Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Happy 5th Birthday, Ellie!


I started the day before Ellie's party making the cake. Caleb was helping me and we had just made the bottom layer and set it on the dining room table to cool. I should have known better. In fact, when I was setting it there, I had a little check in my gut that made me rethink putting it on the table, but then I thought, "Nathan isn't that tall and won't even know it's up here." Duh. Not more than 10 minutes later, he was on the table grabbing big chunks out of the barely cooled cake and shoving them into his mouth as fast as he could... Thanks to Grandma Connie for taking him home for the rest of the day, we got the entire cake (re)cooked, frosted and hidden before he got home.
That night, I rag-curled the girls hair. I have a whole stash of curlers in my dresser, but it's a pain to sleep with them in your hair (literally). A friend told me about rag-curls. You just cut up strips of cloth (we used old t-shirts), curl the damp hair around them, tie them in, and go to bed. By morning they are dry, you unroll them, and voila!! They had gorgeous curls. In fact, Ellie still has curls in her hair 3 days later!
Here's the finished cake project... Ellie bounced around from a castle cake, to a princess cake, then finally settled on a horse cake (her latest passion). I used a 2 quart pyrex bowl for the head and 2 10-oz pyrex bowls for the muzzle and neck. Add ears out of the scraps, a chocolate chip for the eye, and lots of frosting, and there you have it...I think it turned out super cute!
We always love having family over for parties!! It's a good excuse to visit, which we don't do often enough even though most of us live within 30 minutes of eachother. Ellie revelled in the on-slaught of gifts and attention.

One thing that we've prepared for this birthday is for her to stop sucking her thumb. It was a habit that she's been hanging onto and we made an agreement about 6 months ago that she'd stop sucking it on her 5th birthday and in exchange, she could take ballet lessons. I continually reminded her of her agreement and as of her birthday... no more thumb-sucking!! That girl has some will-power! I have yet to put her in lessons, though. I'm still looking into it...
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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Meeting Daddy for lunch

My little girl has turned 5 today!!! Out of all the kids, I'm having the most trouble thinking that she is five. She seems so little (maybe that's a girl thing?) and just plain...well... little. Not little as in body size necessarily, but just kind of fragile and innocent and... little. It's hard to imagine she'd be going to kindergarden NEXT fall! Though I know she'd love to mingle with friends at school, as I'm sure she would've for preschool, I am so glad she's going to be home with me for her schooling.

As is tradition, the birthday girl/boy gets to pick the menu for the day. Ellie chose chocolate chip pancakes topped with strawberry sauce with whipped cream and sprinkles... mmmm-mmmm.

If their birthday falls on a weekday, we meet daddy on his lunch break. We usually take a picnic lunch to a park near Paul's work, but in February, there's not much hope for an enjoyable time outdoors. So... we met at Culver's. Ellie picked out a doll in January from a collection that we'd been looking at for a while, and half forgot about it until she opened it today at lunch. She loves her and is entranced by her bouncing, beautiful curls. Her doll's name is Elsie Dinsmore...




Family Birthdays

Man, it seems like February is loaded with birthdays...
In the mix this year was my brother, Matt's 30th! birthday and my niece, Ally's 18th birthday!

We got together the night before the superbowl to celebrate Ally's b-day and help her make her way into "adulthood" =P
Here's my family's rendition of "Happy Birthday" (composed by the maestro of the family... Dawn)

Just a warning... You may want to turn your speakers down... waaaaaaay down.
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Happy Bday, Ally

Sunday, February 14, 2010

mohawks and spikes...


And so... I caved. Well, I didn't really cave, I had them ask their dad. Noah called daddy at work and asked for his special haircut. He said that Noah's much longed for mohawk would be fine with him (and to send him some pictures when we finished).

I made sure to cut it so that it was completely repairable in case he wisely decided it wasn't his style. I even told him that if he wanted a mohawk, he MUST gel it up EVERY day. I was sure after a day or so of gelling it, he'd get bored and ask me to chop it off. I did get my hopes up when he asked if he HAD to spike it for church. I could tell he was nervous about what everyone would say. I replied with a resounding "YES!". Of course, I was half thinking he'd chicken out, and the other half of me didn't want him to be a "closet mohawker". You know... look neat and tidy for church and live wild and crazy at home. Well, it's been almost a week. We've been seen by both the grandma's and have been to church... He's still spiking it.

Today, I've upped the ante. Being that he has to goop his hair with gel to get it to stand upright, I believe that he should wash it out before bed so he doesn't get those nasty white flakes from the dried gel on his pillow every night. Being that he hardly takes two showers a week, that's a real test. Hmmm, will he pass??? Well, he just jumped in the shower, no questions asked tonight. So, we shall see...

Seth wanted a mohawk after seeing Noah's, but I insisted he not look like a copy cat. He chose a front spike instead. I think he's trying to look tough here. Either that or he has to sneeze...
Noah and his new 'do.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Redecorating the Living Room... finally!

I finally did it! It's been 5 1/2 years since we moved in and almost every room in the house has been re-done, except for the living room. It had small diamond patterned wall paper on the top half and dark burgundy paint on the bottem with wood trim separating the two. It was one of the last rooms on my list for a couple reasons... I HATE stripping wall paper, and we LIVE in that room (thus the name "living" room, I guess).

The room was one huge massive upheaval for about a week, but we got it done!! I had a few kids that really wanted to help me and though the little ones still need some supervision when wielding a paintbrush (OK, alot of supervision), the older boys are actually a huge help. They got the majority of the wall paper off and did much of the roller painting while I painted around the trim.

We still have to get the trim around the windows back up, but I love the color! Sort of chocolate milk... (or coffee with cream). Yum.
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