Happy Birthday, Pixie!

Those were not the first words out of my mouth this morning, but they were the first ones my little pixie-girl heard from my lips!  Yes, another birthday at our house.  She is now seven.  This little bundle of energy, joy, sunshine, and giggles is growing up way too fast for my liking.  She already has boys standing in line to marry her (three at last count).  I know why, too.  She is such a sweetheart!

I am ashamed to admit it, but this was her first official birthday party.  We have always tried to have a special meal and cake, but when your birthday falls during the week of camp, or the week of moving, it tends to be less than expected.  She has uncomplainingly endured for all these years, and I believe she deserves a little praise for her sweet attitude.

Today was extra special.  We took a trip to a really cool place that I will post about later – been wanting to visit there for years.  Are you wondering??  :)

Here we are, driving down the road (well, Paul was, anyway – we were just along for the ride).  You can see she is wearing her special birthday scarf made by Grandma! 

Here are all the kids sitting down to a delicious birthday dinner of hamburgers and green beans.  Yep. That is what she asked for.  Of course, we had cake and ice cream, too.  Chocolate.  That’s my girl!

She wanted cupcakes, so that’s what I made.  Yummy!

I had left all my cake pans at home, so I had to get a little creative.  Plus, the oven in the trailer is not working for some reason.  Thank goodness for the toaster oven!

Mmm, mmm, good!

Then the opening of gifts.  Such unspeakable delights!  Sour Patch Kids from Daniel!

Socks?!?  Okay, there was a really awesome clearance sale at Wal-mart the other day! :)

There were a lot of other miscellaneous items from all of us, and she had a wonderful time opening and exclaiming over them all.  It was a very fun day for our whole family.

And a new outfit for Polka-dot Baby (that is actually the doll’s name, and yes, I do fear for my future grandchildren!  Other dolls have been named Little Italy, France, and Mrs. No-Head).  Hopefully, the name choosing will improve with age.

Happy Birthday, my sweet Esther!  I love you!  I am so thankful that God gave you to us seven years ago!

Now We’re Cookin’!

Sometimes the toys that we have are much loved and often used.  Others are played with occasionally and ignored the majority of the time.  (These I try to eliminate as quickly as possible.)  I think the most popular toys we have owned are the play kitchen items.  My childhood kitchen items have been passed down to my children, and along the way we have added more food items, dishes, and miscellaneous junque. All of the kids have loved playing kitchen since they were tiny.  They frequently bring down new dishes for us to “eat.”

Thus, when my old tin stove crumbled into disrepair, it was a hard blow for the girls especially. The decal stickers had already begun to come off, the plastic window in the oven door popped out and was stepped on, the knobs fell off, and in general, it looked pretty ratty.  The straw that broke the camel’s back was the oven door hinge that broke, causing it to hang open perpetually. 

My husband had pity on the girls who could now only “cook” on the stovetop.  He found a plan for a little stove and, out of scrap lumber leftover from other projects, he made them a new one.  Alright, everybody say, “Awwww!”

I don’t know that any father has gotten so much pleasure out of making and giving a wooden stove to his girls as my husband did.  The girls were thrilled!  The little knobs turn and the oven door opens and closes with a magnetic latch.  Now we can once again have all the delicious baked plastic food that we can eat!

Here they are in their PJs, exulting over their new appliance!  Random thought: Did anyone else notice that Esther looks like a giant pink frog in this photo?  :) 

Missing Teeth

Through the last several years, we have had a lot of loose teeth around our house.  We are beginning yet another round of “Snaggletooth” competition.  Esther has already lost two bottom teeth, and recently lost a top front tooth.  The other one is loose, and the ones on the sides of the missing/loose teeth are also loose.  I am considering dentures as a viable option for her this year!  In spite of all her missing teeth, she still remains just as adorable as ever!

I just love my six-year-old snaggle-toothed pixie!

Fun with Cupcakes

My two older children had a church activity last week, leaving the younger two sitting at home despondantly.  I had a motherly moment of “Awww… They need to have something special to do while their siblings are bowling and eating pizza.”  I landed on the idea of making cupcakes.  I would allow them to decorate the cupcakes (shudder)  and eat some. 

