Eight is Great!!

This post in only about a month late, but I finally squeezed in the time to get her finished.
Mr. Smiles turned 8 just two days after Good Lookin' turned 6 and our house was party central the end of April.
Interestingly enough, even though both boys decided that they wanted separate birthday parties this year, they didn't care for it as much and asked to celebrate together next year. Those two never cease to amaze me because they are so so different and a full 2 years apart, but they have very similar interests.
Since I had now done one cake with Fondant, I felt (only slightly) brave enough to tackle the cake Mr. Smiles asked for over a year ago. R2 D2.
I made more than my share of mistakes with this one, but if he ever asks for it again, I'll know what to NOT do...try and drape the whole thing. It only gave him a bleeding neck look because I had run out of white frosting and had used orange as the base frosting. He didn't care and most of it wiped off.

I found this awesome party pack at Walmart that had an all-in-one table decorating kit for only $8! We used it for about a week afterward as well much to ALL 3 boy's delight.

Precious Jewel, as the only girl present (aside from myself), wore her hair in tiny little Princess Leia buns. She was fully accepted by the boys for this. : )

A good portion of the party was spent with our brand-new baby kittens that were born on the back porch. They still didn't have their eyes open at this point and everyone was really sweet and gentle.

The Crazy Crew

Mr. Smiles was just that... all smiles when he saw his cake after waking up that morning.
"It's AWESOME!!" was music to my ears.

Legos and a Star Wars movie was all he requested for the evening.

This was also Mr. Smile's first ever sleep-over party and they were all so funny in their sleeping bags on the basement floor. The newly-turned-8-year-old is in the blue bag...ever so willing to have his picture taken.

For the life of me I couldn't get this picture to turn around, but I found these gems right after Easter at 75% off! Nothing beats party favors in the shape of a Light Saber with candy inside. At least, all the boys got excited.

                                                                Party # 3 of the week

The next evening was a family part where only grandparents and cousins were invited. Something about a house full of crazy boys does NOT excite girl cousins.
It was so funny because I constantly get asked if Mr. Smiles and Good Lookin are Twins.
Yes, they are brothers and yes they definitely have the same gene pool running through them, but to me they look VERY different...except last week when we were at a friend's house and I hollered across the yard at who I thought was Mr. Smiles and Good Lookin turned around. Then I realized that they DO look A LOT alike.
Good Lookin is a little bean pole with NO fat on him whereas Mr. Smiles has more muscle. They also have drastically opposite personalities. But this last year Good Lookin has grown so much that he and Mr. Smiles can now share all but a few clothes.

Which brings me back to the Twin part. Luke's family (much to my true delight) gave them all gifts that were basically the same. Grandmama and Papa gave them new bikes that they had each picked out on their own. Yeah!!! They LOVED them. Cousins and Uncle Tony gave them both the same Lego sets but in different colors and both bows and arrows. No favorites. No one got bigger or better and they were BOTH really excited for each other and themselves. I had a moment when they were opening the Monster Truck Lego sets at the same time that, at least in this small moment, this must be what a taste of what it is to have twins.

We spent the next couple of hours outside enjoying their new bikes and playing in the yard together.

                                                                  Go Mr. Smiles!

                                                           Happy Birthday boys!!!
                                       (And no Good Lookin, neither of you are 86 years old).

Happy 6th Good Lookin'

Happy 6th Birthday Good Lookin' 

Another Birthday.

Another Year of Victories.

Another Year of looking back and seeing how far this little guy has come.

This child of mine who has challenged my every bit of parenting skill and made me fall on my knees and beg for His insight and help.

This child of mine who is as tough as nails.

Independent.

Incredibly brilliant and funny.

And one giant ball of energy.

 He asked for a Lego Ninjago cake this year. I googled some ideas and made the mistake of him sitting next to me. "I want THAT ONE mom! It's AWESOME!"
It was made with fondant and I've had this terror of trying to tackle fondant. I've had a recipe for a year and would look at it and then go back to what I know how to do. But a sweet friend of mine convinced me to take the marshmallow bag and sugar by the horns and go for it. It was easy!!! REALLY! Sticky at first, but EASY!!
Then I realized I had another problem. I had no round cake pans. The same friend pointed out that I had stainless steel mixing bowls. Why not try that. Viola!!! Half a head! Bake two; slap then together with icing and a WHOLE head. : )

Then it was time to roll out the Play-do...ahem....sorry fondant.
Did I mention that NO ONE has taken naps in the last 2 weeks?
That means 1 ten month old. 2 three year olds. 1 almost-6-year-old who was quite worried that the cake wouldn't look right, but by golly we got 'er done and they were truly a help!
Also, rolling fondant kept them all really busy...except the baby. He was all eyes and I kept feeding him little puffs to keep him from throwing a fit at me for not giving him fondant.

The two round halves together worked well for the sort of oblong shaped Lego head.

 Then I frosted a small flat cake to set the head on. (Kinda like shoulders only those would have to be some serious shoulder pads). I told my friend when I started that I was afraid the whole thing would look like a decapitated Ninja and that was NOT the look I was going for with 6 year old.
Fortunately when he was all done and wrapped in fondant, he looked like he was supposed to look.

