on this day...

February 22, 2010

Cha-cha and I baked carrot cake from scratch for The Husband's birthday on this day last year. Carrot cake is his favorite, actually I think it's become a toss up between carrot cake and my go-to chocolate cake. Anyhoo, he loves carrot cake, so carrot cake it was. With thick yummy cream cheese frosting (see Cha-cha lick the spoon -yum).

The children gave him a jar of mixed nuts with a personalized label for his desk at work. We all had a chuckle when The Boy added a padlock to the jar's latch. He also got a pair of Tevas and a couple of sweet handmade cards.

We're missing him today as he's away for work. It's the big 4-0, too. Crazy big birthday to be away for. Luckily he's near two of my sisters and their families so they're helping him celebrate. We look forward to our chance to celebrate with him, we'll have to do something even nuttier when he returns! Happy Birthday to the best husband and Dad around... or not around!♥ XOXO

fit to be tied...

The Boy turned twelve this past weekend. Twelve! He is now part of the young men's group in our church. I'm the mother of a young man. Wow. When did that happen? This means white shirts and ties on Sunday as that is the suggested attire for men participating in services in the church. Gone is my cute little boy in pastel gingham shirts and matching vests *sniff*.

We're shopping for some smart looking ties which can be hard to find for this age group. Looks like we've hit the jackpot with etsy though. Such a great selection of sharp ties for my handsome boy *ahem*, I mean young man! Which one's your favorite?

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where to begin?...

Please forgive the spotty posting lately. Life has been a tad hectic. The Husband's work has changed recently and requires a great deal of travel. He basically lives elsewhere and visits us occasionally, at least for a while that will be the case. It's definitely taking some adjustment. I'm working on connecting the dots... as soon as I figure out where to begin!

I know some people have asked about the Alphabet Hunt coloring pages. My girls are waiting patiently for Meredith's letter 'K' page, too. I miss making them. Hopefully I'll find some time to sit down and doodle again soon!

Bear with me!

image via That's My Word

bathing beauties...

Summer Memory - August 2010

Visiting Shaka and family.  A hot summer day. A dip in a pool. My girls and Thing 3 pose  in their pretty pink suits.

fair fun...

Summer Memory - August 2010

A visit with Shaka's family. Carload night at the country fair. Unlimited-ride wristbands.  Tons of cousin fun!

Pinky's first carnival ride.  Hmm... I think she liked it.

Lots of naughty fair food, of course.

The big girls tried the slide.

Shaka and Thing 4 tried it, too.

Ooh, firetrucks with shiny bells.





And a cute firefighter, too!

A caramel apple coated with coconut for Cha-Cha.  Yum!

Pinky's first corndog.  I think she liked that, too.

Not too many shots of the big boys as they went to ride on the wilder side with Shaka's husband.

The Orange Whip.  A favorite for all, even the big boys.  I think the kids each rode it three or four times.

Around and around and around again.  I'm dizzy just remembering. And I was only watching!

Phew!  We were all beat by the end of the night!  I think we had our fair fun for the year!



back to school?

The children returned to school last week.

Can that be right? I still haven't posted the summer.  Glorious summer. Where did it go? Every year it slips away faster. It's frightening. Seriously, I'm scared.  I've said it before, I'll say it again.  Time is not my friend...

The Boy started middle school last Tuesday.  Middle school.

Sixth grade.  Wasn't he just in kindergarten?

Yes.  Yes, he was.  Look, here's proof.  This photo is still on my hard drive.  I believe this was taken yesterday.

Same tree... same boy?  Right?

Throwing this one in for good measure.  Can you stand the cuteness?  Look at those cheeks!

Ahh... memory lane.  Look how little Cha-cha is.  Do you see this Laurel?  Does this configuration look familiar?  Kindergarten today... middle school tomorrow.  It will happen to you, too!

Anyhoo *sniffle* middle school.  The Boy's going to a science and technology magnet school.  Experiments, robots, legos even!  So far he loves it.  Uniforms.  I love it.  He's always been a polo and khakis kind of boy anyway.  Now it's just like garanimals.   Four shirt colors, three pant colors... mix and match... easy peasy.