What excitement reigned when I unveiled my surprise!  I gave them each some icing and sprinkles, and they set to work.

I had to remind Daniel not to lick the knife…

Esther was quite good at putting the icing on the cupcakes, but Daniel fretted over getting it on his hands, especially since he was not allowed to lick it off his fingers!

They were not the most artistic cupcakes I have ever seen, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?

And they were quite tasty!

I love the fact that we had a fun time together.  One day, they will all be gone (sniff) and I guess Paul and I will have to make the cupcakes by ourselves! :)

Just KBO

In the famous words of Winston Churchill, we just “keep buggering on,” also abbreviated as KBO.  The weather has been very dreary this week, with rain and clouds, and gray skies.  The children decided that things were not very exciting, and conspired among themselves to all come down with the flu at the same time to liven things up around our house.  Thank the Lord it isn’t the stomach flu variety!  We actually took a day off school today (gasp!) because everyone felt so lousy.  I do hope this bug doesn’t last long, but if it does, we’ll KBO.

Esther lost one of her front teeth this week.  I am glad it finally came out.  It was so loose that it would move around in her mouth, and stuck out like a pair of those “Billy-Bob” teeth that you can buy at Walmart!  I kept trying to pull it, but it wasn’t ready to come out, so it only caused her great distress.   I finally got it out last night, and the Tooth Fairy made a visit.  I hope she doesn’t get sick!  If so, she will have to KBO!

In the meantime, all my children are lying around on couches, chairs, floors, and beds, (there are only four, just in case you are wondering) dragging blankets and pillows around the house, coughing on one another, and leaving used tissues all over the house.  Gross! KBO

This too, shall pass.  I just hope it passes quickly.  If not, I’ll KBO.

What things make it necessary for you to KBO? :)

Nine Patch Project

I already mentioned that we have been reading through the Little House on the Prairie books as a family.  I am amazed at how much the children, even four-year-old Daniel, enjoy the stories.  One of the things that is mentioned frequently is Mary working on her nine-patch quilt.  As I pondered this the other day, I guessed her age at the time to be around seven years old.  Quilting already!?  Wow. 

My girls have recently shown a great interest in “stitching,” as Esther calls it.  I had an epiphany.  Why not let the girls work on their own nine patch squares?  I know I have tons of little scraps left over from  sewing projects over the years, and what better purpose could they serve?  I promptly began cutting the scraps into small squares, and told the girls the plan.  They were thrilled!  I had already taught them how to thread a needle and knot the thread at the end(this has been cause for great fun over the last few weeks, as they sew scraps of fabric together in random patterns), so they busily began to thread their needles while I cut material. 

You can see there was quite a bit of silliness going on, too.

Cutting a bunch of 3.5” squares – not too big, not too small for little hands and short attention spans!  It also works well with the leftover scrap fabrics that are too small to be used for anything else.

They each got to choose the fabrics they liked best and put them in the order that they wanted within the block.

Then the sewing began!  Disclaimer: no one was seriously injured in the making of this blog post.  I did suffer a needle stab at the hands of a very eager seamstress, but I have not suffered from lock-jaw at this point.

Here is Abigail’s first finished nine-patch square.  She is so pleased with her accomplishment.  Her goal is now to make a whole blanket.  The seams are a bit wobbly in places, but overall, I would say it looks pretty good for a first attempt!

Esther’s pattern was more symmetrical than Abigail’s was, which makes it easier to tell them apart.  Her seams were  very  wobbly, and this particular square may not stand up to very many washings, but with experience comes skill.

We had such a fun time together, laughing and sewing and talking.  They both told me as they went to bed that night, that they really enjoyed our crafting time together.  This is what being a mother is all about!

Christmas at Home

After a few weeks in the sunny south, we arrived home two weeks before Christmas.  Having left the day after Thanksgiving, I had not been able to decorate the house for the Christmas holidays (I love decorating for Christmas)!  I decided that as  soon  as we got back home, the bins were getting lugged out of storage, and the tree, lights, garlands, and etc., were coming out and resuming their places.  Thus, last Monday afternoon, we pulled into our driveway, unpacked our belongings from the trailer and headed out to find “the perfect tree.” 

