorite - for lunch and were going to spend the afternoon swimming, but mother nature felt rain was more important so we stayed inside while Anna slept the afternoon away.

After naps, we took a box of ice cream, sprinkles and cones to Grandma's for ice cream cones. Everyone enjoyed those very much!





Anna had her 1 year appointment first thing this morning. She's doing fantastically. Defiantly has the height of the girls, but her weight seems more inline with the boys.

Weight - 21lbs 14.5 oz. (60%)
Height - 30.75 inches (94%)
Head Circumference - 19 5/8" (>97%)

It's Divine to turn Nine!

For months and months, Rebecca has planned her birthday celebration. Back in December, she realized that her birthday would be on a Saturday, making it possible for us to celebrate "out of town." All on her own, she settled on St. Louis as her destination as it would make it possible some of the aunts and uncles and cousins to participate in the celebrating - so essential to a good celebration. And so each time we were in St. Louis ... twice in December, and again in March, she invited and reminded all of my sibblings that her birthday was coming up and she would be in St. Louis to celebrate and will you are you please going to be there?!

The kids didn't have school Friday, and GR was able to arrange his work schedule such that he could take the day off of work. So after finishing up all our Thursday evening commitments and packing up the car, we were on our way, making it an extremely late night for the mama and the papa, but allowed us to maximize our time with Grandma Mutti and Grandpa Art and the rest of the crew.

Friday, Rebecca requested a trip to the Magic House, one of the kids favorite places to go. They have made lots of additions, and everyone had a really fun time.







Saturday morning, for her birthday breakfast, Rebecca requested Mutti's cinnamon rolls. Which everyone devoured before going to one of our favorite neighborhood parks for a couple hours of running around. While the little kids played on the equipment, the big kids followed Grandpa Art around the park grounds for a hike - another Rebecca request.


The last birthday celebration activity, Rebecca wanted to do, was a trip to the Butterfly House. Something we haven't done in ages. We had just enough time to walk among the thousands of butterflys they have, before that part of the park closed for the day. The butterflies were beautiful and amazing, and the amount of time we had to spend watching and admiring, was just perfect (about 30 minutes)!







We finished up with dinner, cake (banana sour cream) and chocolate ice cream back at Grandma's. Suz found some fantastic gummy butterflies at a Mennonite general store in northern Missouri, they made the perfect decoration for Becca's cake.



It's hard to believe Rebecca is nine. She is quickly growing up into a beautiful young woman and we are very proud of her. She continues to share her bright and bubbly personality with everyone she comes in contact with. She is an avid reader and never tires from reading stories about her favorite characters as over the years they become her good friends. She is a big fan of all the Ramona Quimby books, but has recently added the Penderwicks to her circle of friends. And this summer we hope to add a few more new girls to the mix. Rebecca has a strong creative side to her. She is always creating something from found objects ... scraps of fabric from the sewing room; containers, tubes or boxes from the recycling bin; paper, sequins, and glue from the craft cubboard. She is very generous with these creations, always intending them for someone special in her life.

Birthday Cheesecake

Today is Grandpa Bob's birthday and given that we spent the weekend in St. Louis, and it's a school night, we celebrated in. Rebecca called to ask Grandpa what he wanted as his birthday cake ... fruit pie, cream pie, cupcakes, layer cake, cheesecake, what ever he wanted. He requested cheesecake, and we took a cheesecake factory cheesecake sampler with three different flavors over after dinner to celebrate.



The kids made a card for him. On the back I traced each child hand and had them dictate to me all the things they love about Grandpa Bob. writing them within their hand prints. It was sweet and heart warming to hear them rattle off all their favorite things about Grandpa, what has left a lasting impression on their young hearts ... he plays with me, he makes us ice cream, he fixes things for us, he built the playhouse for us, etc.

I asked Emily, "How do you know Grandpa loves you?"
"Because he wouldn't do all those things for us, if he didn't." (in an innocent, duh mom tone)



What a great reminder that what is important to our children and grandchildren is our love and time, nothing more. To them it's so simple. I've gotta get a picture of the back of that card. It is a priceless treasure I need to preserve for them.

Happy 148th Birthday!

A great opportunity for cake AND birthday candles! Thank you Kansas!



* * * * *

The more and more I learn about the CPSIA and how it will potentially impact my life and my little business the more and more I pray the government will not turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to all the concerns being voiced with how it is currently laid out. If you're not sure what I'm talking about ... read this. It's what hundreds of bloggers posted yesterday, hopefully you saw it on someone's blog.

For information about the CPSIA and how to make your voice heard, I found this CPSIA Action Kit made up by Etsy extremely helpful. I'm extremely frustrated with Dennis Moore at the momment. I've sent him three seperate emails and I've heard NOTHING back from him.

Birthday Waffles

1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons margarine
2 large eggs
1-1/4 cups milk
2-1/2 cups flour
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup melted butter

Cream together sugar, margarine and eggs. Add all remaining ingredients except butter and blend well. Pour melted butter over batter and do not mix. Dip batter (~1/3 cup each for my waffle iron, yielding 10 waffles) onto heated waffle iron and follow directions for making waffles.

Serve with syrup or choice of topping (although they are fantastic plain), and enjoy every mouthful with the ones you love.

2 - The Independant Stage

Alex has been solidly in his "terrible twos" for months now - as are most toddlers (or at least all of mine have been) by about 15 months - but he is now officially TWO! He has an incredibly strong will and fearless spirit paired with a fantastic sense of humor and a gentle loving nature.

We celebrated with sweet rolls for breakfast with my parents, and then dinner, cake and ice cream with GR's parents after church. It was a fun, simple celebration that he throughly enjoyed!

Alex still isn't attending all of nursery at church, but today he attended more than he has all year, thanks to having Grandpa Art with him the entire time. I had hoped he would be attending on his own by his birthday, but it simply isn't in the cards, maybe by December?

But here are pictures from Alex's special day!





Alex blew out the candles, and picked up his fork and started "cutting the cake." He was a fantastic little helper, and helped me serve each piece of birthday cake to everyone at the table.

Sam's Birthday Party

Sam's birthday party this afternoon/evening was a success. Three of the five boys he wanted to invite were able to come and they had a blast playing in the water. GR asked one of the young men from church to come and help him out in the pool. This worked out perfectly! Our 15 year old helper had a really good time playing with the boys and swimming, GR's stress level was slightly reduced and thankfully/amazingly, everyone stayed safe!

I think we did a better job this time around at actually keeping things really simple. Sam wanted to have a water birthday party and a piñata. We threw in some bake-at-home pizza's, fruit salad and baby carrots capped with huge black olives - viola, a simple dinner 5 year olds will eat. Add cupcakes, 5 sparkler candles and bag of ice cream cups and you have yourself one successful party!





*NOTE: I've been wanting to make a "Birthday" banner for a while now (top picture). I had hopes of getting this one made for Sam's actual birthday, but quickly realized that wasn't going to happen. I used this template, and once again I made this one a little more complicated than necessary and consequently it took forever - so gone are my thoughts of possibly selling them - no one would be willing to pay what I would need to charge to make it worth while! Despite being a much more involved and time consuming project than I had first anticipated, I LOVE how it turned out and it should last us for lots of future birthdays!

(I opted to keep the back side plain - all the bright colors, but no letters - so I could use it for occasions other than celebrations.)