 Good Lookin' and I also cut some long strips of left-over felt and made all the little party friends Ninja headbands to take home with their chopsticks and bubbles (because bubbles go so well with Ninjas?) (I was just trying to fill the party favor bags with something they'd like...not candy...and cheap). They LOVED them.
Oh, disclaimer here.
To my High School Japanese friends or cousins who live in China who might read this: I have no idea what characters I wrote on the headbands. They were copied from a decoration that I borrowed from a friend. She purchased them at the Dollar Tree. I chose those characters because they looked like the easiest to copy. I have no idea if it's Chinese, Japanese or Korean. : )
But, the little boys thought they were pretty awesome.

 We had planned on some fun Ninja-inspired games outside, but a snap of cold wet weather tossed all that out the window.
Luke and one of Good Lookin's little friend's dad from Pre-K became the bad guys and fought all the little Ninjas for a solid hour much to the delight of the boys. I stayed upstairs and away from the loud chaos that was erupting below. The poor dad of the little boy from Good Lookin's Pre-K we had only met when he brought his son to the party was a great sport at being thrown into the hand-chopping, wrestling fray.

He loved the cake and declared it his "Best Birthday Ever!!"

 Then it was present opening time. One of his favorite gifts: a fish he'd picked out from the store that very morning. (You know, we don't have any aquatic animals on our rapidly growing little farm).

A happy Birthday boy with his little friend from Pre-K.

They will go to Kindergarten next year together and I'm praying they get assigned to the same classroom or at least same hall.

Ninja Power!!!

Spring Break 2012

It's been a while since I've been able to write anything. Baby goats, fencing, bottle feeding, toddlers, flu, RSV, the list goes on for why I haven't blogged or written anything down. But, I wanted to share that we got to go back to my childhood home town for Spring Break.

My parents have settled back there after 15 years on the Mission Field and are back in the same house where I grew up. It was a serious time warp being back again.

The kids spent a lot of time playing LEGOS, coloring, making up stories and plays with their cousins, and playing outside in the wet Springy weather.

Luke had to stay home due to work and once again, I am so thankful for a husband who is willing to send off his wife and kids for a week without him in order to connect with "the other side of the family."

For part-time work, my dad has been hauling grain to a hog lot. These are people I grew up with and it was surreal bouncing down the dirt road in the cab of the huge truck with my dad and another generation of children with faces plastered to the window--wide-eyed and delighted at the country-side passing them by.

I had these memories of being a kid sitting on the floor by my dad while he drove the big school bus to another choir or sports event or two week mission trip down south of the Border.

My boys were fascinated at the long arm that poured the grain from the truck to the silo and shot out a bazillion question of their own. We got to peek into some of the hog buildings and glimpse the HUGE sows that live their whole lives in one building. (It also made me not want to eat any more bacon).

That afternoon, mom and dad's "new neighbor, (she may have lived there several years now, but mom and dad have been gone 15 years) came over and gave us a lesson in how to cut apart seed potatoes and get them ready for growing your own. She is a Master Gardner and has written a book on Organic Gardening and ran her own CSA farm up North before buying the ramshackle little house across the street from my old house. Now she teaches gardening classes at the local library and shared her wealth of knowledge with my eager mother and sister-in-law. (I'm a bit jealous and I am frequently asking questions of my mother on gardening).

Mr. Smiles and his little cousin were practicing their Chinese Chef skills learned from Kung Fu Panda 2.

Meal Times with the cousins = a little bit of crazy and a whole lot of fun.

Poor Uncle Matthew tolerated the torment of younger nephews who hang on his every move and word and worship the ground he walks upon.

We girls also had a tea party of which I will post later because I'm the mom and a girl and I can devote a whole post to a tea party if I want.

It didn't seem to matter that it was wet and we had come from 80+ degree temps to 50 degree temps and I had not brought adequate clothing. They were happy outside on the collection of trikes and bikes my parents have collected for when the grand kids visit.

The empty lot past the neighbors house that was an empty lot when I was a child and I have no idea why no house has ever been built there but am secretly glad one never has, is a stage for young Directors and Actors who have stories to tell. Someone has rigged a rope swing and the children spent hours running around the lot and swinging in the tree.

Next to the lot is an empty house for sale with a little barn, 2 acres of pasture and a lone Shetland pony whom the kids named Star and spent more countless hours feeding it carrots and hay and brushing it with an old hairbrush.

Precious Jewel cried as much about leaving that sweet little pony as she did leaving her cousins and begged us to put it in the trunk of our van and bring it home. When I informed her that I could not take off with some one's pony and it could not ride in the trunk of our van, but we could take home a picture of it and ask her cousin to check in on it every so often, she consented to instead have her picture taken beside it.

Mr. Smiles decided he had to have a picture as well.

They are still working on Luke and I to buy the pony and haul the little thing back to our fair corner of the world and I'm a bit afraid of what we will do if we ever found out the owner would sell it!

The last teary goodbye was to the snake found in the front yard the morning of our departure.