Question:  How many stores did we have to visit before we found anything but a Charlie Brown special?

Answer: Four!  I was amazed!  At each successive store we visited, my hopes grew smaller.  One large retailer had a total of four trees left!  Well, of course, we could have bought a ten foot tree and then hacked off about four feet so it would fit in our living room, but that is not my idea of a good tree, let alone a perfect one!

Thankfully, my longsuffering husband was involved in the quest, and was willing to chauffeur me all around town.  We finally found a great selection at Home Depot, and while Paul went to find a cart of some kind, I held up a prospective tree and asked the kids, “What do you think about this one?”  Josiah, in his pre-adolescent wisdom said, “Um, I don’t know.  They all look about the same to me!”  Out of the mouth of babes…

Meanwhile, the temperature had dropped considerably, and we (I say we, but in all actuality, it was just I, since Paul and the kids wimped out and went inside the store to wait) were shivering in the garden center section of the store, waiting for the one elusive employee that could trim the tree down and net it.  Apparently, that takes a special kind of skill.  I think the ability also entitles you to extra long coffee breaks.  We waited in the howling wind for at least twenty minutes before the employee came sauntering in, wiping the doughnut crumbs from her lips, and eyed the line of people waiting to get their tree trimmed.  Yes – there was a line.  Even at this late date, there was more than one family without a Christmas tree!  Unbelievable! 

After we stuffed the tree into the back of our truck and I packed my two ice blocks, otherwise known as feet, into the truck, we headed for home like a barn-sour horse.  I dragged out the decorations and remembered that half of my lights had died last year.  Crud.  The lights have to go on first, wouldn’t you know.  I decided that fixing dinner was the better part of valor, and that you can bear almost anything on a full stomach.  So the decorating was put on hold temporarily while I nourished our bodies and souls with hot dogs.  Hey, cut me some slack – the fridge was pretty empty after being gone for two weeks!

As soon as I finished my tube steak, I jumped in the truck,  accompanied by Esther, and we headed to that great retailer, the ubiquitous Walmart.  You know, the store that sells everything.  Except white indoor Christmas lights.  Seriously… they had none.  Frantic that my evening of decorating was in peril, I dashed off to my favorite store – CVS.  While I browsed their limited selection, Esther pointed out that the lights were BOGO, saving me a costly error.  So, in the end, we got twice the lights at a store closer to home.  Whatever. :)

The kids love decorating.  The Christmas music blares while they hang all the ornaments on one side of the tree, clustered thickly like forbidden fruit.  They shriek and dance around the room, causing me to fear for the safety of my precious ornaments. 

Once the lights were on, decorating began in earnest, and the kids worked extra hard and fast, because at the end of the tree decorating process, they know their favorite part is next – the Fisher Price nativity set.  I bought it years ago when Josiah was a baby, and we only get it out at Christmas.  I guess that is what keeps it special.  Having a toy that you can only play with a few weeks out of the year is pretty memorable. 

It was quite late by the time we finished, because of all the delays, and they were all tired and ready for bed after the long day.  I cleaned up the boxes and bins, and put them back in the closet and returned to the living room to view our handiwork.  Ahhhhh!  Beautiful.  This will also show you what our living room looks like after the renovations we made.

Before: concrete floors covered with paint spray and freshly painted trim

The stone thing in the corner has been a rather difficult obstacle to overcome in my interior decorating.  It used to house some kind of wood burning stove, but that is ancient history.  It became our tool central for several months, and, I must admit, only the last vestiges were cleared away when we brought out the Christmas decorations (yikes)!

However, this is what it looks like right now.  Notice my wall collage in the making just behind the tree.  I plan to fill the whole space with pictures of different sizes and shapes.  I’ve got a pretty good start, but I still have several pictures left to mount on the wall.

 

The stone corner is now home to the much-beloved nativity set.  I love it!  There is plenty of room for them to re-enact the Christmas story on the ledge – just like a little stage!

I am looking forward to a very merry Christmas in our lovely new home! 