Princess and Cha-Cha had a one day reprieve.  Their school didn't start until Wednesday.  They slept late while the Boy waited for his bus.  No bus photos for the Boy.  I don't think that's allowed in middle school.  No waving either.

The girls enjoyed their extra day of summer and then they were good and ready for their first day.  I wasn't, but they were.  Fourth grade for Princess and first grade for Cha-Cha.  Wow.

 

They're growing up too fast, too.

Look how tall Princess is getting.

A pretty, smart 9-year old girl.  The chubby baby cheeks are gone.  Only two more years in elementary school.  Let's not talk about it.

Cha-Cha gets to go to school all day now.  She's thrilled.  No more half-days with Mom racing home to catch the kindergarten bus.  That part is nice but I miss her happy chatter in the afternoon.

Her only complaint is that "they still treat us like babies, Mom."  Can't blame them, she was just a baby yesterday...

Look at those sweet sisters.  Big girls.  And of course, their must-have new shoes for the new school year.

There's Pinky.  At least she's not going to school yet.  She really is still a baby!  A baby who plays in the dirt while she waits to wave goodbye to her sisters.  She loves dirt.  Perhaps I need to get her a sandbox before she heads off to middle school.

See she's still a baby.  Rolie polie wrists, smooshy cheeks, nibble-able toes.  A baby.  No school for her.  See the chubby baby feet in her big sister's flip flops?  No baby feet in flip flops allowed at school.  I think that's a rule.

Note the averted eyes.  She's tired of me taking pictures of her.  I'm sorry baby, I can't help it.  You've got a lot of photo ops ahead of you... just look at all the pictures your siblings endure.  Buck up baby.

Uh-oh.  There's the bus.  Taking the last moments of summer with it.  Whisking my big girls off to another school year.  A school year that will likely pass too quickly.  Anyone know how to freeze time?  Just for a little while...

birthday goodness...

Count those Good n Plenty's and you'll know how old I turned on Sunday.  Yikes!  Let's just say it's my last year as a 30-something.  Really?

It was a happy day anyway.  The Husband brought me breakfast in bed, his famous cheesy eggs and a tall glass of orange juice.  Pinky and I shared them while she chirped away happily and then toddled off to see what her siblings were up to.  I lingered in bed and read.  Princess and Cha-cha brought me beautifully hand-drawn cards accompanied by lots of hugs and kisses.  The Boy designed me a clever Lego cake on the computer.  Pinky and I snuggled together for an afternoon nap.

I woke to the smell of something vanilla-y baking.  Yum.  The Boy casually came upstairs and asked me how to make "cream."  I told him you had to buy cream and that we didn't have any.  He was crestfallen.  I wheedled.  He admitted he was making a cake and wanted cream for the top.  I told him frosting would be good, too.  He left the room and returned with a printout of a frosting recipe with odd amounts and measurements but amazingly accurate ingredients.  I asked him where he got it.  He told me he'd made it up.  I suggested looking in one of my cook books or online for a recipe .  He came back with a printed recipe that he'd googled.  We agreed it looked good and he left to complete his masterpiece.

. 

Didn't it turn out great!? It was delicious and he was so proud. I was proud. My sweet 11-year old boy. So thoughtful. We gobbled it up with cherry-vanilla icecream before the Husband made us dinner. Lasagna, salad and rolls followed by a family wii tournament. Not a bad way to celebrate the day, wouldn't you say?

Mom I love you
You make me happy
even when I'm cranky

blueberry bliss...

So lucky.  There is a pick-your-own blueberry farm right down the street from us.  A charming old farmhouse flanked by rows and rows of blueberry bushes shrouded in netting.  It's open until 7:30 in the evening.  What's happier than harvesting blueberry goodness in the soft, cool air of a summer evening?

It was Pinky's first time.  She didn't quite believe that those little blue treats grew on the bushes.  She repeatedly sat down in the grass and attempted to eat the fallen fruit.  Placing a tray on the ground and stocking it with her very own blueberry goodness solved that.  Happy toddler.

Princess was a productive picker.  Me... not so much, as I entertained Pinky and chased Cha-Cha, the explorer of blueberry rows near and far.  We went with friends and upon arriving instead of being directed to a particular row to pick, we were given the option to pick wherever we wanted.  Thinking that the children would stay within a row or two of the adults we gave them free reign.  We thought wrong.  Cha-cha and her friend soon were across the farm on their hunt for the biggest, juiciest blueberries.