You see, where we live, the kids have it drilled into them not to EVER EVER touch a snake unless it's brought to class by a teacher or declared safe by a parent. We live in the land of cotton mouths and water moccasins and I know there are garden and King snakes in our woods but I've seen as many of the poison kind as any of the "safe" ones. So when the boys discovered that I had grown up in a land where ALL the snakes were safe (unless you were chased by boys with snakes that had been unfortunate enough to get caught in the lawn mower) and you could pick them up, they were delighted!

Good Lookin' insisted on bringing home in a jar the dead snake he'd found and more than a few tears were shed again when I told him that under no circumstances was he bringing with him on a 9 hour car ride a dead snake in a jar. No matter of pleading and pouting and tears could move me on this one either. I know my son too well and his fascination with all living things. That thing would not stay in the jar and was surely beginning to stink anyway. My dad was no help and encouraged the poor kid. : S Goof!

After I loaded up the group of teary kids who didn't want to leave their grandparents, cousins, aunt and uncle and new live and dead pets, we began the 9 hour road trip home.

We got to drive through the little town where Luke and I lived our first year of marriage when we worked at the Children's Home. I pointed out to Precious Jewel the little house that we lived in and the first place she called home.

We made good time for the first 3 hours and then the bladder issues began. I swear this trip to the record for the most pee stops EVER!!! Even when i made the children who protested that they didn't have to go still get out and use the bathroom when the child who was causing the next stop to stop, we still stopped a whopping total of 14 times in 9 hours!! Can I just say RIDICULOUS!!!

On one of our pee breaks (where we had just passed a Rest Stop and no one had said "yes" when I asked them if they had to go) we pulled off onto a dirt road and in the yard of an old abandoned farm house to use the bathroom and I also decided this was as good as any place to eat lunch.

So, the boys sat on the top of the van and Precious Jewel inside and we imagined aloud what the family must of been like who lived in the old abandoned farm house. They came up with everything from smugglers and burglars to scenarios harking from Charlotte's Wed.

I have to say that I was so very glad to see the lights of our home and the faces of our over-sized puppies when I drove into the yard that night.

And we were all bouncing around a happy daddy after a week of being apart. Home is a happy place to be.

Rice and Beans 2012

Spring is already in full season at our house. This means baby goats, milking, bottle feeding and more pen cleaning.
Spring also means the beginning of Rice and Beans month...of which we are already half way through and I haven't had time to write a thing about.
It's been a crazy month already. Precious Jewel had an emergency eye surgery of which I probably won't get time to write about for some time. Then the flu hit...another reason my writing has been non-existent.
Our family started the Rice and Beans month at the beginning, but somehow over-looked that there was a book to order that would have been so helpful with the kids. I kept waiting for the little pamphlet in the mail and it never came. Then another Rice and Beans momma called and said our family picture was in the devotional book! What? Oops! I vaguely remember someone had mentioning that we were supposed to order the book this year and it had totally slipped my mind with all the stuff going on. I got on and ordered.
It arrived this past Monday right about the time another one fell the the flu. We've dealt with that the last couple of days and put the devotional on the counter, so Luke and I told the kids last night we were starting all over and there would be a lot more encouragement this go around. (We had been doing fairly well on our suppers, but this year in my tiredness and lack of preparedness I was caving to the kid's complaints and allowing them to make sandwiches or eat just the tortilla chips and salsa we often had with our meal).
So... we begin again and we are joining the fun art project that LaHash has challenged us with. It will be a good (New) kick-off for us and fun for the kids.
Happy Rice and Beans Month to us!

February Blessings

A warm winter: we have been outside so much and even took a trip to the nearby Eagle Watch.

There we ran into friends who let the boys use their binoculars to get a better glimpse of the eagles.

A bald eagle perched up in the top of the trees on the left side.

(It's like playing "eye spy")

A Gift Found at 11:30am

After the initial panic that he had knocked himself out on something, I was delighted to see him curling up with his kittens and puppies in the sun.

(Yes, it is February!)

Cheese.

My own Cheddar Cheese made by my own two hands!

Gifts found outside:

Heavy frost that looked like snow.

11 deer jumping a fence to cross the road.

White tails flashing in the morning sun.

A Gift Red:

Precious Jewel all dolled up for her Daddy/Daughter Dance.

A Gift Found Behind A Door:

The first (and so far only) winter snow!!

No school!!!

A Gift in Finding Something:

A trashed entry-way. Yes, this was a gift if I chose to see it that way.

I had helped the 4 boys make a tent in the living room and they proceeded to launch off the couch and through the roof. Hmmmmm.......

I have chairs, I have sheets, I have boy. It all equals adventure and fun (most days).

A Ugly-Beautiful Gift (see beauty in ugly):

A slimy gooey baby goat freshly born.

They get cute within about 15 minutes.

A Gift that was a surprise:

A day so warm I could wear my sandals outside!

(Again it is still February!)

A Gift that was Plan "B":

A trip to Branson, MO for our 10th Anniversary.

It's not where we had talked of going, but it was a wonderful day.

What were your blessings this past month?