Chop, Chop!

For some time, I have been trying to decide what I want to do with Esther’s hair.  It has always been fine and not as thick as either mine or her sister’s hair.  It used to be so frowsy that I despaired of ever getting it to lay straight instead of sticking out all over her poor little head!  In recent years, she has aspired to have hair “as long as Abigail’s.”  It really began to grow, and although it is beautiful and silky, it is still rather thin and prone to tangles-especially when she drags it through her plate at mealtime.  Sigh.  Tangles=tears, you know.

She has been after me for a while to cut her hair “so it won’t get food in it.”  I hesitated to cut it though, because I was afraid she would recant her decision and there would be more tears.  Hair takes a long time to grow!  I wanted to cut it though, because I know how cute she looks with short hair.  It is also so much easier to care for it. 

I finally bit the bullet and decided that I would cut it while I had the opportunity.  I had to give Paul a haircut, so why not cut hers as well?  I was really nervous, since I am not really a professional stylist.  I have cut lots of hair in the past, but these have been people who know how to sit still!  :)

Here are the results of my chop job.

Before:

Getting it wet first really helps.

The first chop is the scariest!

I tried to layer the edges a bit so it wasn’t just a blunt cut straight across.  The edging gives it a little more shape and body.  I’m not very good at this part, so my perfectionistic self was freaking out while I chipped and chopped.  She held pretty still for the most part, but kept asking if we were done yet!  No pressure!

So out of this process we got:

1.  A little more hair-cutting experience

2.  A donation for Locks of Love (we just barely made the 10 inch minimum)

3.  Most importantly, we have one very pleased little girl.

Does anyone else cut their family member’s hair?  Any good tips?  I tried looking online, but really didn’t find what I needed, so I flew by the seat of my proverbial pants.  I ended up pretty satisfied with the overall results, but next time, I want it to do it better!  Always upward, you know! :)

Tooth Fairy

Well, not that business has been slow around our house for the Tooth Fairy, but she has a new customer.  Yes, my baby Esther has lost her first tooth!  She was so excited when she noticed it was loose.  She came shouting down the stairs in a manner more suitable for the house being afire. However, that is her way – everything is extreme! :)

Two weeks later, the tooth was out.  She didn’t even flinch when I pulled it out!  And the grin I got afterward was so adorable!  I guess we will have another snaggle-toothed kid around the house!

<--  Okay – I know you cannot really see the missing tooth (bottom right), but this picture was too good to resist!   You can see her tonsils as well!  They are lookin’ good! :)

 

Guess the Tooth Fairy needs to get another job so she doesn’t go bankrupt!

October Days

We are on the trail again, after several months of being in Mississippi.  It has been an epic trip, with us traveling all the way to Minnesota!  It was a long drive, but we were able to break up the trip with a stop in Missouri, where we saw some college friends.  I always enjoy our infrequent visits with college friends. 

Paul is participating in a men’s retreat this weekend, and I am going to be part of a teen girls’ activity: Cupcake Wars!  I think this weekend will be exciting for all of us! 

The weather here is quite a bit cooler than the weather in MS, and I was delighted to see that we are here in the beginning of the fall color.  We have some fall foliage in MS, but nothing makes brilliant color like the extreme northern temperatures.  The days are cool, and the nights cooler, but the skies are blazing blue, and the contrast of the leaves is breathtaking!

I took the kids outside yesterday to get a few pictures.  That went as well as it ever does, with as many chin shots, closed eyes, open mouths, and weird looks as usual.  I was persistent, though, and ended up with a few good shots.

This was the best of the group shots.  Love the nose wrinkle, Josiah.  Also love that squinty, cheesy face, Abigail.  They are both classic

This is my not-so-little-anymore man.  Love his sweetness.

Little Miss Mischief – I’m afraid she is very much like her mother… :)

Here is the little Pixie-Pie.  What a sweet thing she is!

And the Munchkin Man – he is ornery beyond belief.  Can’t you just see the little boy-ness just oozing out of him?

Just a few pictures of the kids enjoying the farm animals, and the lovely weather. 

Hope you all enjoy your fall weather!