32.....again?

I think I've been telling people all year that I was 32, so when I realized a couple months ago that I would actually be
turning 32 at this birthday I was a bit surprised. I guess no fear of aging here!

The kids surprised me with a breakfast they made themselves. Wish we had a picture of it. My favorite part of the day was listening to the boys organize, decorate, and cook with their hushed voices, commands, and (sometimes loudly spoken) brilliant ideas! I kept pretending to sleep and smiled to myself when I heard Mike go out and ask them if they needed help and they responded that they would do all of it by themselves. They made us all plates of wonderfully arranged scrambled eggs, toast, strawberries, and carrots. Cuties!

Oh - and they woke me up by stuffing Amelia's leftover cake from the night before with 32 candles and singing to me in bed. Hahaha!

My birthday is the day after Amelia's. Can you see that she has already donned all her princess gear before coming down for breakfast? And all week she kept saying to me in an all-knowing voice, "We are da grils. So we have our birthday togezer. We don't want to have it by ourselves!" (Ourselves being said incredulously.)

Millie Girl is 3!

I can't believe it. The girl is potty trained, riding a "big girl bike" with training wheels, and wearing size 4T. Where does the time go?

She loves butterflies and requested a butterfly cake.

Opening presents.

Wearing as many presents to bed as she can manage. (About ten minutes later she realized hard wire fairy wings and a tulle princess dress are not the best bed companions.)

Goodness gracious, we love her!

Happy Michael's Weekend

That's right! Mike's birthday always falls right on or before Father's Day, so wham-bam every year. It's a great test of my organizational skills. Luckily, he knows who he's married to and forgives me (generally) for spacing one as long as I remember the other. This year I kind of got both.

(Maybe he'll also forgive me for posting this not entirely flattering picture?)

Lucky Mike! Your very own Star Wars Speeder Bike!

Andy gets crafty.

And this here may not be much to look at, but it was one lump of deliciousness. Chocolate orange torte. Mmmm. I need some more. With whipping cream and raspberries.

Mike is such a great dad. He does secret handshakes with the boys, talks late at night, cuts down big trees with them, takes them on errands, reads poems and great books, challenges their ideas and promotes discussion. He makes Millie laugh, does her hair, eats 10 pounds of fruit a day (wait - that was random), and takes the kids on l-o-n-g bike rides so this mama can take naps on the weekend.

We are so happy, happy he is part of our family! We would be a mess without him. Happy Father's day, Mike!

Millie!

Guess who's two! Oh- that's right!

I loved my party. I HAD to dance.

These are the only two presents I cared about. Butterfly wings and my own telephone.
And here are some pictures from the past year.

Oops. Umm....mom?


I can be really goofy. My mom finally gave in and put this on me after I turned on the whine. I thought I looked pretty cool and admired myself for quite awhile.


I loved helping my brothers harvest the garden.

Mr. Potato Head glasses are where it's at. I love these things. I wear them everywhere. And a girl can't have too many purses.



I am crazy for water. Anytime my mom turns on a sprinkler, I pull off my clothes and head on over. Sometimes I even forget to take off my clothes.


I like to try things on. Shoes are usually my favorite.
Harvesting oranges last December.
I love my Daddy so much, and I'm pretty sure he's crazy about me, too!

And the biggest change of all in the past year.....I GOT HAIR!

We love you little lady, and can't imagine life without you!

Jacob is 8

Happy Birthday, Jake the Snake! Oh wait, Captain Rex, sir! Here is the post you have been looking for, buddy boy. I'm slow, but my brain's fried on kids. Behold the sweet, blue masterpiece. Ok - decent for a 10 minute time slot allowed for frosting the cake before people start arriving for the party.

Chipmunk boy extinguishes the flames.

Jacob is obsessed with all things Lego and Star Wars. Many kind family members and friends fed his appetite. I thought this picture did his reactions to the evening justice. BEYOND thrilled.

Two of his youngest uncles team up with he and Andy Roo to race against each other in building identical droid bombers Jake received. (I already know that "droid bomber" is SO not what these are called. As soon as Jake reads this he will inform me of their real name which is probably something like Droid Battleship 4TP originating from the Galactic Region which was overseen by Lord So and So....)

Fittingly for the birthday boy, his team (okay- Kris) won by a close margin with Sterling moments behind.

We had tons of fun this night with lots of family and some friends over. Barbequed (Mike made some awesome grilled pineapple), and played some Bocci.

Hey Baby!

Andrew just came running in the kitchen while I was cleaning up dinner. He has been in the front room making me birthday presents (6 weeks early).

"Mom! I just found a [gift] bag that says 'Happy Birthday'! And it's so beautiful, see... (holds up bag)"

"It is beautiful, Andrew! But instead of Birthday, it says Baby. Good job though, they both begin with a B."

"oh............Mom! Remember in Maria (Sound Of Music) the boy (Rolf) calls the girl (Liesel) baby?! (Big sparkle in his eyes) And you are a baby, too! That's a nice thing to say. So I am going to use this bag!"

Jake-o-licious!

I inherited a cake decorating book (circa 1987) from my mother-in-law ages ago. My boys love looking through it.

This afternoon Jake asked me to get it down for him. After browsing it's pages he brought this picture over to me:

 

"Mom! This is the one I want for my birthday! Still foxy at 50!"

"Ha! I think that cake is for a 50 year old, Jacob." (not wanting to explain foxy to him.)

"It's okay. We'll just write 'Still foxy at 7!"

"Mmmhmm, how 'bout you look for a second choice, too!"

Here's the second choice. Kids kill me.

 

**Don't think I'm not SERIOUSLY tempted to make the fox cake -saying and all. What a hilarious memory! I just wonder if he would hate me as a teenager looking back at photos, or if I would spend half my time at a party trying to quietly explain the cake to parents. I'll get back to you if it happens (:

FOOD FIGHT!!

The boys went to the coolest "boys only" birthday party ever this past weekend. They were told to wear something that could get filthy and wet, and to bring goggles.

They started off with a few food related games...

Here Andrew is trying to eat a bunch of saltine crackers as quick as he can and then whistle. We used to do this during Family Home Evening when I was little.



Jacob carefully listens to directions..



and is THRILLED when he hears he gets to dig around in the whipped cream with his FACE!



He found it - the golden jelly bean!



After a few other games they moved onto the highlight - a full out food war. There was macaroni and cheese, pork 'n beans, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, jello, cream pies, ketchup, and marshmallows. It was disgusting!! I could not stop laughing. The tarp got so slippery they could hardly move around and were slipping and sliding in the filth.



One of the parents nailed it right on when they commented that it stunk like an elementary school cafeteria.






The end product.... all the boys underwent a power wash with a hose at the end, it took a while and Jacob still had quite a bit of ketchup in his hair when we got home.




Andrew did not want to get dirty, so here he is during the food fight...his little look breaks my heart!



And here he is finally enjoying himself again during the water fight at the end.



I always wanted to be part of a food fight. Someone in college got wind of this, and for my twentieth birthday I got nailed in the face with a chocolate cream pie. Brrr! It was cold, and was a total surprise, but it really WAS fun! (though attempting to get the chocolate stains out of my pants later on wasn't quite as fun!)