The adventurers were eventually captured and we continued our picking together in the row that they proclaimed had the best berries.  They were right, there were lots of fat juicy blueberries in that row.  That's why I was surprised when we arrived at home with so many soft berries in our tray.  When I asked the girls what happened Cha-cha enthusiastically exclaimed "the smooshy ones are the best" and unapologetically admitted that she had picked as many as she could!  Mmmm... smooshy blueberries, delicious on day one.  Day two... hmmm... I see lots of blueberry baked goods in our future...

I think we're all okay with that!

pretty in pink 2009...

Pinky (7 weeks) looking quite apropos in this photo taken of her in her pink abode in April 2009.  I promised photos of her nursery long ago and had actually snapped a few one morning.  Well, I never quite finished and therefore never posted them before my little blogging hiatus.  They're still incomplete --as are some of the projects in the room-- but here they are.  I figured you wouldn't mind since you've agreed to take a few trips down memory lane with me.  And since you're so nice, perhaps I'll get around to taking more photos and actually posting them in the near future...

Here's big sister, Cha-cha in her pajamas that morning, playing with puzzles on Pinky's rug.  The rug is so cushy and soft, and the room is so sunny and pink that I often find the girls playing on the floor in there.  That rug was a happy surprise found during an impromptu stop at one of those odd lot stores.  Such a lucky find!  It was the first thing I bought specifically for Pinky's nursery and was the inspiration for the pink and taupe color scheme in the room.

This is Pinky's wee reading spot.  The tiny rocker was one I'd found at a tag sale and painted pink for the older girls' bedroom.  They'd since outgrown it and happily passed it on to their baby sister.  The bookshelf was made by my father based on one I fell in love with in an old issue of MS Living (The Boy has a huge one in his bedroom, too).  I know, lucky!  I envisioned Pinky sitting in this cozy corner flipping through her sweet collection of hand-me-down board books and she does exactly that (I didn't know it would make my heart go pitter-patter the way it does though).

I made this butterfly mobile that hangs over the crib after ogling this one at Pottery Barn Kids.  I designed a much smaller version because the room is rather tiny with low ceilings and I wanted the mobile to hang directly over the crib.  I'm so glad I did because Pinky loved to watch it flutter when she was tiny.  Apparently she still does because just the other morning I peeked into her room, when she didn't wake me at the usual time, and there she was contentedly lolling around and pointing at the butterflies blowing in the breeze from her fan.  So sweet.  Oh, and you can see a little snippet of the drapes that my mother and I sewed for the room in this photo, too.

Here's another corner of her room.  A little pink letter "A" that I decoupaged for Pinky, whose real name obviously isn't Pinky!  The Husband bought me that rocker when The Boy was born and I've rocked all my babies in it.  I plan to rock my grandbabies in it someday, too. The darling shoes were also a gift when The Boy was a baby, handstitched by an old friend.  All four babies wore them.

That pretty fabric on the back of the rocking chair is actually a dresser scarf that belonged to my grandmother.  (I wonder if she embroidered it, I'll have to ask my mother.)  It was in my bedroom growing up and I love it.  The little curio was a roadside find, the lattice caught my eye and I snatched it up!  It sat in the garage for several years until this perfect spot came along.  A little white paint and voila, it's one of my favorite things in the room.

A close-up shot of the curio...prime perch for various baby tchotchkes.  The little tea set is from Ikea.  Princess and Cha-cha each have their own tiny tea set.  Pinky had to have one, too and I loved the candy colors.  The blocks were leftovers from a wreath I made announcing The Boy's birth eleven years ago (I wonder if I have photos of that somewhere).  The blocks have since been played with, and I've used some for other crafts here and there, but we managed to form a sentiment fitting for Pinky with the letters that remain!

So, that's it for now.  A sweet sentimental nursery.  The room hasn't changed much in the past year but I missed photographing a couple of corners, and there really is a crib in there that Pinky occasionally slumbers in, so I'll be back with more one of these days.  If we're lucky I might even get a few current shots of Pinky in the room that inspired her blog pseudonym, possibly even wearing a bit of pink?  Oi...