I was looking for a recipe on my blog and came across this post from almost four years ago instead. It made me laugh out loud, literally! I have no recollection of that event, despite how clearly excited I was. Sadly his new-found taste for pasta didn’t last long. It sounds like a good meal though. Maybe I should try it again. :)
I thought it would be fun to do an “eight for eight” post with the eight best pictures of the day… but then I thought, “who am I kidding?!” I take way too many pictures and like to share them all. So, here is a look at Miss Eve’s 8th birthday.
My customary birthday display. The kids now come to expect them. I like to add my own gifts, but also little things from other people, like the cat card from Greg and Kathy, and the Happy Birthday note from the Kirkwoods. Lots of love for Eve from around the country.
Happy Birthday Eve!!
I got her some books, some science and craft idea kits, and an American Girl matching outfit. Lex got her a Lego Friends set. She was pretty happy with all of it.
I love Lex’s look in this picture. :)
I tried several times today to get a nice picture of the two of us together. This one obviously didn’t work out.
This isn’t quite right either! :)
After school we had two friends over. I fed them all snack then we headed to the science museum!
I mostly like this picture. Great sunlight and color. However, where are Eve’s eyes?! Pictures with glasses are tough!
The museum has several great new exhibits! We had a great time!
Buddies.
Eve wanted to go to Panera Bread for her birthday dinner. I told her she could get a birthday treat and she chose a strawberry smoothie “all to myself!” Normally when she gets a smoothie the rest of us share it with her, but tonight she had one, with whipped cream, all to herself.
I really wanted a nice picture of us together so I finally recruited Alan to help. The back camera on my phone is much better than the front camera!
We all got a little silly.
Daddy wanted in on the picture too! :)
Happy Birthday to Eve! We are pretty lucky to have her in our lives!
Eve’s last day at silly seven. She’s making the most of it! :-)
The sleepover went well. I sent the girls to bed at 8:30pm and they continued to play and be wild. At 9pm I turned off the lights. The silliness continued (in part it was my fault because I provided them with glow sticks!) I was typing last nights blog post and wondering what to do next. What is proper sleepover protocol? Do I just let them stay up until they pass out? Do I insist on quiet? Separate them? Then I realized that it’s my house and I can do whatever the heck I want! I took away the glow sticks and reminded them it was sleeping time. Later I heard crying and discovered that Eve had bitten the one remaining glow stick in the room (bitten?!) and broke it. She had glow stick filling all over her hands, her PJs, her sleeping bag, and her mouth! Normally this would be a panic-inducing moment, but actually it happened once before so I did all the necessary panicking (and Googling) last time, so this time I was calm, cool, and collected. Secretly hoping that Eve’s tears would be the final straw before sleep. But nope, they rallied! :) Finally they fell asleep around 10:45 and I went to bed. Not to bad for a first sleepover.
I was hoping they’d sleep in a bit, but of course, nope! All three kids were up at 6:30am. Alan and I made it until 7:00. Not too bad, right?! :) I made rainbow pancakes and everyone just hung out.
Rainbow pancakes! Yum!
This isn’t a very good crop and I can’t edit on the computer… and my phone is in the other room… so anyway, Eve and her Girl Scout friend loved the Wizard Of Id comic this morning.
Also this morning I got a text from a friend asking if I could watch her boys for a little while. Sure, I said, why not?! Eve’s friend left, and I had time for a quick shower before the boys came over. Fortunately my kiddos kept it together and played very nicely with the boys. They ended up staying for quite awhile and everyone had fun.
These two decided to start a “Save the animals” club and spent quite awhile making invitations for other friends and making info cards about endangered animals.
Save the Animals.
After everyone left (including Alan who went to the gym), the kids and I crashed. We had lunch and read some Percy Jackson until I fell asleep on the couch. Then the kids retired to their rooms for more reading.
I just want to take a million pictures of this beautiful girl laying in the sunshine.
She made a nest of blankets and read in the sunshine. I love this girl! I can’t believe she’s almost eight!
And so wraps up our first birthday celebration. One down, two to go. :)
Eve decided to have a sleepover birthday party this year and today was the day. In fact, today was a very busy day. We started with karate, as usual on Saturday, then Eve had to run a cookie booth with her Girl Scout troop. She was partnered with her buddy and they had fun. While they did that, Lex and I ran some secret birthday errands.
Cookies for sale! You don’t see any cookies because they hadn’t fully set up yet, but I wanted to take a picture and get going so I didn’t wait for the actual cookies to appear. :)
Crazy girls ready for birthday fun!
