T's Birthday Party

This just proves how busy we've been and how much of a slacker I've been. The party was the first weekend of March and I am just now posting pictures. We invited three families to come and celebrate with us. T again chose a Star Wars theme for his cakes. I think he will always be a Star Wars geek like his daddy. LOL.

This was our little man, D, when he was turning 7 months old the day of the party. He is such a good baby you hardly know he's around most days. He only fusses when he is hungry or tired. We have been so blessed!

Grampa was able to come over the following weekend to celebrate with us. He brought T a very special gift: a remote control helicopter just lilke Daddy's. As you can tell in the picture, T was very happy. It is even his favorite color: blue. Happy 10th Birthday!

Long, Long Time, No Post!

This is definitely the longest I've gone without updating the blog. I've been trying to focus on staying home more and staying on top of the housework, as well as, school work. It has been easier said than done. I apologize for anyone I've disappointed with such a long delay in my posts. (JOE! that means you!) I will attempt to post some of our highlights over the past few months.

Grandpa come over to visit for R's birthday and posed for a photo with one of her gifts.

A picture of our home-made Advent wreath.

D with B, and R. He is almost 4 mo. old in this photo which was taken back on 11/30/11.

B was in her first play called The Best Little Christmas Pageant Ever. She joined the other three oldest kids in this production at our local theatre. They did 10 performances and were excellent in all of them. So very proud of how well they did!

Here is a cute photo of D in his Christmas outfit and Santa hat. This was a week or two before Christmas.

That is E grinning. Did you notice that the Wise Men from our Little People Nativity scene are riding on his John Deere tractor in the background? That is not quite historically accurate, but I don't think he cares.

The kids with some of their home school friends after a free play called "Madeleine's Christmas".

We then went to a history museum to see an exhibit on the Civil War, called My Brother, My Enemy. They also had some hands-on activities for home schoolers. This was the highlight of the day! The kids got to try-on some of the helmets and armor.

Latest Happenings

So much has been happening and I haven't been able to keep up. One reason is that our computer is still not cooperating with our camera. I am having a very difficult time transferring our pictures to our computer, which in turn, makes it very hard to update this blog. For those waiting on pins and needles to see what we've been up to lately (Joe!), I apologize.

In chronological order, here is what has happened lately...

We celebrated Dear Hubby's 38th birthday and Father's Day. His favorite color is orange, so we made him a very bright orange, chocolate layered cake with 38 hearts all over it. As a combo birthday and Father's Day gift, we bought him a fire pit so that he can burn up all those assorted limb that he keep falling down. It also make a good way to roast marshmallows with the kids. We've already spent a couple of nights out by the fire pit, as if it were a campfire. It also came in very handy when about two days later a very large limb was knocked down in thunder storm. We have since been burning it bit by bit.

Again this year the three oldest kids participated in a two week long theatre workshop. They performed the play "Aladdin". Though they all had rather small parts this time, they really enjoyed themselves. How could you not love this play? The movie was so good that you just couldn't go wrong! I especially loved listening to the kids practice the songs at home and while we drove everywhere in the car. We listened to them so much that by the time the performance rolled around, even the two little girls had the songs memorized.
Grandpa came for another visit and gave M her birthday gifts. She was so happy to receive a CD player and a copy of Tangled. She loves them both so much. It has been really cute how she tells the other kids that they are going to be having music class and so they should go to her room to listen on her boom-box. One day shortly after receiving the CD player, they all decided to spend three hours straight singing and dancing to their kid music. It was a nice break for me, as well. I finally had to call them down for supper and they were all so disappointed that I had broken up their dance party!

I took the kids blueberry picking for the first time. I remember doing this as a kid with my mom and thought it was about time I let my kids experience it for themselves. They all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Especially E who only sat in the stroller and ate whatever anyone would give him. He was in seventh heaven.

On Friday of that week, we had planned on going swimming at a local state park, but happened to be early and decided to check out the nature center. I am so glad we did. We walked up just as a Pond Life demonstration and activity was beginning. The Naturalist on duty invited us to join them and the kids had a blast learning about the pond life cycle, exploring life around their pond, and even making their own pond life viewer out of a coffee can. We later went swimming with their Aunt Olivia and Nana, but I think the highlight of the day was that science activity!

T's Birthday visit with Grandpa

We had nice weather for early March and it allowed us to play outside with Grandpa when he came to visit for T's Birthday. The kids enjoyed throwing the football around and climbing all over Grandpa. Sometimes they mistake him for a jungle jim or monkey bars.

T's Birthday party

I printed out a coloring page off the Internet and cut it out to make this stencil for T's birthday cake. Just like other character cakes, I placed the stencil on the cake and then "traced" the silhouette out with a tooth pick. I colored the stencil just so I could see the frosting colors I needed. This ended up being the most colorful cake I've ever made. By that I mean the largest number and variety of colors. The colors included blue, red, yellow, green, white, black, peach, and brown.

I have to admit that I cheated a little and bought the black frosting. I've never made black before and for as little as I needed, I thought it was safer to just go with the store's brand which I knew would look right. I've never outlined any of my character cakes before in black. After doing this one, I think I will make sure to outline all of my future cakes in black. It really made the character stand out and look more like the real thing.

Since T had such a big party last year, we had a much smaller one this year. I think he still enjoyed himself, but with minimal work on my part. Ma and Pa came over and so did two of T's friends. They all enjoyed the pizza, cake, and ice cream for dinner. I think the highlight of the evening for T was playing Mario and other video games with his friends for about two hours. He is never allowed to play video games for more than 25 minutes per day. I think he also enjoyed having his friends over to spend the night. Happy 9th Birthday, T!

Grandpa's visit for the Girl's Birthdays

It has been one crazy month. I haven't updated the blog in a LONG time! I'll try to play catch-up with my next few posts.

Here are the pictures from celebrating C and B's birthdays with Grandpa. The girls loved their gifts, as usual. E loved riding on Grandpa's back. It has become one of E's favorite things to do. The older kids really seem to enjoy it, too. Good exercise for everyone, I guess.

They Have Her Eyes

R with her twin baby dolls. She is really loving on them lately. I don't know if she likes them so much because Grandpa gave them to her, or if it is because I have twin God daughters that we see frequently at Mass. All I know is that she isn't sharing them as much as I'd expected. At least they are cute and as R noticed, they have her eyes. Thanks grandpa for the birthday baby dolls. She loves them.