After cookie time was over I picked up both girls and we headed to the aquatic center to start her birthday festivities. At karate I ran into the dad of one of Lex’s friends and we ended up making plans for his buddy to come swimming too. I had been so busy thinking about Eve’s party that I didn’t make plans for Lex, other than “tag along” plans. :) I’m glad his friend was able to join us.
Eve had invited three friends, but unfortunately one woke up sick this morning and couldn’t join the fun. Another came for swimming, but couldn’t join us for sleepover fun.
Just hanging out, waiting for another friend to arrive.
A wild crew!
Handsome boys.
Silly girls.
Waiting for the bucket to drop…
Splash!!
All smiles. :)
Three down the slide… I don’t think that’s allowed, but I won’t tell. :)
After everyone was tired of swimming we headed home for pizza and craft projects. With just one friend here it felt more like a playdate than a birthday party, but still fun.
Eve was pretty excited to find balloons when we got home! (One of the birthday errands Lex and I took care of earlier in the day.)
Balloon girl!
Happy birthday to you! Birthday cupcakes for the party.
I love this girl!
Awesome cupcakes! I might write a whole separate blog post on the cupcakes alone.
They went out to play and came back twenty minutes later covered in mud! Good times. They spent the next twenty minutes washing their feet and making soap beards on their faces.
Later they did some painting. For some reason Eve was really set on painting bird houses with her friends. (we bought them at the store, for cheap, sorry dad!)
Lex painted a cool lighthouse.
At 8:30 I started to get them settled. Hoping maybe they would fall asleep. Silly me.
It is now 10:15 and they are still going strong. Just the two of them. I don’t know if four would have been better or worse. I’ve shut off the lights, taken away the glow sticks, and not sure what comes next. Other than another glass of wine and hoping they pass out soon!! My last trip up was because Eve broke a glow stick and got it all over her self. It’s non-toxic, so no worries, but she was scared. I got her cleaned up and changed and hoped maybe that would be the final straw, but alas, I hear them still going strong.
Luckily, tomorrow is a no-plans day! Well, maybe “luckily” isn’t quite the word since I totally planned it that way!!
On a whim today the kids and I tapped the two sugar lapels in the front yard. At the Montessori school this week we had a family come in to talk about making syrup and they tapped two trees at school. I was telling Lex and Eve about it and they were excited to try out trees. We stopped at the store on the way home from karate, bought two taps and bucket, and came home and hung them! The sap started flowing immediately! We were all pretty excited!
Lex hung the first bucket quickly because the sap was flowing!
Can you see the drops?!
They took turns tapping the second tree after watching me do the first one.
It went in pretty easily.
Eve got to hang the second bucket. Notice the duct tape and find foil lids? They were out of proper lids at the store and we had no patience for going to another store, so we decided to try duct tape and tin foil!
Lots of lovely sap!
They were excited to hear the plink plink of sap hitting the bucket.
It didn't really happen unless you Instagram it, right? ;-)
We have a series of warm days and cold nights ahead, so I’m hopefully for some success with this project. However, there is also a fair amount of rain in the forecast and it is quite windy out now… So we’ll see. There’s always something going on in this house!
Here is my other attempt to welcome in spring.
Avocado seed, corn plant sprout, and water melon seeds hanging out in the sunshine.
Welcome Spring! We greet you with open arms and eager hearts. ? 🌷
Daisy has been super meowy lately and eager to get out the door, so we took advantage of the nice weather and took the cat for a walk!
This time Daisy seemed much more interested in the great outdoors.
Our walk lasted awhile and she went all the way around the house.
Spring!!!
Egg shells? Did it fall from a best? Seems like a very big egg to be in our pine trees.
PS. I love this boy!
Daisy enjoyed her exploration, we enjoyed Daisy and the sunshine, and we found signs of spring! What a great afternoon!!
This is what weekends are for. I wish I was doing the same right now!
So, last month Eve wrote a letter to the president and today she got a reply back! She was SO excited! She bounced around the kitchen and was shaking a bit when she opened it. I have no idea why so was so excited, but boy was she! She told me she told her classmates that she had written to the president and now she could bring in his response to share.
The package contained a letter, a photo of Mr. Obama, a photo of the family, a few coloring and sticker sheets, and a few flyers about The White House and the art collection inside. It was a neat little package. She read the letter and hugged it to her chest. I had a hard time not laughing at her the whole time!
Dear Mr. President, apparently you have a big fan in this little girl. :)
Our passports came this week! I’m so excited!
